ELDEN RING LORE: The Crucible

[@CrunchyVideos]

Another tie between the Formless Mother and Frenzy is that the Okina Mask lowers your Focus, which makes you more susceptible to Frenzy.

[@amado0001]

I'd like to mention another small albeit insightful youtube channel The Tarnished Archaeologist

[@jackreacher7495]

Tbf it's a very ugly mask. I'd be unfocused too

[@alephnole7009]

I recommend watching Hawkshaws video breakdown of the significance of COLOR in elden ring and how it relates to almost everything. I know Quelaag's touched on this before but not as in depth and cohesive as Hawkshaw.

[@alephnole7009]

The whole Radagon revenge plot and misbegotten must be tied into the Round table blacksmith Hewg. He says he made a promise to Marika to make a weapon capable of slaying a God. Perhaps he was referring to Father Marika/Radagon.

[@azazelsiad3601]

@@alephnole7009 the problem with this possibility is he outright states “I must keep my promise to her, to forge a weapon capable of killing a god.” That “her” kinda disqualifies Radagon lol. However I’m working on a theory that maybe Marika and Ranni were working together to overthrow the Greater Will, you have Ranni who slew herself to make one half of the mending rune and her assassination of Godwyn to make the other so they had a new rune of death, then Marika banishes Godfrey and his tarnished kin because of the prophecy then shatters the Elden Ring and is Imprisoned for her act and Radagon was thusly called back to attempt to fix it then Miquella and Malenia were born and with Radagons help Miquella developed a material and needle capable of negating the Will of outer gods on the lands between. Eventually Miquella likely realized what his parent Marika realized with the Erdtree and the Greater Will that they were just another outer god force vying for power. And so in order to free his family for their chains to the the Greater Will be began his plan to grow the Haligtree, a great tree that accepted all life and had no meddling of the forces of an outer god, to ensure this he even watered the tree with his own blood so that the only force within the tree was his own. However a Saint of another outer god kidnapped him before it could grow to fruition, Mohg of the Formless Mother. Then it went downhill from there, Malenia at some point after returning bloomed a second time likely from the trauma of losing her brother to Mohg which is why the rot has The Haligtree in such a horrible state.

[@joels5150]

The DLC might be proving your supposition that the original Erdtree was ‘watered’ with blood. Instead of one demigod’s, the blood of thousands of mortals from what is today known as the Realm of Shadow. As for the eye themes shared between Bloodborne and Elden Ring; I always found it notable that the Flame of Frenzy tower functions exactly the same as the Brain of Mensis. A distant source that afflicts you with a buildup of a sort of insanity/frenzy/bloodlust while you are in its line of sight.

[@UnlovedWarlock]

Miyazaki revealed why she removed the rune of death from the Elden Ring, to make her children safe from death. "But the Demigods' immortality stems from having their fated deaths removed from the Elden Ring. I don't expect that to make much sense right now, but as you play the game, I think you'll gradually come to understand"

[@igoroliveiradecarvalho181]

16:43 - The fact that they keep using the word Primordial heavely suggests that the Crucible was the first form os life, which in it self and with all the interpretations you showed us until now have a really cool pararel with the evolution of life in our planet. All the "blending" and conflit of life triyng to stablish and adapt it self in the eraly and diverse forms. It also have a very cool paralel with the coming of the Elden Beast and the creation of the Erdtree (as is discribed in the Elden Star incantation) with the first big extintion event, the Ordovician Extinction, that if I'm not mistaken, one of the major couses was the first apperance of plants in the surface that changed the enviroment reducing avalible O2 on the oseans and contributing with goblal temperature changes and stablishing the majos evolution pressures for life as we know today (don't take my word on it , I'am not an expert).

[@FFNOJG]

I seen another video that described the entire game through the lens of a Grafted Scion (a different tree, grafted to a strong root stock), the original tree was a conifer during the time of the dragons which is shown as the dominant tree when you see the tree ghosts, the crucible (which is shown as tree stump with new sprouts coming out known as a crown) is the time after the conifer falls, the end of the reign of dragons, and it tries growing new sprouts. this is now a time of struggle and fighting for what will be the new top dog. the Erdtree itself is the grafted scion, and the old sprouts were pruned. thus ushering in the age of men. The misbegottens and omens then form in this time, as a mix of the grafted scion, and the rootstock. Then the age of plenty comes as the Erdtree becomes the main plant. the return of the omen is what is then called a root sucker. which is the rootstock trying to regrow itself. It is a sign of poor health of the grafted scion, and is an omen of impending death. this is why they HATE the omen reappearing. it is infact an omen that the time of the erdtree is fading, and its death inevitable. this interpretation is the best, and most enlightening view I have come across.

[@peacewalker4058]

Could you link the video? Im curious

[@FFNOJG]

@@peacewalker4058 kzbin.info/www/bejne/gaWTaqRnr92miMU the tarnished archeologist. if you haven't watched this guy before.... God. you are in for a treat.

[@ThatKid7718]

I saw the same video and was going to type out the same message thanks for saving me the time!! Everyone check out The Tanished Archeologists channel for more insight

[@FFNOJG]

@Sealth Womack Legit the best lore channel period. literally... I haven't even played the game... I mean I watched my brother beat a boss or 2 on his play through, but I haven't played Fsoft games since the DS series. a fan, but it's just been a while. Either way TA's videos are so incredible, and captivating that I know a ton about a world I've never visited myself. I do plan to get the game around the time of the DLC

[@ThatKid7718]

@@FFNOJG I had to start my second play through after I saw his videos lol

[@mralabbad7]

Gold is melted in a crusible before being poured in a cast. Maybe that's what they're referring to? The crusible being the previous step from "the golden order"

[@Stargold-w9m]

The crucible was when everything was one. Like if the 3 fingers and the 2 fingers weren’t separated.

[@Prowz4ssin]

This video is the crucible of Lore videos.

[@SilentiumCivis]

Holy hell, given the new artwork for "Shadows of the Erdtree" DLC being released showing the spiraling deathroot wrapping around the erdtree, which is an exact replica of the "Prince of death" staff ( POD = Godwyn ). it seems your theory of the crucibal, the birth of the the erdtree & the connection to the spirals was correct. Nice freaking job, Instant subscribe from me.

[@arabidllama]

46:56 - If your theory is right, then this rot flower tells the whole story of Elden Ring. A gold tree, springing from rot, its golden bounty being held in a cup to attract followers and spread itself. This even matches the purpose of the Rune Arcs that you mention at 1:05:15

[@SilentiumCivis]

… Look at the artwork for the Shadow of the Erdtree DLC, that is exactly what we are seeing in the background; The erdtree weeping golden sap that we originally thought was being strangled by death root, now can be seen as being born from it…

[@ashleyxero6306]

In regards to the comments at approx 26:00 I would suggest that the seals on Raya Lucaria came from Radagon, and not that he took his symbol from his time there, the mask of Confidence, worn by Seluvis reads: "When Radagon married Rennala, he ordered the Carian magic preceptors to don these masks. To make it clear that all of their matters were to be kept strictly private." And the pattern over the mouth is Radagon's crosshatch seal. It would make sense that perhaps in this same time, while Radagon was trying to hold back something in Raya Lucaria or magic itself, that he also was involved in placing the seals over the entrances to Raya Lucaria itself, similar to the Preceptor's masks.

[@benjaminmwakonya1519]

Umm... this is just a theory of mine but I think Radahn is the reason why Miquella's plan didn't work. A big question for me was why the big R and Melenia fought in the first place. I realized while exploring castle Sol that the sun and moon were key to Miquella's plan (the eclipse and whatnot). This led to me wondering if perhaps Radahn had ceased the movements of the Moon and Sun. I think its possible since he halted to entire night sky. Anyway, Melenia must have learnt of this at some point and so she went to caelid to face Radahn and resume the Stellar movements.

[@whoisj]

Malenia definitely attacked Radahn to break his control over the stars and unlock Miquella's fate. This would have allowed the solstice, where Miquella planned to drain the sun of its gold, to occur. The entire point of Castle Sol, the solstice, and draining the sun of its gold was to fashion a golden needle large enough to cleanse the world of Rot (capital R there for the god's name) and potentially all Outer Gods. Doing so could have potentially cured his sister of scarlet rot and saved his brother from undeath at the same time. Therefore all of the Outer Gods were aligned against Miquella thus he was destined to fail - but imagine if he had succeeded.

[@richardrussel4567]

This is my exact theory! It makes so much sense! Malenia only moves at miquella behest. So malenia nuking caelid was her ultimate sacrifice to help her brother achieve his goals. Rather then doing it out of spite like many people believe.

[@jeffrando]

@@richardrussel4567 bro is a predicting genius

[@tomiwafootball]

bro knew

[@jeffrando]

@@richardrussel4567 bro knew

[@Vapor.Steve77]

Dude, this video is super top quality mind blower. Im honestly digesting it by parts because its insane how much is everything connected, but awesome work. You just earned a new follower

[@CrunchyVideos]

Thank you!

[@swordierre9341]

I think both godfrey and radagon are conceptually tied to the crucible in some way. Godfrey is tangentially associated with the omen, that embody the causal aspects of the crucible, namely the sprouting of roots/branches. While Radagon is tangentially associated with the misbegotten, that embody the reggressionary aspects of the crucible, namely all of life being "blended together". Edit: Crucible knights invoke both concepts.

[@evilanno3394]

The mention of worms in Yuras eyes is really interesting especially, after watching Tranisched Archeologist newest video where they list river blindness as a inspiration for frenzy eyes.

[@rrm1903]

Crunchy I believe the cross hatch ruin of Radagon like the web of wyrd (or more accurately, the warp and woof of wyrd), represents the cosmic order; again more accurately, each cause and its inevitable effect based on such immovable order. Fate itself is a simplified notion to this, that a man will's itself is an effect of a cause and his fate can be calculated by the chains of all sych causes. In mythology the sisters have the power to cut these threads to change one's fate as a divine intervention and in Miyazaki's world us burning the gate of order foreshadows how we're stepping above the given order into the realm of gods who've been influencing these lands. As although after this event we can decide to keep the order, but we're also free to bend it to our own will or destroy it completely by the will of shabriri.

[@phonographzerophono8143]

Hey there! I really enjoyed the video, and I don't usually leave youtube comments, but I wanted to reach out because I actually came to a very similar conclusion that you did about Radagon being the hero of Castle Morne. There's a shocking amount of evidence to back up the theory once you know where to look, particularly when you start looking into Radahn and Serosh: The abbreviated version is that the Grafted Blade Greatsword features a depiction of Serosh's beast crest on the crossguard (also seen on the Beast Crest heater shield and golden beast crest shield, among others), and when you consider that in conjunction with the name 'Leonine (lion-like)' Misbegotten, and that Serosh was once called Lord of Beasts prior to being taken on by Godfrey, the implication seems to be that the Hero (aka Radagon)'s clan actually once served under Serosh when he was still Lord of Beasts, but were enslaved after Serosh was defeated by Godfrey. So we have a potential plausible transition point into the fold of the Golden Order through Serosh -- It's easier to understand why Godfrey might have been inclined to spare Radagon, and why Radagon might have chosen to bend knee, when you factor Serosh as a potential influence. This theory would also make Radahn's heavy use of lion motifs and his fanboy admiration of Godfrey make a hell of a lot more sense in terms of personal significance to Radahn -- Serosh would represent both the first and second Lords that his father Radagon served before becoming a Lord himself. And when you consider that there's yet a third red-haired Misbegotten boss wielding a legendary greatsword at Castle Redmane that fights you alongside one of Godfrey's Crucible Knights, and that the Redmane Crest is VERY heavily derived from Serosh's Beast Crest... It starts sounding less like wild speculation. Hell, there's even a Claymore in Castle Morne with the Lion's Claw skill on it. This theory has been my pet project for several months now, and I've been posting my compiled evidence for it on Reddit, but please let me know if you're ever interested in exploring this idea because I'd be happy to share my research with you over Discord. Thanks!

[@CrunchyVideos]

Interesting idea! Do you think Radagon et al were beasts/beastmen, or simply humans serving Serosh? Because the Red Wolves are a big ??? to me

[@phonographzerophono8143]

​@@CrunchyVideos I think it depends on how you define 'human'. I don't believe that his clan were Beastmen to the tune of what you see in Farum Azula, instead I think his clan probably looked more or less like larger humans, but probably still displayed some of the 'Crucible' traits that we see depicted in the Crucible Talismans, which could explain why the Siege of Castle Morne is being echoed by a Misbegotten rebellion in the modern day events at Morne. I believe the Red Wolves (and Radahn's total unwillingness to give up on his poor horse) can be explained by the Bastard Sword and the Iron Armor set in the inventory of the merchant located at the Castle Morne Rampart Site of Grace. For context, the merchants actually appear to be selling items that they're scavenging up from the areas they're selling from. The Bastard Sword's item description speaks to the Siege of Castle Morne, and it's subtle, but the Iron Armor set has Radagon's crosshatch-and-braid motifs on every part of the set (gauntlets need to be viewed in-game to see it - It's on the inside of the wrists). And some, but not all, of the scales of the chest piece are actually out of alignment and crossing over each other at an opposing angle, in a similar fashion to how some, but not all, of the swords of the Grafted Blade Greatsword have been deliberately forged to overlap one another. A lot of this is information communicated visually, so there's no one item description I can easily point to for all of the following, but when you examine the armor and weapon designs, and the environmental storytelling around Limgrave and Stormhill (specifically Old Knight Istvan and the Kaiden Sellswords), I believe that these items point to Kaiden as the country that the clan is likely from, and that the clan came to serve Serosh as part of Stormveil after whatever mass exodus forced everyone off the Mountaintops of the Giants, in a similar fashion to the varying allegiances of the Banished Knights we see in game. The Kaiden Sellswords are diasporic, have close bonds with not only their horses (looking at Radahn), but also to the *wolves* they share their camps with, are roughly 7 feet tall, are noted to be of incredible strength and wield their greatswords one-handed, they wear armor forged into scales and cloak themselves in animal hides, and I believe they're probably descended from giants. The Kaiden do also seem to have some connections to the Misbegotten in their weaponry, but due to the lack of info on Misbegotten in general, this connection is still pretty tenuous. TL;DR I believe the red wolves speak to Radagon being of the same ancestry as the Kaiden Sellswords, who keep a lot of pet wolves around and seem to enjoy setting up their camps next to wolf packs.

[@thehotwindblowing]

What is your reddit so I may peruse the compiled evidence? Also question - one thing that might throw a wrench in your theory that Godfrey and Serosh's beasts are unrelated - what about the description of the Beastclaw Greathammer that Gurranq gives you? Where the description explicitly names Serosh and Gofrey both.

[@ProtoIndoEuropean88]

the crucible is like a vase, where the erdtree grows from. Its soil/dirt is the essence of life from where the erdtree then grows from.

[@WHALEBOY777]

Crazy that you said that the origins of the erd tree might be a caduceus shape with two intertwining trunks and the dlc photo is literally that!

[@ihaveouid3518]

Watching this the day after the DLC was revealed and when you started talking about caduceuses at 41:19 my mind instantly went to the tree(s) depicted in the teaser art for Shadow of the Erdtree. Maybe we will follow Miquella’s journey into the past to explore how the Erdtree was formed during the Crucible?

[@SilentiumCivis]

Thats exactly what i was thinking. It looks to be deathroot so maybe the birth of the erdtree? IDK but i noticed the same.

[@cullysloy2705]

so How they stained glass is they use different materials in the sand as it was heated, most likely with a crucible. Red stained glass requires gold to make. But that is when I learned why... Gold particles when small enough appear red!!! This is because of how light interacts with the metal.

[@RicAdbur]

Well, your description of the crucible tree sure sounds a lot like the tree in the DLC trailer. Interesting.

[@ENALDOm]

As an artist you can't help but admire the creativity put into creating Elden Ring Not just the design of the characters,armours,weapons,the world itself but the deep lore behind every part of the game. I would like to just be in FromSoftware and observe their process. Thanks for the video

[@basedgodly1623]

Thissss ! I just watched the tarnished archeologist and he goes DEEP on the myths and legends characters are based on and I have been studying these masters at work

[@ENALDOm]

@@basedgodly1623 can you post link?

[@Woombi]

My favorite aspect to it is that the game is literally a complete deconstruction of these typical magical warrior age and even fromsoftware type stories. The game is obsessed with the spectrum of color and spoken word, and the story is just a complicated way of telling the story about different agents of philosophies and ideologies trying to preserve and change the world in the way that they see fit. Everything with the outergods is fascinating due to them not ever truly having a physical form, just more in the direction of abstractions that revolve around a few things that you the player can take from as association.

[@falgalhutkinsmarzcal3962]

I am surprised you did not mention Placidusax's spiraling lightning attack, the one where he shoves a red lightning spiral into the ground and creates a circle of exploding fire. Could it not also mirror the crucible? One wonders if he did one such red lightning attack to make draconic life from gravel.

[@twodumbgamers9285]

We need a complete theory of the lore. Get the tarnished archaeologists help for sure! As well as the dude who made the color theory. I'll be waiting for that 6+ hour video 😂love the work!

[@xantishayde-walker4593]

That Color Theory dude would be Hawkshaw and yes, these guys are all great. Crunchy, Hawkshaw, Tarnished Archaeologist, Smoughtown and a new guy I found, can't remember his name, but I'll edit it into this comment, when I find it.l, just in case you're interested. The last guy sticks strictly to cannon stuff that can be found in game, with little speculation that he points out. It's great. Anyway, I'll be back. Edit: His name is T-L-G-T-W. I devoured 7 hours of the videos he's come out with so far the other night at work and he's got more coming soon. I can't wait. Also, I forgot about Quellag, Last Protagonist and probably too many others to name. Anyway, enjoy the lore, I'm getting back to it. 👍

[@twodumbgamers9285]

@@xantishayde-walker4593 thanks friend! I'll check that guy out!

[@GenghisTron]

I love videos like this that expand speculation with causality and direct correlation it’s makes me think about the game in such a dynamic way and attaches a lot of the actions in the game to an overlaying narrative. Makes me think that there is a prime story line using parts of lines without finishing others and finishing only some

[@megamicromanager2449]

The Deeproot depths map shows an absurdly large circle that looks as if its tree cut down and viewed from the top. The Erdtree seems to almost be on top of that but slanting away outwards like you mentioned that its tilted. But the erdtree seems to be several times smaller than the tree trunk depicted in the deeproot depths Map. That's why i like the idea that this greater tree was grafted with multiple different tree branches and they competed with each other for dominance during this era and the erdtree eventually 'dominated' over other grafted tree variants. And that This era was called the era of the crucible. Based on Tarnished archaeologists theory

[@GullibleZDI]

The circle also seems to align with the wall surrounding Leyndell. The other day I was looking at the map and tried to make something out of where the underground and the surface overlapped. Did you notice that the Academy of Raya Lucaria stands right above the Grand Cloister? Might just be coincidenses butbyou never know with these games

[@megamicromanager2449]

@@GullibleZDI Raya lucaria is indeed right above the large and moon-like cluster of glintstones. The lake of rot and the grand cloister is right below it. It is also kinda interesting how the crystallians that are a lifeform comprised of glintstone crystals are somehow capable of fusing with the Rot to make the rotten crystallians variant. If glintstone is the residual life of the stars and there is a huge cluster of it in raya lucaria with a lake of rot that was said to be the ‘essense of the rot god’. I have bo choice but to assume that the rot god was an alien entitiy like the astel and that when it was sealed away, its essense created a lake of rot and its residual life created a cluster of glintstone.

[@houlier]

47:05 i've noticed that in the various depictions of the Elden Ring, the central overlapping circles resemble flower petals, suggesting a further connection between the Elden Ring/Erdtree and flowers

[@alexdodd5175]

That’s just geometry. I mean, flower Petals in general do look like arcs and overlapping circles.

[@Scrombo2]

Given what just got announced, maybe we'll see the flower crucible or more related to her in the DLC

[@MadAtreides1]

Hopefully you will get the recognition you deserve. You truly have taken Vaati's place as the lore-guy in regard to Elden Ring.

[@CrunchyVideos]

That’s very kind of you!

[@jamescruz6578]

Yeah hoping you get more subs, your content is legit

[@kaingates]

Sorry but that title goes to SmoughTown but crunchy has some bangers as well

[@coreyrachar9694]

As Hawkshaw once said "this is not a bite sized piece of lore sentimentalism". This was a dig at channels like Vaati who, instead of really making any revelations or theories about the lore, focuses on the emotional and dramatic aspects of the story. This line really stuck with me because it encapsulates my feelings towards those types of channels perfectly. I'm not looking for elden ring the sad story time, I'm looking for explanations and ideas that further our understanding. It is for this reason I think Vaati is extremely over rated and channels like this one are sadly swept under the rug because the reality is most people just want a quick fix and Vaati provides that in a dramatic way. TLDR Vaati was never 'the lore guy' IMO and channels like crunchy/hawkshaw/tarnished archeologist/etc. are the true champions.

[@JohnDoeWasntTaken]

@@coreyrachar9694 Well said, I agree completely that Vaati is heavily overrated and not really a legitimate "lore guy". I watched a few of his newer videos since I'm getting heavily into the lore, and all I could notice were the inconsistencies and the amount of corrections that would be in the comments. Definitely a channel that focuses more on the sentimentality and telling a story instead of actually exploring the lore and what it means.

[@luckydueces5873]

I know I’m late to this video but you really blended so many relevant topics into one cohesive analysis and synthesis. You are the crucible.

[@Razien]

I love this theory. Ive always felt that, more than any other weapon, people, or location, eochaid stood alone. Such a well done and well thought out theory

[@K8theKind]

“But they were both of them deceived. For another ring was made”

[@pineal0ptics928]

The colour theory about the rune of death and ghost flame was really interesting. Made me really think for a second.

[@AssailantLF]

So playing the game recently with this video in mind, I had some interesting observations/thoughts to add that I don't think were brought up in the video: - The biggest source of living jar shards is the Perfumer's Grotto. 5 are next to a miranda flower, and 10 are in a chest. This pretty heavily implies that the corpses of living jars were used to feed the miranda flowers - The troll's hammer says that smithing used to be considered divine, much like aspects of the crucible used to be. This is pretty speculative, but maybe it was divine because there used to be a giant crucible capable of "smithing" with the divine essence of life. - Hewg is a Smith appointed by Marika to make a weapon to kill the gods. It could be that Hewg was chosen specifically because not only is he a master smith, he's also a misbegotten with a connection to the crucible. This also gives another possible connection between the Forge of the Giants and the crucible, since the giants were the originators of smithing and their fire is needed to kill the Erdtree like a legendary weapon is needed to kill a God.

[@bryanheard5821]

What if when Marika/ Radagon covered themselves in the celestial dew it created a divergence in mentality and at points it's clear to think things were carried out simply because Marika wanted to rule everything so making herself into a man and then seducing the Queen of the carians for the sake of helping her win a war makes sense to me but later down the line you see Marika cause the shattering but then Radagon trying to mend the elden ring and repair it seems counter intuitive unless there was something magical that causes these kinds of changes and initially Marika had this control over the change but it eventually warped her way of thinking

[@TheKidwitguts]

you worded this great, probs my favorite mystery in the game is marika and radagons story and how they became one or if they always were one. hopefully we’ll find out from the DLC

[@gerardomendoza2578]

I just found this channel and saw all your content, I loved how you associate everything to real world things!

[@cornthdl]

I don’t know the full connection yet, but the only creatures that have all the aspects of the crucible are the dragons. So was the ancient dragon god melted down to separate and create the different forms of life? Haha

[@wonders7580]

If you look at each leaf of the erd tree and then the fire blossom it shows the state in which the erd tree used to be as well - fallen leaves tell a story, and the cooling of the crucible for rot maybe could have been it sealing by water?

[@SuzumeMizuno]

What wonderful work, as always! Thank you sincerely for sharing it with us, everything is so interesting!

[@CrunchyVideos]

Thank you, glad you enjoyed it!

[@Confuzledish]

If you rotate the Cadeuceus 90 degrees away from you, know what you get? A SPIRAL!

[@Majoraspersona]

This is a great video to come back to after the release of the dlc and seeing spirals EVERYWHERE in all the Hornsent architecture.

[@DeepFriedReality]

I think the Erdtree feeds souls of the dead to the greater will. Because of that Markias removal of destined death stopped the greater wills source of souls.

[@berylman]

Extremely well done lore video! Learned a lot. Subscribed

[@EredinLore]

Finally getting round to this

[@spudmaphot]

My belief is that the action of mixing of blood and fire is the crucible, the source of all life much like in the real world without the heat from the burning sun, even if the elements for life existing were placed together we would never have happened. It would definitely fall into the definition of a crucible as an event creating something new.That may also have been the mistake the greater will committed, that created life as it exists. All of life was "one" as blood, as a substance that existed, then fire was introduced to it kicking it in motion.

[@austinelsdon6529]

I hope we get a lot more Crucible gear and lore in the DLC! This lord story is my favourite

[@r.p.193]

Nice video!! Thanks a lot :) About the Caduceus conection, I have a note. The Caduceus is the staff of Mercury/Hermes. Mercury is the planet that has the shortes cycle around the sun, and makes a full cycle quicker than other planets when obvserved from the earth. This is the reason why the ancient greeks considered him the messenger of the Gods, because he was the quickest. Now, if the Erdtree born from the crucible in the shape of a caduceous, it only makes sense that now contains the Elden Ring whiting it, as the Elden Ring is what the Elden Beast became when it got to the Lands Between, and the Elden Beast is an emisary of the Greater Will, in other words, a messenger, like Mercury/Hermes. It would be nice to see if, following the iconography of the Caduceous, the tree might be the staff, and the helix, which in the staff is shaped as a double snake, are actually colosal snakes, like the one that ate Rykard, but obv only speculation, as there is onluy one snake in the game. Also I really liked the conection tou've drawn between the crucible and Radagon :) Keep up the good work!!

[@finallyanime]

also occured to me that red to gold is like molten iron in a crucible 'cooling' down into the 'golden order.' you're getting out all the 'impurities' & then left with gold. In this case, it could be like blood sacrificed drying up & feeding the next era. p.s. also i thought literally there was an item or text saying omen were reviled during the crucible times but after golden order, they were forced underground...

[@finallyanime]

Also it occurred to me that as crazy as it may be, to create, there must be an engine. And this engine must be quite terrible in power. Fell gods fire & other gods I’m guessing contributed to creating these energy sources, then when not needed, we’re either discarded, subjugated or banished. Probably another reason they were reviled so much

[@thebeef420]

What if the crucible is the result of marika fusing with the elden beast/elden ring. This result causing the infectious life draining of those who cannot die (all species being affected) and only those who were mighty recieved grace.. all those who weren't worthy were targeted by messmir's army. Miquella tried using his own blood to make an erd tree but lacked the grace given by the elden ring, so he chose his own path to make the lands better after watching the affect of the crucible destroy everything and everyone

[@Qustav]

Interesting how the crucible possibly being two trees spiraled together and Miquella possibly using the same means to create haliqtree ties in with the DLC announcement artwork being 2 trees wound up on eachother, and those two being seemingly opposing forces. Maybe the artwork depicts the destruction of the Haliqtree since something went wrong with the recipe, timetravel to the times of the crucible, or a re-emergence of the crucible style era in the future? Also the second tree of the spiral pair could very well be the Helphen, the tree of death mirroring the tree of life, and the reason the erdtree forces faced so much resistance early on was because they literally cut down the other half of the world tree by removing destined death; or they merged somehow, since erdtree could be translated to tree of fate, and removing death instead fused future/past and life/death, causing this weird deathless and somehow timeless or displaced realm.

[@dawson3776]

I appreciate that you put in a disclaimer that the Japanese may or may not be accurate, also cut content may not be valid. I saw a video by The Tarnished Archeologist that may shed some light into the subject, it uses the many reliefs and statues to show what the crucible might be.

[@kreadapelu8813]

In case I forget or missed it… The Forge of the Giants does have damage that may signify something escaping. Not just the clawed at gaps on the rim. Underneath the Forge, looks as if something broke through the bottom and went down into the ground. Molten material followed and cooled. Or maybe the strange lumps are a now dead thing… big ol’ hand or some such. That particular leakage on the Forge plagues me along with the stuff up the sides of the Divine Towers and whatever is being used to obscure on facing on the pillar/poll/sticky-upy bits around the Elden Throne arena. My current suspicions are that the stuff on the sides of the Divine Towers is the petrified remains of the Two-fingers atop the towers. Or, more specifically, that stuff is how they get about, some kind of root structure that they were severed from. I also sort of suspect those dead Two-fingers were sent by Miquella through the Haliggtree. The stuff on the poles in the Elden throne is a deliberate cover up of information critical to what has actually happened. A now petrified fungus was used or something. The breakout on the Forge.. the forge was being used to refine grace. Could be mixing meteors with ice dragons or whatever. More likely, I think, the refinement was to expel the Greater Will’s influence on grace, that is, to make unalloyed gold. Some part of the Greater Will’s influence escaped, found the Great Tree, and infested it.

[@kreadapelu8813]

Also there are many depictions of trees and vines growing out of a jar/the forge

[@garingodfrey8581]

41:32 yoooooo the dark souls 2 ost in the background bro my heart amazing video please keep doing the amazing work you do

[@geordiejones5618]

I feel bad for Radagon and Godwyn. They seem like they were used just to advance the goals of Marika and Ranni without any consideration for their agency.

[@yikes6969]

you feel bad for fictional video game characters

[@cronenbuilder277]

lol bro trying to troll a dude who posted a comment 9 months ago @@yikes6969

[@AdamOwenBrowning]

@@yikes6969 yoo people feel things about stories?? yooo really... people like, read fiction and then like, feel things? What is that? One day you will have grown up and won't feel childish when you have fun thinking about stories, because you won't be scared of looking like a child

[@hankbudjenska5128]

Radagon isn't a good guy

[@MrCdog85]

@@yikes6969 I know feeling anything must be foreign to you, that's okay.

[@KosOrSomeSayKosmo]

I'm pretty sure the Crucible is the period of time and series of events at the nascence of the Erd tree. At this time Godfrey and his forces (the Crucible knights and Misbegotten) were waging war against the former order, the dragons, beasts, and hawks of Farum Azula. The Crucible in the lifegiving sense is the mixing of the blood of all those primordial species slaughtered in battle, absorbed by the root system of the Great Tree, upon which Marika has grafted the Erd tree. We know from the Haligtree that holy trees are fueled by blood, and to this day the Erd tree is fed with corpses via Erdtree burial. The Crucible isn't a primordial era of time when all life was mixed. It's an era of conflict when all FORMS of primordial life were mixed in death. Dragons, from which birds evolved, are the most primordial life forms, and eventually beasts, beast men, and then humans. The Crucible is the blending of their blood and essence in the roots of the Great tree through constant warfare (playing into the double meaning of the Crucible), gafter the burning of the Great Tree giving rise to various new shoots of blended life, like Misbegotten, Crucible nights (whose gold is tinged red, the red of blood) and eventually, Omen. One of those shoots was cultivated above all others, the most golden and pure, as the others were pruned away and increasingly reviled, a radiant sapling fueled by the power of all that bloodhshed. The Erd Tree, and the Golden Lineage.

[@JUJU13392]

Great, great video! I came here after hunting for lore on The Crucible because it seems to be the most prominent theme in the DLC trailer and boy was i in for a ride in this video. First the boss fights that are mostly Omen-themed, then there are Aspects of Crucible and then most importantly, the dual snake peresence on Messmer, the dual twisting tree like structure. All seems to point out the fact that we are going witness/support the roll-back of the erd-tree to its primordial form - The Crucible. What are your thoughts on this?

[@godly_potatoe69xd19]

I always thought that the eclipse was meant to do with bringing back Gogdwyn and the soulless demigods

[@dreamfield92]

So glad I found this channel :) excellent analysis of symbolism and metaphysics that surely inspired the many fromsoft games! The visuals of the giant’s forge reminds me of the ancient ceremonial containers - crucibles, if you will -- that was once used by ancient civilizations for religious and prophetic events. These giant brass containers are used to hold sacrifices, big animals perhaps given the size of these relics, most likely boiled on fire, as an offer to the gods. Some recent discoveries suggest that some of the sacrifices may have been humans, as there’re human skeletons near the sites of these containers, that do not look like they went through a normal process of burial. They may have been boiled alive inside these crucibles as the most radical way of communicating to the gods. It is possible that the history of the erd tree was inspired by this. The lands between, just like human civilization itself, was once built upon the sacrifice of life, countless of them, literally by blood mixed with cauldron fire. No wonder such crucible is connected to beasthood for the sheer brutality of these rituals. and once men move on to a civilized age they denounce and forget this bloody past despite it being once the very cradle of civilization. This fits so well with the current happenings of the lands between, as people seem to be recreating this sinful history, knowingly or not. Godrick piled up corpses in his castle and Mohg literally starts his dynasty in a pond of ancient dynasty blood. Perhaps this is why the stormveil castle looks as if it is being consumed by thorns, through the many lives sacrificed for the grafting ritual the castle starts to manifest the traits of the crucible in a literal sense, the thorny shaped motif as depicted on the crucible knights armor. Seeing the most recent dlc trailer makes the connection to human sacrifice so much clearer now. Though part of me hope this theory is not true since just thinking about it gives me chills! This is certainly something George RRMartin would come up with, after all the only magic is blood magic according to him.

[@hurka.design]

This video sounded like those old early KZbin Illuminati conspiracy videos "A triangle has 3 points. Drawing a line between them make a new triangle. Turning it sideways draw out the Illuminati logo = illuminati confirmed"

[@arabidllama]

Great video!! Well-researched, well-edited, and your word choice is excellent. I think you do a good job switching modes to follow connections that make sense. I really appreciate you getting pronunciations of things correct in their source language, too! Some thoughts that popped to mind: -Miriel, Pope of Turtles refers to Radagon as a "champion" - twice. A "mere champion" at that. I think that's strong circumstantial evidence if there's only one "great champion" that was defeated. -To your point about decay and heat, the very process of decay is exothermic. Things like compost heaps can give off steam, for instance, and it's how oily rags burst into flame. I imagine this was well-known, and fairly mysterious, in medieval times compared to today. It really is the same "thing" as fire, fundamentally: the release of chemical potential energy -This one's silly, but if we want to take the Giant's Forge to be the crucible, perhaps the erdtree was "poured"? The sheer cliffs could have been carved by the "molten" contents of the crucible. The erdtree seems to be rooted in a place where that pour could have ended by being quenched in water.

[@CrunchyVideos]

Ooh I like the molten idea- if you look up at Altus Plateau from the Ruin Strewn Precipice, it looks a lot like an igneous rock formation- there’s three different rock types in the cliff face inelegantly juxtaposed together. Could just be coincidence though. “Champion” is used in other contexts too- the sword monument in MotG off the top of my head- but yes it does refer to Radagon several times.

[@arabidllama]

​@@CrunchyVideos This is getting silly, but staring at the map - perhaps the steam explosion from the "pour" explains how Farum Azula got into the air, and how chunks of it ended up all over Limgrave? The steam is even still there, in the form of the clouds.

[@CrunchyVideos]

@@arabidllama Kinda lines up with some of the alchemical ideas I had of the Lands Between as a giant chemistry experiment. I’ve got some vague ideas about volcanoes and fire and gravity, but I’ll have to think about it more.

[@juli3754]

One thing to add for the theory that radagon was the laborer, his symbol is like stiching

[@SMac86]

I cant get enough of these lore videos and theories, it has really enriched my experience of the game. Although Im always agrivated to hear they removed quest lines and characters, as if they were worried they were revealing too much...I just want to play more and explore more storylines. I have heard the theory that the Erdtree feeds off the souls of the fallen. That is why Marika sealed away destined death, not for her children necessarily, but also to choke the Erdtree of its soul feeding. She also had Godwyn infect the root as a sort of pincer attack, perhaps to deny its sustenance from the blood of the fallen? As I was listening to you talk about the failed Haligtree, I couldnt help but think that the missing part of the equation for the tree to be an Erdtree was destined death being sealed away and a lack of souls for the tree to feed on. Something interesting to think on anyway. Fantastic video and subscribed!

[@Stonehenge-Man]

This video is great. I've been sharing it with my friends who enjoyed elden ring, but were confused about the story.

[@CrunchyVideos]

Lol it will probably only confuse them further, but thank you!

[@pawnshop_ghost]

I can't remember where I got the idea, but I always thought that the reason Miquella's eclipse failed was because the sun, being a star, was being held in place by Radahn who had halted the stars. Eclipses, requiring precise mathematics in order to predict, would not happen if the sun wasn't where Miquella had expected it to be in the sky. So, the Radahn stopping the stars movement had affected both Ranni's and Godwyn's fates, and by proxy also the fates of Miquella and the albinaurics in a sense, though to a lesser extent.

[@revenant097]

Misbegotten means ill-conceived or illegitimate and nothing in the game seems to suggest they were born as normal humans or even cursed ones like the omen, at least not individually (perhaps as a species?). Regarding castle morne Irina tells you the servants revelled and her father Edgar says "The menials have all rebelled. They gave me good service, or so I thought, but it seems it was all an act. Foul creatures, as it's said. And true enough they're foul inside and out."

[@azazelsiad3601]

Well I have a couple questions then. Why would the misbegotten know attacks like the lions claw which was exclusively a battle art of the Redmanes, even more curios is the strongest Misbegotten have massive red manes. It also interesting you would define the word as “Ill-conceived” but you completely forget another word for “born” is “conceived” meaning that the name quite literally means cursed from birth. Now this is just my educated guess because you are also correct when you say there isn’t any lore that indicates they were once human but that doesn’t mean they aren’t as intelligent as humans Hewg being a prime example. Give me some time and I’ll look around in game and see if I can’t find anything more but so far our best guess is they were born the way they are and the reason is likely because of a curse.

[@scrimmybingus4871]

I think Godfrey is a bit similar to Beowulf who is a warrior who has to calm down when he becomes king and has a son that is a monster. Not sure about the book but in the Beowulf animated movie his son who is a dragon turns back into a human when Beowulf kills him, like Morgott when he dies and Godfrey is mourning him.

[@CrunchyVideos]

In the original story, the dragon is just a dragon- he doesn’t have a son. Interesting that they chose to add that in the movie. If you’re interested in Beowulf (I’m actually a huge nerd, I tried to memorize it in Old English) there’s a very beautiful translation by JRR Tolkien that was finally published a few years back, it was sort of his life’s work.

[@jakobrenner2230]

While I do disagree a bit with your conclusions regarding Radagon (as I do think he came from Marika and they were always the same being), both the latter's role of "blending life together" to reconcile the contradictions inherent to the world with the Golden Order to create a more perfected realm, and your explanations of the Crucible being a form of a more "raw", homogeneous form of life, are extremely compelling and well-thought out. Amazing video!

[@Imperial-631]

I was thinking..maybe the relationship of Miquella and St. Trina is like Radagon and Marika! Maybe he’s not only an Empyrean, but also a Rebis!

[@DeyanWell]

Amazing how well it fits with the story of the scadu tree. You have read it as it is.

[@ghostgate82]

I always felt the Crucible was inspired by the Gnostic concept of Pleroma, or the Kabbalist concept of Ein Sof.

[@RobReith]

Love the Resident Evil 4 save screen music in the background. Can't wait for the reamke it's looking so good! Great Video! Keep it up! Crucible Tree Knight Armor is one of my favorites. 👍🏻

[@GehtRektSon]

Interesting side note, the Regalia of Eochaid is based on the real-life Sword of Goujian that was mastercrafted for a king during the spring and autumn period of ancient chinese history. The sword itself is amazing, and imho, one of the pinnacles of sword-making period. Cheers!

[@InvisibleBob9]

This video is so cool😀, love analysis of real world religions and cultures and how they inspire lore !

[@lolman946]

I like this theory. this would imply: Radigon was the "tarnished of no renown" in the opening (and we were never meant to become elden lord). the outer gods are the removed "impurities" of Marika's land between. well, maybe not removed but displaced and hinting at the truth of the world before the golden order.

[@lolman946]

btw (Blood flame and Frenzied flame connection) the 3 fingers served a previous God (likely formless mother) that was entombed and found the Frenzied flame in its despair.

[@gsixbr7337]

You nailed the Marika is a kinda of homunculus. Great job!

[@TRIC4pitator]

REALLY insightful video, thank you

[@dutchielander2478]

What if the crucible isnt the name for a specific thing or object but for a time where every creature lived in harmony? We can find info about astrologers going to the giants mountain tops to study the stars, the Nox used to live in the holy city, misbegotten used to be friendly with human folk etc. It is only after the 2fingers appeared that everything became about the golden order. It could also be a description of something impacting into the land and leaving a smoldering crater, maybe something like the envoy of the stars or some kind if 'seed' that would grow into the Erdtree. It could also describe why Horah Loux would wage war with beasts before besting Serosh, trying to defend or maybe be the one to claim the crater or whats inside it (Marika? Elden Beast? Radagon?) The giants are the ones that built the towers surrounding the giant lake in the middle of the map and are, probably besides the dragons, physically the strongest creature out there, which had Horah Loux and the beastfolk team up to take them down. I also think the Elden Ring stands for something different then the rune we see. The Elden Ring could be a name for something like the round table, where figures of different decent decided to come together as seen by the different kinds of weapons embedded in the table in the roundtable hold. Maybe they waged war against the dragons and joined forces to defeat them, where soon after Marika betrayed everybody and sealed Maliketh, also named Destined Death, in Farum Azula. A place nobody can reach except the dragons themselves or holders of dragon scales, like misbegotten (Hewg) and tarnished. "Shattering" the "Elden Ring", taking power by marrying Horah Loux and ascending to power. I alsways thouhht it was weird how Marika, a small humanlike creature, could best the giants and dragons, as she is the one refered to when we read about who took down the giants. She was just a maiden/priestess, so why should she be so important and not Hirah Loux or Radagon, as they are known warriors. Something doesnt add up there. As for a small fragment of the rune of death, as i thouggt about it, could be Blaidd, as he and Maliketh share the wolfman appearance and Blaidd was given to Ranni. As if to say, the 2fingers gave him life and then ordered him to become Ranni's shadow like Maliketh was for Marika. Why does everything smell like copper all of a sudden?

[@thehotwindblowing]

holy crap, no wonder the haligtree is full of Misbegotten. Making another Crucible... woah

[@secretname2670]

16:23 I believe personally that truth in the Mohg's appliances' description refers moreso to the natural way of beings, like the fact that Mohg isn't innately born into defilement, it is only called defilement because of the Golden Order. I see it so that in a way, The Formless Mother reveals source of a narrative.

[@alephnole7009]

Two other Characters who seeming have no eyes are Lusat and azur who both witnessed some form of cosmic truths

[@lorentzt.5750]

i appreciate the fma brotherhood ost track that accompanies the junji ito section.

[@CrunchyVideos]

Hehe I tried to make it line up with what I was saying like it does with Armstrong

[@sly6759]

so you DID re-upload it again after all XD I was the guy complaining about the res on the old upload, thanks mate appreciate that a lot. I know the visuals are just there to emphasize the actual content but I do think it adds a lot to the atmosphere.

[@CGAA07017]

Crunchy, perfectly said, as usual. Congratulations for the great content and ideas. I am so profoundly glad that I found your channel a while ago. Thank you (I really can't say this enough lol). I got upon myself to write an actual fanfiction for Elden Ring (should you be interested to check out, links are on my channel). I have come up with a crazy theory for the creation of the world and all, that ties really well, despite not having enough explicit content to back me up. But the more I study the in-game lore and KZbinrs content, I only get closer to the "truth" (although, I will never dare to claim it as canon because... Even though it ties really well, in my opinion, it's a huge stretch, so... Anyway). I need to thank you again. Your amazing content heavily inspired me to very important details of this headcanon of mine, and I am so deeply glad that I'm not alone in this line of thought. Sometimes I think that Frenzy already took my mind, so. You know hahaha As far as my theory... Oh well. I better get on writing. Otherwise, I'll write a novel on your comments and spoil the fun hahaha. Keep up the good work amd I wish you the best of luck ❤️

[@mikeauxsmall2156]

I think Miquella's tree failed to grow (into an erdtree or whatnot) because he nurtured it with his blood. Being a being cursed with eternal youth, he probably should have used someone else's (preferably a god or demigod) blood. Or perhaps water..

[@verybrownsalmon]

Wow, multiple insights during this video drove me mad

[@lute6904]

Im just now finding this channel and the videos I’ve seen so far have been excellent. Great find at 23:39

[@GeneralTaco155555a]

Just want to say, coming to this video after the Shadow of the Erdtree story trailers have dropped, it is heavily implied that Marika created the Erdtree was by piling up the bloody corpses of a genocide. The connection of red/blood to the primordial form of the Erdtree makes sense. Also, the concept of Unalloyed gold implies a refinement from alloyed (red-)gold. Miquella's blood is of the Golden Order, but he isn't using the metals of innocent blood to create an alloy. Miquella thereby creates pure unalloyed gold by refusing to create an Order through genocide. Mogh then steals Miquella's body, likely in an attempt to recreate the red-gold era through their combined blood. Mkgh wants to bring back the Crucible since he is an Omen of a Crucible era who worships the Formless Mother that created them.

[@soleo2783]

I cant help but make a comparison between a crucible and a kiln, which should bring up familiar concepts.. A hot container closely connected to the origin of life is a pretty neat way to join the elden ring lore with the dark souls lore, and we also have lovecraftian-style beings and concepts, which would link bloodborne and demon souls aswell.

[@vincenzobulla113]

A small correction that many don't understand, there is no crucible before the Erdtree because the tree itself is the crucible. All life comes from the tree, hence it is called the crucible of life. When the Elden Beast, which is none other than the Elden Ring, fell to earth, sent by the Greater Will, the Erdtree is born and all life sprang from it. Before Marika became a vessel of the Elden Ring, the tree was flaming like when we release the rune of death after killing Maliketh. After becoming a goddess, Marika removes the rune of death from the Elden Ring and seals the flame of the giants, as a result the tree turns golden and the Golden Order is born.

[@RENDAN_iel]

Great video! Awesome lore.

[@Thedeepesttruth]

I think the Crucible is a Multifaceted term like the Golden Order. It’s basically the same thing. The name given to the era or Age, the flow of life or magic, a literal power and energy, ideology, and dynasty. It’s the school of thought and being and magic that is more primordial and chaotic than the Golden Order. The difference between Homo Neanderthalis and Homo Sapien Sapien metaphorically speaking. Just like blood and Death and commingling of flesh is more primal then the current age int he game. If you notice it never actually mentions sex and physical birth in the game. It’s more suggested that people, and life is Born from the Tree. As in life literally is the fruit of the tree. That’s why Bodies go into the roots in death. Not that all life forms is bond to this cycle: just the hominids of the Golden Order. So it possible that there is birth as we know it. But Melina even asks if Boks emotional response is what it means to have a mother. As her mother made her at the foot of the Erd Tree. It may also be why Marika and the Shamans can meld and mold flesh and look to be bark like in death. If you notice the Bodies in the Roots of the Catacombs, and Marikas Body Husk, and the dead Fingers all look almost like dead wood. So I think there is a mechanism of life and birth here in this World is different from ours. Hence the people developed differently, they idolize and perceive differently. Because they are either not Bound to Mortal Flesh anymore with the hewing of the rune of death. Or they never were flesh like ours to begin with. It’s Al very meta and deep, convoluted and speculative. But part of why I think this is brocade there are no new children and human life. We only encounter 7 or so humans. Most of them Tarnished. But no children, no babies. No breeding families. Why?

[@sidewaysfcs0718]

However, if your assessment that the Crucible might be a symbolic theme of blending things together in fire, then it's quite possible that there were multiple eras of the Crucible: The first Primordial Crucible would have been the era before the Ancient Dragons, when the Greater Will took the initial chaotic state of the world and introduced the first Elden Ring, empowered the Ancient Dragons and granted intellect to the BeastMen, this would be the "5 fingers era" and of that initial Elden Ring design in Farum Azula. It would also coincide with Hayetta's words of how the world started to become differentiated, but also how suffering started. Then something happened, the Ancient Dragon regime fell, Placidusax was left without a God and some heads cut off, Farum Azula probably crumbled at this point due to a Meteor, etc. Possible start of the "Two Fingers vs Three Fingers" rivalry. Ancient civilizations start to develop, the Prophet talks of the Great Tree to come, and all of the ancient Assyrian-Egyptian-Greek temples we fiind are built with his statues all over the place. The Eternal City civilizations develop as a continuation of the ancient ones, but not quite monotheistic, instead they worship the stars, and some of them start to slowly convert to the new Great Tree monotheism, The Eternal City Leyndell stands proof of this conversion by the single Great Tree altar in the Church. It is unclear if the Great Tree existed yet however as a physical Tree yet. The Great Tree era starts, i know very little of this era and who were it's representatives, who was the vassal of the Elden Beast to carry an Elden Ring? Who was Elden Lord? etc. This oddly feels like the "Dark Ages". Nonetheless a Great Tree had to exist. Something bad happens, Eternal Cities Nokron and Nokstella get punished for not adhering to the Greater Will, they get sent underground by Astel and his gravity magic, or multiple Astel-like beings, etc. It's possible this also marks the creation of the Finger Slayer Blade, and their punishment came because of a pair of Two Fingers might have been killed. Nonetheless the two Eternal Cities are violently sent underground the roads system of the Lands in Between gets interrupted. Eternal City of Leyndell is spared for it partially already had adherents to the Great Tree religion, as it still stands up until the Shattering much later in history. Great Tree probably gets cut, only a stump remains, and from this stump a new Crucible era starts, The "2nd" Crucible Era: Hoarah Loux makes his conquest and takes Stormveil from the Stormlord, Castle Morne from the unnamed lone fighter, etc. Sometime during this era the Crucible Knights are employed by him at this point i believe. At the end The Roundtable and Stormveil are taken over by Godfrey and he establishes himself as a claimant for Elden Lord, leaving behind his Roundtable and the Crucible Knights but takng Serrosh on his back. Then from the 2nd Crucible the Erdtree is selected as the chosen sprout to start a Golden Order and Marika is Empyrean, the War against the Fire Giants and Carian House starts, etc. At the end we know the outcome, Marika becomes a God and Godfrey becomes First Elden Lord. Modern Leyndell is built on top of the older, Eternal City of Leyndell. Marika and Godfrey have 2 children, i suspect the old-fashioned way via sex, but Godfrey is somehow "tainted" by the Crucible, the cursed Omen twins Morgott and Mohg are born. Because of this remnant of the Crucible in the Omen twins, Marika decides to lock up the twins underground, and possibly this is when she actually divests Godfrey of his Grace, the Tarnished and the Long March start. Of course she would cover this up with other motives, possibly Melina doesn't even know the true reason. From here, starts the Age of Plenty, the Rune of Death is removed from this new Elden Ring, and Erdtree burial and rebirth start. The Age of Plenty also produces Godwyn and Melina, i suspect they were both born of the Erdtree in a baptismal vessel and NOT by Godfrey's blood, as by this time traditional sex and birth are banned (as they seem to produce Omens in the population, which are tossed in the Leyndell sewers). I suspect Godwyn was the "firstborn of the Erdtree" as Godwyn seems to mirror Marika's appearance, he's essentially a male genetic clone of her, on Melina i'm still sort of confused, she claims to have been born of the Erdtree so that's as much as i'll say. During this time, Radagon would have had his affair with Renalla after the Carian House was incorporated into the Golden Order by marriage, and produced the children Ranni, Rykard and Radahn. But Marika now selects Radagon as her Elden Lord, she also somehow has other children with Radagon: Malenia and Miquella, both cursed in other weird ways, possible meaning that Radagon himself also is "impure" somehow, etc. Possibly this is when they also conjoin into a single body if the theory of Radagon as being a separate person initially was true, speculation is still out here. Age of Plenty continues for the citizens of the Lands in between. Sex is banned, but Erdtree burial and birthin is in fashion. However, children born of natural birthing possibly all come out as Omens, leading to even more atrocities against them. The Shattering Era: for some reason Marika/Radagon is worried about the nature of the Greater Will and probably Marika actually hatched the plot to end this Era herself, with Radagont trying to resist. Night of the Black Knives ensues and Godwyn is murdered. Marika shatters the Elden Ring, destroying the current laws of nature, including the rebirthing process. With the Elden Ring shattered, the Erdtree starts to die out, the War of the Shattering starts, Eternal City of Leyndell (just part of the old quarters) is sunk beneath the ground just like Nokron and Nokstella were long ago. The Erdtree possibly gets burned by Melina, which explains her burn marks on her hands, i'm still very confused about her eye tattoo and what it means. With no more Erdtree rebirth, since the dead can no longer be absorbed by the roots of the Erdtree, the people in the Lands in Between no longer go to the crypts, and live long artificial lives, this is why they all look like emaciated husks, but still living. After the War of the Shattering ends, we end up with individual Runes kept by a few demigods, Melina seems to be "burnt and bodiless" now. The Erdtree however, despite buring the first time, is now an Illusion. It is merely a stump with a Golden exterior that is purely an object of faith for the people. Tarnished descendants who died in battle far offshore return by Grace from the Long March, game starts. You are here. The are still plenty of things i couldn't fit into the timeline proper, like when does the Godskin Godhunt take place, etc. Hopefully you might unravel these misteries :3

[@IAMMASED]

Bro awesome theories... I think you've found the answer to the philosophers stone

[@roelani]

Dude how are you so good at this. I love these theories.

[@delbertstone8136]

Tho it is quite morbid human blood has been known to cause "the grass to grow" after high casualty events. In fact the US military until very recently used to use this saying as a form of esprit de core. "What makes the green grass grow?!", "Blood, blood, the blood of our enemies!"

[@TheShowerofSlime]

43:13 bookmark because symbols Fantastic video as always

[@trippymlgjunkrat5749]

I believe eochaid and farum azula could've been trying to overthrow the whole order leading to farum being pushed away and eochaid disappearing

[@blaynesea8816]

So the dung eater ending is basically making everything back to the crucible time, making everyone the same (omen beasts)

[@generated6375]

I love Elden Ring but the "lands between" has always sounded like a discount attempt at recreating "Middle Earth" .

[@netocock]

Awesome work Crunchy 🙌