The "Suppressing" Pillar - Elden Ring Lore Differences in Translation

[@MitridatedCarbon]

i like to think, considering the pillar has ancient dynasty architecture therefore older than marika's ascension, it isn't referring to just the land of shadows, but the lands between altogether. the lands between attract spirits and death, from both other lands and other worlds, and then they get calmed down so that they can pass on, hence the name lands between: lands between life and death.

[@johncrondis4563]

Finally, I don't know why people are reading it as talking about only tLoS, when it literally says that tLoS were part of the lands between. We even know that tarnished who died in distant lands come back to tLB, and most likely Reedlanders who died came to tLB.

[@embargovenom9948]

This was my understanding as well.

[@hellogoodbye3786]

I think the suppressing pillar might be somewhat similar to the smaller pillars (usually found inside boss rooms) that allow us to summon out spirit ashes. We use a spirit calling bell to do so, but we may not do so without a pillar-like structure present. That both are so similar in appearance - and close in relation to death is something that i can not believe a coincidence. I can't help but think the smaller pillars are a simulacra for the suppressing pillar found in the shadow realm.

[@nightscout9979]

The Suppressing Pillar might be actively keeping the zombies at Charo's Hidden Grave, the Cerulean Coast, and the Stone Coffin Fissure. If it's meant to be soothing them, then it might not be doing a good job, considering that they still have a desire or need for Trina's nectar.

[@GrandStyles]

Maybe it's a massive, physical version of the glovewort/gravewort which does similar things but for the entire lands?

[@LastProtagonist]

I like this idea! Though I'm not sure how the pillar helps one commune with the spirits the way glovewort does.

[@GrandStyles]

@ yeah we can only speculate. I think the idea behind the wort’s is that they comfort heroic spirits. Much of what we see from deathly beings implies the loneliness is something important enough to devise methods of reprieve against. The grave crickets serve a similar purpose. Perhaps the suppressing pillar is like a lighthouse to spirits and they can soothe each other as they gather in the afterlife. Considering the amount of death, spirit eels and spirit graves present.

[@theeldenenthusiast]

It's a good thing we find a... Smithing stone. Thank you for giving us more info on the pillar Miya

[@specialnewb9821]

I think it might have started as soothing but after Marika removed death rune from Elden Ring it might have become actively suppressing. So I'm going with "both".

[@arthurdossantos6826]

Although Marika is all about suppressing Death (the same way the shadow represents a suppression of undesirable traits and events) it seems this pillar is older than her, and the fact there's a ancient dragon scale on top might say something.

[@agopessimist1335]

Would the presence of Marika’s ‘Shaman’ village and others like it lend credence to the idea of the Suppressing Pillar being used to calm angry Spirits? We do see a few Wrathful Spirit spells used by the Hornsent, and with how the Shamans were possibly Spirit Tuners, this could be used to support the idea. Maybe?

[@MitridatedCarbon]

could be. there are a lot of gloveworths in the stone coffins, and those are used to calm and honor the spirit ashes.

[@FaeQueenCory]

I think it's both. When they were still connected, the Shadow Lands were the center of the Hornsent empire. Death is very important to the Hornsent culture, so the central Divine Tower (which the suppression pillar clearly is) would have been the center of the soothing of the dead. But with Marika converting it/the other Divine Towers to being the lynchpins of displacing the Shadow Lands... Thereby making them Shadow in the first place... Did it become a seal.

[@Duv1995]

wait, where is the spirit at the end of the video that suffers? i dont think i found it in the game :o

[@LastProtagonist]

The ailing hornsent village with all the manflies to the west of Castle Ensis

[@Duv1995]

@@LastProtagonist thanks!

[@AdamPW]

A question regarding the "The very center of the Lands Between" part: I've seen some people argue online that the Suppressing Pillar is somehow not really in the center of the Lands Between in the Japanese text or that there is some weird technicality there? Could you elaborate on that maybe?

[@LastProtagonist]

It's pretty clear it's meant as the center, but I think when people are arguing otherwise it's because the shadow realm is not currently located in TLB

[@swordierre9341]

interesting to implicitly liken soothing to suppression, maybe the ambiguity is intentional. Is the term used anywhere else in the game?

[@AngryPainting]

Dead rights

[@usedcolouringbook8798]

0:19 4 definitions about low energy/passive actions, 1 definition has high energy; who the hell are these translators? They should be canned and replaced by web novel translators.

[@franciscodetonne4797]

IMO I think it's not appropriate to translate it as "to suppress". AFAIK for Japanese culture, which is heavily influenced by Shintoism and Buddhism (which is a lot of Sekiro), appeasing or calming spirits is the first solution. It's not until there is a spirit so evil and malicious like Tamamo-no-Mae that required sealing or vanquishing.

[@specialnewb9821]

But maybe From isn't drawing on Japanese culture for this object.

[@WanderedIn]

Why should we assume that the pillar was built to achieve what is seen as the wiser outcome?

[@MossOwnsYouYT]

I agree with others here that the word suppression is likely not the most accurate, given this context. It seems more like its trying to Placate or Pacify the spirits of the land to make them easier to handle in this translation.

[@oldboy117]

🤓

[@Coypop]

given how Marika sealed destined death, I'm inclined to read it as forcefully supressed. What's perplexing is how does the dead washing ashore in the Shadowlands relate to the death and rebirth governed by the Erdtree, which I assumed was near universal, only the Tarnished and Undead really lived & died disconnected from it, unless lands unknown send their dead across the fog?