rileyknowles8126: The alien-looking blobs in the jars are shamans from the shaman village where Marika is from (can see their symbol on the forehead) - and apparently the hornsent did this to her people which was a reason she asked her son Mesmer to go obliterate them
JoeNeutrino: It's ironic that Marika's people were made into jar people. After all, all things can be conjoined.
zsasz21: The idea of people getting put in jars has been ruined for me by the internet. When i got to the cave where the ghost says "please, anything but the jar" i had to stop for a sec cause i was laughing my ass off
peteybakedziti8908: Got a crackpot theory about the Hornsent. Their horns associate them with the Crucible which is basically described as an amalgamation of life and they also seem to have an Empyrean (the old lady that gives you Watchful Spirits) and they have a cultural fixation on the divine (dancing lion is referred to as divine) and Belurat itself is connected to Inir Ilim which seems to be a place where would-be Gods ascend to Godhood (we see Marika do it in the trailer and Miquella do it during the final boss fight)

The Hornset of Belurat attempted to recreate the Crucible by conjoining life together (stuffing their victims into pots) and sacrifice them to raise their Empyrean to full Godhood. They failed this, Marika retaliated and started a crusade. In the end she sacrificed the Hornsent to become a God (we see horned corpses all sround the gate of divinity)
bertyamgeebler1865: interested in how the hornsent and midra/frenzy tie in - it seems like his 'punishment/damnation' was enacted by them - his grace site is also called 'discussion parlor' iirc which i found intriguing
cjh.1920: The shaman flesh easily melding with others makes me think about marika radagon. I’m in the camp that they weren’t always one being.
sulphurspanic26: One thing I noted is that the old lady calls Merika a harlot in the opening to the dancing dragon fight.
While innocuous on it's own the spell Minor Erdtree says its light is gold without order, kindness.
In other words its gold magic which is only gold, pure unalloyed gold like what Miquella used to make prosthetic and resist the power of outer gods.
This unalloyed kind gold seems to have only been able to heal, so my thought is that after her village was destroyed when she was a girl, Marika eventually worked her way up through Hornsent society using this unalloyed gold but eventually betrayed them by taking some power from their Lord or god and alloying that power with her own gold to improve upon the Minor Erdtree spell, creating the original Erdtree.
deepindigo1937: The way in wich the hornsent meld people inside the jars could be a predessesor of grafting an thats why they consider it heretical
featurelength5086: I think the shaman/numen connection is the most important piece of the game's lore. Considering Marika marrying/merging with Radagon seemed to have elevated Radagon's previous children somehow, it makes me wonder if Marika somehow did that to the Tarnished in general. Maybe having Marika's grace is how the PC Tarnished can safely learn so many heretical incantations, why we can learn Dragon Communion without succumbing to addiction, hell maybe Melina and Torrent literally merge with us when not in use.
unclet9825: Honestly, based on what happened to Marika's people at the hands of the 'Hornsent', its no wonder she came back with a vengeance and murdered them all, then barred all Omens from her society. Not saying what she did was good, but yknow- I understand it now. Either way, Great video Madman!
grapefruitsimmons: Bro is singlehandedly puttin SmoughTown and Vaatis slackin asses outta business
bellaswift2396: I guess this is why omen were hated they reminded Merika of the Horndsent and that bleed over because people noticed
abeard1: Best Elden Ring creator. Top quality production and narration.
diegoalderette6485: man, the quest for the carian guy was so awesome. being stumped on finding the last hallowed ground, sitting at the grace in the room before gaius, decided to go make a sandwich and think. i did the o mother emote in front of the marika statue as a funny little "lord give me a sign" and then BOOM! I yelled "YYYYYOOOOOO!" so loud i scared my neighbor lmaoo then pulling up to the shaman village, (i immediately thought of the spirit in that shack) seeing the baby erdtree, then grabbing the hair talisman. 10/10
InkelSA: My theory is that Marika's betrayal may actually be two betrayals. She betrayed both the Hornsent and her own people, the Shaman/Numen. I think that Marika gave the hornsent the idea of using the Shaman/Numen as the foundation for the gross mass of flesh inside the living jars. So, why would Marika do this to her own people? I think she knew that through this process, it would eventually create what she needed to become a god. I think that the thing Marika pulled the golden strands out of in the story trailer, which she used in the Divine Gate to become a god, was one of those living jar creatures.

As we follow Miquilla's journey through the land of shadow, all of the crosses that he leaves behind talk about his sacrifices. Sacrificing his body, sacrificing his love, etc. all to become a god. So, what did Marika sacrifice to become a god? I think it was her own people. Her second betrayal, this being her betrayal of the Hornsent, is her lie that these living jars would create "saints" when actually the living jars were just a tool to make her a god. And once she had obtained her godhood, she sent Mesmer to destroy the Hornsent and lock their lands away so that no one would ever discover her betrayals and what she had done to obtain godhood.


I may be completely off base, but it just seemed odd that Marika had survived and had been labeled a betrayer by the Hornsent, a race who slaughtered Marika's own people. The Golden Braid item found in the Shaman village talks about it being Marika's prayer, her wish, her confession. What did she have to confess? Why would the Black Knife Assassin's, who we're told are also Numen, kill Marika's golden child Godwyn? Perphaps it was revenge for what Marika had done to their people? Marika tells her demi-god children to make something of themselves, but if they don't they will amount only to sacrifices. I think she knows very well the power that can come from these kind of sacrifices...
Narokkurai: So basically, the Ancient Dragons needed an army to fight their mutated Drake kin, so they used the Crucible of Life to uplift a bunch of humans to be Dragon-Men, and their descendents became the Hornsent. The Hornsent were basically mutants themselves, but they revered their mutations and shunned the people born without them. Their use of helix motifs show they had an abstract understanding of genetics, and either engineered or discovered a new kind of lifeform in the Numen. Numens' bodies were incredibly malleable, and seemed to have mutagenic properties as well, so the Hornsent harvested them to try and build a Divine Gate that would allow them to ascend to an even higher existence than the dragons themselves. Unfortunately, one rogue Numen rebelled when they came for the people of her village...
MrWinthrup: This is a random connection I made, but the Bayle Mountain peak looks a bit like horns, or fingers... I wonder if the Hornsent saw it as religious, I think it's pretty visible from Belarat.
naka3339: It seems Marika children were "cursed" by most people she prosecuted. Godwyn/Melina - Death, Rykard/Mesmmer ( who also got fire giant god ) - Serpent, Malenia - Rot ( apparently the rot god awoken because Mesmmer genocide ), Ranni - Moon ( because she fucked up the Carians ), Mohg/Morg - Hornsent, Radahn seems to follow up the exiled Godfrey footsteps of lust for war. And Miquella it seems to mirror her the most, seducing/manipulating people into his quest to become a god and enforce his own views into the lands between.
jm0112: I appreciate you putting together some of lore. Even if the dlc didn't answer many of our questions there's still lore to be had
ColinGruver: The Greater Potentates' Cookbook describes one Potentate as being so disgusted with the practices of his brethren in Bonney Village that he left and tried to find different ways to create living jars. So it's safe to assume that the jars in the Lands Between are created in a different way with dead flesh instead of living creatures like in the Lands of Shadow.
ramoraid: I wonder if Marika found out what happened to the grandmother in the tree, which I think is nanaya, and then decided to punish the hornsent for that.
noamias4897: Love how the NPC Hornsent is like "Marika betrayed us" as if his kind didn't turn her people into living jar abominations
VultureXV: The Furnace Icon and the new Lion headed Imp make me think that the Fell God of Fire was actually supposed to be the "Lion God of the Sun."
It must have been either banished or it left on its own, because the Sunflowers (which are supposed to be it's floral avatar hence the Scadutree Avatar being a Sunflower instead of a Tree) only face the Erdtree.
I feel this is in relation to the Original Sin; the banishment of the Lion God of the Sun and the invasive planting of the Erdtree, forever casting those that worshiped the Divine Beasts under it's shadow.
vergil8833: I'm full on Marikas side after hearing about what they did to the Numen.
writerblocks9553: Using the omen mask and omen cleaver is so diabolical
geordiejones5618: You're the only person that isn't just giving Marika the benefit of the doubt. I think her betrayal was that she was supposed to rule the Shadow Lands, but had bigger goals and reached an accord with the Greater Will, which gave her its blessing to conquer The Lands Between, and took most of the Numen with her. For this betrayal, they took an ancient practice and turned the dial up to 10, and when Marika returned after attaining godhood, she left in a rage and never came back, then sent her proxy Messmer (who I think was responsible for the first burning of the Erdtree) both to carry out her wrath and sequester him away from the Golden Order, terrified of his snake curse. I just fundamentally do not trust her, Miquella or Ranni. They've each demonstrated a willingness to inflict significant horror for their own selfish aims, and they each claim its all for the greater good.
tooru-kun4178: i liked how they made Marika more human.
The description of the minor erdtree is very sad especially
"Marika bathed the village of her home in gold, knowing full well there was no one to heal"
I imagine that was her last act as human before ascending to Godhood

Jul 02 2024

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