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| Yes, these are my hand-written notes. My descent into madness continues apace. |
Check here for part 1.
PART 4: SECRETS OF 1.00
Digging through this immensely helpful spreadsheet has revealed many things. A lot of the changes from 1.00 to current were “there’s no description, now there is one”, and a decent number are clearly abandoned conceptual threads that aren’t useful for anything, and many of them are probably not particularly solid to use as a basis for speculation. But there are a decent number that are at least interesting, and several that are very interesting in ways that leave me more than a little disappointed that FromSoft either elected to remove the clues because they were too overt or removed them because plans changed and they never provided a replacement.
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Crepus’ Vial: Described as “sealing away the “shadow of death”. Current version says it was used by Roundtable Hold assassins to hunt down Tarnished who had fallen from the guidance of Grace. Which, if nothing else is a parallel of the shadowbound beasts serving as the GW’s hatchetmen when their Empyreans get unruly.
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Concealing Veil: “said to have been secreted away from the Eternal Cities and handed over to a band of assassins.”
If true, the Black Knives got their veils from the Eternal Cities but did not acquire them on their own. This seems to be more evidence for “Marika was behind the Night of Black Knives”, a theory which I don’t like one bit, so I am going to roll with Ranni swiping them from storage on a visit to the capital.
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Shabriri’s Woe: “The man, named Shabriri, was born without pupils. Known to be a great lover of the grape, a sickness in the form of a red colored chaos was said to have come to dwell beneath his eyes. Eventually, his pupil-less eyeballs were crushed by other men, and he was driven to the gloomy southern peninsula.”
Grape possibly a euphemism for eyeballs as found elsewhere, but also could just mean that he was an alcoholic.
Being driven to the Weeping Peninsula is a very interesting bit of text: the only place where frenzy is found in the region is in the Ailing Village, which doesn’t have much going for it besides there being an outbreak of frenzy there and folks being cogent enough to put up warnings (see Flame Crest Wooden Shield). Interesting, but ultimately a dead end, though I do like the image it paints of Shabriri meeting his end in a tiny little village that doesn’t even have a name.
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Daedicar’s Woe: “Disturbing likeness of an old noble whose skin was flayed. He smiles with a serene tenderness. Increases damage taken. This soft-featured man's name was Daedicar, and he was one of Captain Rykard's paramours, as well an attendant in his Inquisition. He would test new methods of torture first upon himself, making a gift of his pain and first-hand knowledge to the one he loved.”
This one got changed a whole lot, as the current version of the item reads:
“Disturbing likeness of a woman whose skin was flayed. She smiles with a serene tenderness. Increases damage taken. It is said that this woman, named Daedicar, indulged in every form of adultery and wicked pleasure imaginable, giving birth to a myriad of grotesque children.”
My gut says this was changed mid-development when someone said “Hey boss, I’ve got a nifty idea for the snake-men”, and...it's an improvement but not by much. 1.00 is TVtropes-Issue Depraved Homosexual Bit Character, modern is "this woman has lots of sex and therefore is both morally and literally monstrous" and you know what, you can in fact write better things than that.
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Tarnished’s Furled Finger: “This finger of corpse wax, furled like a hook, is one of the fetishes bestowed by the maidens of the Finger Reader”
Just noting this one because you don’t generally see corpse wax involved with the Fingers; it’s almost always with the gargoyles who are typically linked to Maliketh.
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Godrick’s Great Rune: “A large shard, found in hand of Godrick the Grafted. This shard is an imitation transcribed from one of the four large rings that make up the Elden Ring.”
The “four large runes” is most likely a remnant of an older version of the game with only four shardbearers, but the idea that Godrick is such a pissant that he can only manage a bad copy of a Great Rune is fun to consider.
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Swarm Pot: “Unpleasant yet short-lived, these flies inherit what might be the most worthless of legacies in all of man's meddling with nature's work.”
I just like the phrasing in this one.
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Flask of Crimson Tears: “A sacred flask modeled after a golden holy chalice that was once graced by a tear of life. It is said that a Finger Maiden will bestow two such chalices upon the chosen Tarnished when they meet.”
Pointing this out primarily for the “tear of life” reference, which I’d bet is a golden tear to complement Noxian silver tears.
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Soporific Grease: “The Saint of the Cradlesong has become the very symbol of lost repose, and the feeble of heart were powerless to resist her kindness even upon the battlefield.”
This gives us Miquella fighting during the Shattering (presumably) in the guise of St. Trina. So perhaps he took on that persona later than we thought, or he swapped between the two regularly.
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Celestial Dew: “A nostrum used by members of the Carian royal family, made from gathered moon tears remaining above ground. An old magic hides within, known to interfere with fate itself.”
“Moon tears” appear nowhere else in either version of the corpus, but rolling with tears = blessings = sap / amber…looks like the moon was a lot more active in the past. Silver tear link seems likely, especially considering the Erdtree “tear of life” mentioned just a few entries up.
And dare I say it, if we have silver tears, and we have golden tears, and if silver tears are from the moon, gold would logically come from the sun, fits very nicely into the alchemical symbology…
Wait a second…
Baseless Speculation: The Sun is the Greater Will
You know how it’s fucking weird that they barely mention the sun at all in the game? You know how Ymir basically confirms that there was a big bang? You know how meteors and stars are just bizarre alien god-organisms? How there’s blueish and gold amber of the stars?
- Sun’s a star.
- Sun’s gold-colored and gold-associated.
- Sun’s got all the properties of a lovecraftian god per that famous tumblr post
- Sun’s gonna burn you if you get too close to it.
- Sun sends out radio waves that you can tune in and listen to.
- Sun is distant and doesn’t really give a shit about you but is also the fundamental source of all mechanical processes on Earth.
I think the sun might be the Greater Will.
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Prattling Pates (multiple): “Said to be the wistful fetish of a now extinct ancient race who turned into clods of earth, losing not only their voices, but also their words.”
The only potential link we have is with the claymen of the Ancient Dynasty, though weasel words are fully in effect. Could just be a throwaway.
Miranda’s Prayer: “A doll fashioned in the appearance of an anthropomorphized miranda flower. While many revere it as a holy object of worship, it does not belong to the golden order, and thus has pagan origins.”
“Pagan” is a term that only appears with the Winged Scythe (affiliation with Deathbirds) and Serpent Bow (affiliation with Serpent Cult). Festival Grease doesn’t get the exact word dropped, but it does claim that the Dominula festival is an old enough tradition that the Erdtree permits it to continue and that’s good enough for me. So that’s one for Death, one for Snek, one for Godskin, and one for Rot for Pre-Erdtree religions.
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Cuckoo Glintstone: “Craftable with a cracked pot. Sullied remains and such are mixed together and sealed in the pot. Consumes FP. Throw at enemy to set vicious pursuing wraiths upon them. A curse works in tandem with the act of defilement to summon the wraiths, calling them into deadly action.”
Keywords to point out here are “defilement” and “wraiths” - we’ll get back to them in the next theory section.
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Meteorite (spell): “It is said that, in the Eternal City, now lost in ruin underground, meteorites held the same import as stars.”
Blessedly clear timing on this one: they believed this while they were still on the surface and a meteor had not yet ruined their day. Also interesting parallel with the Academy dismissing the Carians for their belief in the moon being equal to the stars.
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Black Flame (spell):
Originally titled “Black Flame of the Godslayer”; Black Flame’s Protection was “Protection of the Godslayer”, which says to me that Godslayer was at some point intended as a proper title for the character later called the Gloam-Eyed Queen. Which, if GEQ is Marika or a fragment of Marika (or other way around), is very interesting indeed.
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Turtle Neck Meat: “Turtle meat is said to boost virility, but none in the Lands Between seem to have much appetite for it these days. In Lands Between, the urge to reproduce has waned long ago.”
Hard confirmation of Melina’s weird implications and theories of Erdtree birth.
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Serpent’s Amnion: “Amniotic sac that held man-serpent roe in its mother's womb. Among man-serpents there are some with particularly intelligent roe. The amnion is known to never dry out, retaining moisture indefinitely. It is revered among man-serpents as a holy object of worship.”
Gross, but definitely worth noting as A) probably belonging to Daedicar and B) a means of reproduction outside the tree births of the Erdtree cycle.
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Asimi Silver Tear: "An asimi that has infected a tarnished. An intelligent silver sludge; asimi infect the body of tarnished, granting the host power."
This is a special tool that'll help us later.
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East Limgrave Map: “Map of the eastern region of Tenebrae. The demesne of Tenebrae, far south of the capital, stands vigil before the vast Sea of Fog. Radagon's warning is yet told and retold. That one day, the Tarnished led into war will cross the Sea of Fog and return. For the Elden Ring.”
Tenebrae is probably just a different name for Limgrave in old dev versions, but that’s not the important part: the important part is that Radagon was warning people that the Tarnished would return and attempt to overthrow the current order. This would have been after his divorce from Rennala and adoption of Fundamentalism, so that checks out with what we know of his character. It lines up with the stories of Tarnished being hunted down or enslaved when they return, too.
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Unalloyed Gold Items: Unalloyed gold is called ivory in 1.00, which feels alchemical to me: we’ve got red and gold already, now we get white.
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Cracked Pot: “A remnant of bygone research into eternal life.”
This is straight-up either a pre-seeded (and then deleted) connection with the DLC, or it was an idea that had a nice open interpretation that got developed later.
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Smithing stones used to have elemental types, looking a lot more like Dark Souls: these old versions have “transformed as a result of a meteorite that fell during ancient times,” which should put us in mind of the Stone Lords. 1.00 somber smithing stones are “A blackstone shard that has transformed, storing light” - black stone is only ever mentioned in conjunction with golem weaponry, so I’m going to follow Quelaag’s lead and say that this is a link to Rauh.
(The “storing light” thing is also reminiscent of the stone-scabbard sword from the DLC.)
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Crystal Bud: “A parasitic plant that uses wounded trees as seedbeds. Commonly found throughout the Lands Between.”
I feel like this is symbolic of something, probably the Erdtree. Seedbeds are most prominently featured in the Seedbed Curse item, and that certainly is using a wound as a base.
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Icon Shield: “Strongly retains the Rune of Life's blessing, providing gentle HP recovery when held.”
Always good to point out when Runes have dedicated names. This one’s Marika’s or I’ll eat my hat.
Also, I should probably go through and see what sorts of gameplay effects are linked, or possibly linked, to runes or gods. We’ve done it before with outer gods and damage types.
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Fingerprint Shield: “A stone grave dedicated to lords in ancient times. Who would have thought to carry such a thing around?”
Now this is a very different description from current, and I like current better, but I do like the image of the Fingers pressing themselves into a headstone.
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Crucible Greatshield: “Greatshield inlaid with rune blessings, gifted by Queen Marika herself.”
Just some reinforcement that the Crucible itself was not Marika’s enemy: she was willing to use its followers like any other tool in her arsenal. At least until Golden Order Fundamentalism became the rule of the day.
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Blue-White Wooden Shield: “The crest-like design of the metal is believed to have ancient origins. Some say it represents a sword; others say it represents a tree. Whatever significance it may have had, it appears to have no special defensive properties beyond the mundane.”
Current version says “The design is said to represent the stars of the night sky, portending fate”, which rounds out to a funny little “no one has a fucking idea what these symbols mean” gag.
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Heretic’s Hook: “Scythe used both for collecting and offering up the dead. The blade itself seems to be a tortured, maddened thing.”
This weapon was cut but we do have an image for it, but the style doesn’t ring any bells for what faction it might be linked to. My gut says it’s part of the ghostflame regime, but again that’s all we get.
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Onyx Lord Greatsword: “A weapon unique to the Onyx Lords, a race of ancients with skin of stone who were said to have risen to life in an age when meteor strikes were common.”
More evidence for the Rauh connection, if we go with smithing stones being the result of meteor impacts.
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Cleanrot Knight’s Sword: “The process of consecration tempers the blade by introducing it to rot, allowing it to withstand the effects of decay.”
Innoculating your weapons against a god is a fucking rad idea.
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Abundance Twinblade: A weapon that never made it into the game, but the description remains to tell us that relatively late in development Miquella had the Rune of Abundance. 1.00 version of the Cleanrot Knight spear gives Malenia the Rune of Decay.
Putting the named runes together we have Life, Death, Abundance, Decay, and the Unborn, which is anomalously coherent.
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Spirit ashes generally don’t have much in the way of descriptions, but the blurbs do contain some alternate names or interesting implications.
Nomad ashes are called a “red-eyed watcher”, but nothing else in the corpus mentions red eyes like that so it’s likely nothing more than an older way of describing Frenzy.
Winged Misbegotten ashes are called a “Radagon chimera”, which could mean that either they were a chimera made by Radagon, or a chimera made from Radagon at some point in development. But, with only that title to go on, it doesn’t really give you anywhere else to go, especially with how well their current versions fit thematically with the rest of the game.
Oracle Envoy ashes are called “golden order dissenters”, which fits very nicely with their current description of waiting to announce the arrival of a new god and a transformative renewal of the Order.
Clayman ashes are called “runestarved”, which is not a description that shows up elsewhere.
Kindred of rot ashes are called “oracle of rot”, which parallels their role with the Oracle Envoys - they’re just waiting for a different god.
Lone wolf ashes: “These wolves were chased from their pack, and later found company with a human outcast—a fellow hunter. “
Now, this is updated in current to specify that the hunter is a Tarnished, but I would like to remind everyone of that statue of a woman with three wolves in the sanctum of Farum Azula.
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Nox armor sets: “worn by members of the Empyrean family”
Hmmmmmmmmmmm, what could this possibly mean…
Nightmaiden and Swordstress Ashes: “Summons the spirit of a descendent of Marika”
RING THOSE BELLS WE’VE GOT A FIVE-ALARM FIRE.
[A pause, as I draft out some theory or another]
Whoops, false positive.
The Nox armor sets are one of the biggest missed opportunities in the game in terms of lore - three sets of four pieces each, and they all repeat the same description - a description that replaced the one above, which was also repeated on all items. Which says to me that they had a penciled-in plan, scrapped it, and didn't have anything meaningful to replace it with. The current "Lord of Night" blurb is good enough for a single description, but there should have been at least 3. Even just an unrelated blurb about, I don't know, swordmistress initiation practices.
But let's say that there is some substance behind it. Let's treat it as true - we can't treat the DLC as true in the same breath, but that's no great loss to us. Base game only.
If true, this would mean that the Nox are essentially another version of the Golden Lineage. Marika had an entire other empire that collapsed on her prior to the current regime…or perhaps it has always been just the same empire, transforming over time as it collapses and reforms and collapses and reforms.
Calling them all Empyreans says that they’d either be chosen by the fingers, or born of a single god. Or, more likely, that Fromsoft’s definition of an Empyrean changed during development (which I consider extremely likely). Since the Fingers did not really have a detectable foothold in the Eternal Cities, the remaining option is that of them being buds of Marika in the style of Millicent & her sisters.
(I believe it was Zayf who pointed out that the Japanese text in the game uses the neologism "wagami", roughly translating as a split or doubled self, for both Millicent and the deathblighted Godwyn corpses.)
Those giant corpses on thrones, still uncertain. I’m going to spitball here, stream of consciousness style:
- They're certainly dressed in the colors we would associate with followers of the Erdtree (or, it should be noted, the inhabitants of Dominula).
- They might also be buds of Marika, or she might have been one of a group.
- Two thrones are held by corpses, two are empty.
- The Eternal Cities are filled with all those corpses melted into the walls that we see again in Inir-Elim, which is a dead ringer for an attempted ascension for godhood.
- Do we ever see male Nox? I know we see mimic tears take male forms but I think that the Nox enemies are all female. Point for bud theory.
- Nightfolk character background says silver ran in their veins…looking back at the description for Asimi, silver tear says that it’s a variety of silver tear than can infect a Tarnished.
- This could just entail Tarnished from Godfrey’s cohort that somehow came in contact with silver tears, that is entirely possible for a red herring.
- But if Tarnished are people who previously had Grace and then had it rescinded…
- Then maybe the Eternal Cities had Grace prior to their sin against the GW…
- Lord of Night, gods need a lord, Tarnished summoned together to fight over who gets the position…
These connections are tenuous bullshit at best and the combination of Metyr and the Hornsent throws it all into chaos. The plan at Fromsoft clearly changed multiple times, so all we get is pieces of what could have been.
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There were details about the GEQ in 1.00 and they removed them from the game.
Godskin armor sets are all “made from tanned Demigod skin,”, which of course brings us to the question of “which demigods?” The most reasonable choice would be the seven soulless demigods in the mausoleums, what with the seven-face aprons of the Godskin Nobles…and of course the most reasonable choice makes no goddamn sense, because there’s no link at all between the Godskins and the Black Knife Assassins, except the extremely tenuous single line implicating Rykard as Plan B against Maliketh (Even though Rykard’s connections with the Godskins are themselves circumstantial at best.)
This is, of course, presuming that the demigods killed during the Night are the same demigods that are in the mausoleums and the same that got hunted by the Godskins. I feel like the first two are probably the same, and as much as I would like the third to be part of it, I don’t think I can make that jump. Not yet, anyway. Let me work myself up into a greater fervor.
Godskin Swaddling Cloth description does not mention GEQ by name, but calls her “the queen in black”. This reoccurs in the 1.00 Godslayer’s Greatsword description.
There are some changed descriptions in the Dominula festival sets that are also worth noting:
Blue Festive Hood: “Attire worn during a humble festival beseeching the blessing of the gods. The most important role in the festival can only be performed by young maids. They are distinguished by a wreath of stunning wildflowers in full bloom.”
Festive Garb: “Ceremonial garb decorated with charming embroidery. Attire worn during a humble festival beseeching the blessing of the gods. This dyed cloak of brilliant blue can only be worn by the young girls chosen to play the festival's most important role."
Festive Garb (Altered): “Ceremonial garb decorated with charming embroidery. Attire worn during a humble festival beseeching the blessing of the gods. The embroidered flowers of pale white convey the palpable virtue and beauty of the blessing.”
Okay, so we have a festival older than the Erdtree, that has been permitted to continue by Marika, that involves skinning and crucifying people as a way of seeking a blessing from the gods. Gods in the generic plural. But there’s only one appointed god in the lands between at a time (at least in the system that the Ring / Beast / GW facilitates), plus outer gods, but none of the outer gods have presence in Dominula.
There’s the Erdtree and Godskin iconography on the gold and blue robes, respectively. That’s two gods, or at least two divine forces interacting with each other, but we can't know if that iconography preceded the ritual or was adopted later. It's the baseline Erdtree symbol, not the Ancient or Fundamentalist versions, for whatever that's worth.
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And there’s the end of the 1.00 secrets that I found worth recounting. Tune in next time for more rambling.
Addendum
So long as the Red Law is opposed, the Conqueror Worm has no victory. So long as Moloch is fought, it has not won.
It's fucking trite to say that, in the face of the horrors known and unknown before us, but I will cling to it all the same. Whatever it takes to endure this turning of the wheel. If hope cannot sustain us, may bloody-minded spite give us what we need to love one another and keep ourselves alive.
Take care of one another out there.
