ELDEN RING LORE: The Structure of Reality

If my Bald Marika theory still doesn't have you convinced, check out this unused statue (pre-burned?) twitter.com/Zlofsky2nd/status/1662245164385959938?…

the way every element of this games writing seems to never concretely resolve and just flows back in on itself and relate to every other element is absolutely fascinating, ive never seen anything like it. a huge amount of effort was made to have it be this way when it would have been so much easier to give the various threads clean thematic or narrative resolutions (which is even what previous fromsoft games did imo, even if they were obscured). it's a truly bizzare and unique way to write a story

The supreme crossover of Crunchy-TarnishedArchaeologist-Smoughtown-NamelessSinger is becoming more and more real each day

I’m glad someone’s brought up the overwhelming theme of duality within literally every single concept in this game

Margit is always susceptible to statuses, but the Mohg below Leyndell is immune to everything. Mohg the Omen doesn't bleed or freeze, and can't be inflicted with poison or rot. This really makes that version of Mohg seem illusory to me. He also disappears into golden particles, which the Lord of Blood does not, and just beyond him lies the golden barrier blocking the drop to the 3 Fingers until we defeat Morgott. To me, this says an illusion of Mohg was placed there to deter anyone seeking to walk the chaotic path. One could easily imagine that Mohg was a frightful presence while he stalked the depths beneath Leyndell, and enabling the belief that he still lurks down there could be an effective deterrent before even serving as a physical guardian.

Given that Fingers communicated in a cipher of light and another word for 'cipher' is 'code' (source: cipher pata), gave me an impression that runes are literally a programming code of this world; i.e. Marika is admin-level user who hacked the root / source code to remove Rune of Death and then tried to format the whole system (and Radagon did a hasty patch and thus bricked the world in an endless stagnation) and what we absorb as runes is just a raw source code of the other beings; Fingermaidens are authorized under Fingers sub-programmers (and Melina is unauthorized such sub-programmer) who can integrate this raw other code into our code thus making us stronger.

My cousin found this video and linked it in a Discord chat him, myself, and a bunch of our friends are in. We are huge From fans and we all watched this video late at night 2 days ago at the same time and have been discussing it for the last several days. Keep this kind of content coming. ❤

The Fell Twins. I just realized something. Omens in Elden Ring occupy an existential binary in that their horns either ARE or are NOT excised depending on a single variable: Whether they are highborn or lowborn. Or at least, it is established that there is a causal relationship between Morgott and Mohg being Marika's and Godfrey's children, and not having had their horns excised. (I don't remember where it's said, though...) So, in the event that there are any multiverse shenanigans going on, the Fell Twins could be M&M if they'd been born into a different social class.

8:49 Another interpretation is that the "Golden star" itself became the Elden Ring, not the elden beast. Which would explain why the Elden Ring still exists after killing the Elden Beast

What an absolute banger of a video. Probably the most impressive ER lore video I've seen yet.

Your theory about water being the reflection point makes a lot of sense as it explains the Tibia Mariners, they literally ferry you to the other side

This is one of the most impressive pieces of scholarly game study ever. Mindbending eye for detail, CLOSE reading with so much clarity. Not only that, but you're finding new interpretations that I've never heard before. You'd think that 18 months post release, all would be revealed, right? Miyazaki and From are obscenely brilliant, and clearly so are you

Holy shit, if the sun was the 'golden star' and was summoned into being after the world already existed, that would explain why there are so many creatures and factions that are so aligned with night and the moon, and the multiple moons for that matter. This could finally tie the Nox to those Ancestral Followers who are all over their zones - Ancestral Followers might represent those early hominids that existed when the world was eternal night, and shunned the beastmen's sun, and later evolved into the night-worshipping Nox.

Great video as always. I think a very under explored area of the games lore is how invasions and phantoms work. We know they are cannon and not just some multi player feature, we are invaded in offline mode. There are also items like the 'Tarnished's Furled Finger" that confirm that the tarnished are helping one another across worlds. The tarnished have been coming to The Lands Between for a very long time, since the Shattering but it seems in drips and drabs, not all at once. Perhaps when the tarnished died outside the lands between they should go to the spirit world but since that world was pulled into the lands between, it created some kind of bridge for us to get to the lands between and we wake up resurrected. It appears like each tarnished have their own world (as does each player) and can alter their own world as they see fit. These worlds have their own time lines since the shattering. Maybe there was one world before the shattering, but afterwards many worlds splintered off, this is how Vyke obtained two great runes yet we see no bosses that have been killed. Perhaps one was Godefroy. I think all the clones and phantom versions of characters are in a pre shattering state (please correct me if I am wrong). In the final boss fight with the Elden Beast, we see a multitude of Erdtrees, perhaps each has their own world and own order. Marika split the world so we forge our own in the way we best see fit and bring some form of balance to the multiverse.

I think the idea about time and history being altered both in the past and the future alike, the idea about the sun being the golden star that's mentioned in item descriptions, as well as the idea about the mirror realities reflected in water and pulled through into the lands between from the spirit world by marika, will each end up on the same level of an "it was right in front of us all along, how did we not see it" grade theory as the theory from your earlier video about the Greater Will being a manifestation or accumulation of the collective will of the universe. They'll each end up being one of those "no duh" ideas that fit so well and seem so painfully obvious in retrospect that people wonder why it took so long for someone to come up with them.

My dude, you took your “hair burning off” theory and actually presented it as something plausible and coherent. Absolute madlad 👏

Radagon statue at bellum also has the same roots as the bald guy statue + his talisman depicts the same flowers as on the statue

Love the long-form deep dives sir Crunchy!

I really love the study of video game cosmology. Games like Elden Ring, Dark Souls, and the Elder Scrolls all have such interesting universes that operate on different rules than our own. Great video, deserves more views for sure. Algorithm bless thee.

You mentioned that most beings in the lands between gained their godlike power through death, such as Godwin, Ranni, Melania ect... That would explain one of Marikas motives for removing destined death from the Elden Ring, so that none might gain the power to usurp her reign as the 'Eternal' god. Very interesting stuff, the layers keep peeling away to reveal more insights and revelations!