Our story doesn't begin in the Lands Between. It begins in the cosmos, far away with an Outer God called the Greater Will. There are a lot of Outer Gods mentioned in Elden ring. You can think of these kind of like the great ones of Bloodborne. They're distant beings, They're all powerful and they're quite unknowable by design. But many of these Outer Gods want to make their presence felt in the world. The Greater Will maybe most of all. To this end, it sent a golden star hurtling towards the Lands Between. the Elden Stars incantation tells us that this Golden Star was bearing a beast, An Elden beast. The Elden Remembrance calls it a vassal beast of the Greater Will. If you didn't know a vassal is someone who holds land on behalf of their overlord. Obviously this is fitting in this case because the elden beast occupied the Lands Between on behalf of the Greater Will and was a living incarnation of the concept of order. As such, this beast would later become the Elden ring. The Elden ring itself is made up of runes of power, some great, some small, that together represent a sort of logic for the world to follow. Thus, the Elden ring represents order. The true nature of this order is a subject of constant debate and research undergone by fundamentalists. But two of the key fundamentals are the laws of causality and regression. You can think of the law of causality as cause and effect, where actions have consequences, and those consequences are new causes that branch out into infinity. These are the relationships between things. Then there's the law of regression that states that all things eternally yearn to converge and return to their roots. Fittingly, then, the Elden Ring is housed within the Erdtree, which towers over the Lands Between. But it's very important to stress that life in the Lands Between did not begin with the Erdtree, the Elden Ring, or the Elden Beast. No, the Lands Between were occupied well before the Greater Will came. There were other beings here. There were other factions here. There were other gods here. And there was even another great tree here before the Erdtree. And this is where a huge twist regarding the Erdtree comes in. So there are incantations in the game called Aspects of the Crucible. According to their descriptions, these are manifestations of the Erdtree's primal vital energies. And I quote, They are an aspect of the primordial crucible where all life was once blended together. But how could all life be blended together in the Erdtree if the Erdtree appeared after life existed? Well, there can only be one answer, right? That the Erdtree is a parasite. And it took over a tree that existed here before this ancient tree was called the Great Tree. So the great tree was almost certainly the location of this primordial crucible. And it must have been a very powerful primordial force for the Greater Will to have commandeered. It might even be the reason the Lands Between is important to the Greater Will in the first place. It also explains why spells and enemies related to the great trees crucible would eventually be looked down upon. For example, the Knot Talisman is fashioned from a knotted vestige of the crucible, and it was considered a signifier of the divine in ancient times, but is now increasingly disdained as an impurity, as civilization has advanced. enemies related to the crucible The Omen, the Misbegotten and the Crucible Knights, and all three of them would be shunned, enslaved or imprisoned. Those who speak for the Erdtree don't want you to know its roots, so to speak. according to the spell Protection of the Erdtree. In the beginning, everything was in opposition to the Erdtree. But through countless victories and war, it became the embodiment of order. [Melina] in Marika's own words. The Erdtree governs all. The choice is thine. Become one with the order or divest thyself of it to wallow at the fringes; A powerless upstart. [Vaati] But the Greater Will needed more than a big tree, It needed loyal agents in the lands between. To this end, it has the Two Fingers who are its envoys. The Two Fingers Heirloom has a weird picture of them, but it reads. Of course, fingers cannot speak, yet These are eloquent. Persistently they wriggle, spelling out mysteries in the air. Thus did we gain the words, the words of our faith. These words are interpreted by the finger readers. These are the undying old crones that you would have found throughout the Lands Between. They passed down the wisdom of the Two Fingers. Or at least they used to. [Finger Reader] Your fingers, please. Your fingers. I can read them. [Vaati] Most of them appear to have lost their purpose, And they're desperate to read your fingers and tell you annoying riddles since their Two Fingers are likely dead. And yes, of course, there are multiple sets of Two Fingers. You would have found their corpses on the tops of the divine towers. Atop these towers You loot the fingers in order to activate the true power of a great rune. Specifically, though, you are giving benediction back to your great rune. You're taking a blessing back from the two dead fingers, essentially. This is just one of many blessings that the Two Fingers can bestow. And my point is kind of that the Two Fingers clearly have more than just influence. They have real power on some level. The Greater Will needs these powerful envoys and agents, because while it's obviously incredibly powerful, it does seem limited by a few things. First is space. The Greater Will didn't come to the Lands Between itself, it sent an Elden beast to do its bidding instead. Second is time. There is a moment later in the game where your pair of Two Fingers goes still, because they're forced to commune with the Greater Will for guidance. [Enia] When they are finished, the fingers will again offer their guidance. But thousands, if not tens of thousands of moons must first pass. No matter for me. but you? how would you ever manage to wait... [Vaati] So the Greater Will needs a physical manifestation of order. It needs envoys to convey its will. But what it also needs is a god introducing Marika, the Eternal. I have this utterly enormous mind map of Elden Rings lore, and there's a reason she's at the center. She's essentially the equivalent of Gwyn from Dark Souls. Except, unlike Gwyn, MariKa didn't just crawl out of the dark and find power. To an extent, it seems like she earned it. We don't know much about her origins, except that she is of the Numen race, which is actually an origin that you can choose in the character selection screen. Numen come from outside the Lands Between and are supposed descendants of denizens of another world. Long lived, but seldom born. At some point, Marika was chosen as an empyrean. What is an empyrean? Well, an empyrean is a being chosen by the fingers as a candidate for godhood. As an empyrean Marika received the aid of a shadow to do her bidding. So what is a shadow? Well, it's a wolf, shadow- bound to its empyrean by the Two Fingers. Luna Princess Ranni is another example of an empyrean with a shadow-bound beast. You would have met Blaidd. These creatures are the empyrean's very own shadow. They are completely loyal to their needs and by definition, incapable of treachery. Marika's Shadow was a beast called Maliketh. Every empyrean uses their shadow in different ways. But Marika's sole need of her shadow was as a vessel to lock away Destined Death. So what is Destined Death? Well, according to Enia, it's the rune of death. [Enia] The rune of death goes by two names' the other is Destined Death. [Vaati] We mentioned earlier that the Elden Ring is made up of runes. And at some point, maybe when she was chosen as a god, Marika plucked the rune of death from the Elden ring. She gave the rune of death to Maliketh, her totally loyal shadow who bore a black blade, imbued with this rune. It's kind of genius, really. In a single act, she removed the concept of death from the Lands Between, while also commanding total control of death through her shadow, Who could deliver it at her whim. Now, some of you might be asking if death is removed from the Lands Between, how come I can kill this dog? First off, shame on you. Second, from a lore point of view, that dog isn't really dead. It's simply in the process of its spirit or its soul Returning to the Erdtree. Catacomb dungeons, for example, are specifically constructed near the roots of the great tree for this reason, so that the Erdtree can reabsorb their ashes back into it. This process replaced the concept of a death that you were destined to have. But this random spirit outside of a catacomb dungeon says it best as another example of this theory, when you kill a major boss, you receive a remembrance of them. These are spirits and they are hewn into the Erdtree. In this way, thanks to the Erdtrees grace their spirits are immortalized in a sense. This new form of death also explains what's happening when you summon spirits [Ranni] from ash unreturned to the Erdtree. [Vaati] However, some spirits never return to the Erdtree, and they rise within death as corpses or skeletons instead So this was the new order. And it's important to stress that it was in this moment when the Rune of Death was removed, when Destined Death was taken, This is when order became the Golden Order [Enia] The forbidden shadow plucked from the Golden Order upon its creation. [Vaati] Specifically, this was Marika's Golden Order. So not only did she become a god and a vessel for the Elden Ring, she became renowned as Marika, the Eternal for her removal of destiny death. It was a huge part of her character and her reign as well. However, Marika had more than just death to conquer. She had wars to fight, as the world was occupied by many forces that could threaten her Golden Order. There was war with the Storm Lord who likely ruled over Stormvale, and there was a war with the Giants who were masters of a flame that could burn the Erdtree. There was war with the ancient dragons who incidentally had stones that could twist time and thus slay a god. And finally, there was war brewing with the Carian royalty who had previously obeyed laws which contravened the Golden Order. Thus sort of similar to how the Greater Will needed an empyrean to enforce its will, Marika herself needed someone to wage war, so there was to be a husband. A consort. An Elden Lord. The man chosen was Hoarah Loux a ferocious warrior who became known as the Lord of the Battlefield. His crown was warranted with strength, and while it was for this strength that Marika married him, he was also required to take a vow to conduct himself as a Lord to suppress the ceaseless lust for battle that raged within. Hoarah Loux took the beast Regent Serosh upon his back. You'll notice this is another example of a beast being given for the purpose of serving order. Thus, in this moment, he went from being Hoarah Loux, warrior, to Godfrey the first Elden Lord, consort to Queen Marika, and a certified demigod. Godfrey And Marika had three demigod children together. There was Godwyn the Golden, who you saw being killed in the opening trailer, and there were also the reviled Omen twins Morgott, who guards the Erdtree and Mohg, who became Lord of Blood. You might think that Godrick was another demigod child, but he actually wasn't. Instead, he was probably descended from Godwyn. Anyway, we'll talk about the demigods more in detail in another video, so subscribe for that. But for now, just know that Godfrey and his offspring were the first demigods, henceforth known as the golden lineage. In his wars, Godfrey led his 16 Crucible Knights into battle, who were named so for they fought with the primordial powers of the Erdtree. Their incantations were aspects of the crucible itself, and they likely fought giants, dragons, the Storm Lord, and more to usher in their age, the Age of the Erdtree [Meline] In Marika's own words. Hark, brave warriors. Hark, my Lord Godfrey. We commend your deeds. Guidance hath delivered ye through each ordeal to the place ye stand puts the giants to the sword and confine the flame atop the mount, let a new epoch begin. An epoch glistening with life. Brandish the Elden ring for the Age of the Erdtree. [Vaati] The Erdtree would go on to be largely seen as a blessing for all of those in the Lands Between, especially those close to it In Leyndell, the capital city of the Erdtree. The tree bestowed blessings, For example, the dew that dropped from its branches were like jewels. It loomed overhead as a constant reminder of order and its roots reached far and wide, relieving many of the burden of death. In fact, Erdtree Burial was one of the highest honors a hero could receive. One by one, the previous factions of the world fell. The Giants were put to the sword and their Fell God was killed by Marika herself. The ancient dragons broke down the walls of Leyndell, but met fierce retaliation. However, I think the house of the Erdtree encountered the most trouble against the land to their southwest, Liurnia. Here, the house of the moon repelled their offensives time and time again. And I mean that literally, because there was not just one, but two wars fought here. And in both of these, there was no victory for the golden nor for the moon. And I suspect it was probably because of these lobsters, these damn things can snipe you from like a mile away And it's bullsh- Actually, it was probably because of the Carian Knights who, according to their weapons, were able to wield sorcerous battle skills, And despite numbering fewer than 20, this power made them a match for even the champions of gold in battle. These enchanted knights where anointed by the Lunar Queen, a young astrologer who went on to establish the house of Caria as royalty in this land. With her bewitching lunar magic she won over the Academy of Raya Lucario, where glintstone sorcery was studied and, united, the Carian royal family and the learned scholars of Raya Lucario defended their home from the golden aggressors. At the head of this great golden Army was Radagon. [Miriel] Lord Radagon was a great champion, possessed of flowing red locks. He came to these lands at the head of a great golden host, when he met Lady Rennala in battle. [Vaati] These two champions clashed, Fell in love and joined their houses. [Miriel] Radagon once cleansed himself with celestial dew, repented his territorial aggressions, and swore his love to Rennala. The order of the Erdtree and the fate of the moon were conjoined, and all the wounds of war forgiven. [Vaati] You might think it strange that the Greater Will would permit this union, but it's not too odd, all things considered. As with most fromsoftware games, sorcery and faith are just two sides of the same coin, And both of these powers stem from the cosmos. Radagon and Rennala were known to have three children together. Lunar Princess Ranni, who inherited her mother's propensity for lunar magic. Radahn, who took after his father, Radagon, and would go on to master gravitational magic. And Rykard, who pioneered new hex sorceries and would go on to feed himself to a great serpent. It follows that, at some point after this, Marika began to harbor doubts. Doubts about the Golden Order that she had had a hand in creating. [Melina] In Marika's own words, I declare mine intent, to search the depths of the Golden Order. Through understanding of the proper way. Our faith, our grace, is increased. Those blissful early days of blind belief are long past. my comrades; why must ye falter? [Vaati] And it's at this point that we should talk about Marika's motivations. Her character. This is surely going to be one of those huge points of debate in the coming years. But for now, my working theory is that she wanted to discover the truth behind order and the truth behind the Greater Will, and she believed that bonds had to be broken so that they could be better understood. She believed that there was great meaning to be found in hardship. [Gideon] Queen Marika has High hopes for us. That we continue to struggle unto eternity. [Vaati] For Lord Godfrey. His struggle ended at the end of his campaigns. According to his armor, he led the war against the Giants. Faced the Storm Lord, alone. And then, there came a moment. When his last worthy enemy fell. And it was then, as the story is told, that the hue of Lord Godfrey's eyes faded. In truth, he was robbed of his grace. Then Marika sent him away. [Melina] My Lord, and thy warriors. I divest each of thee of thy grace. With thine eyes dimmed, ye will be driven from the Land Between. Ye will wage war in a land afar, where ye will live and die. [Vaati] This became known as the long march of the Tarnished, As Godfrey and his tarnished descendants walked away from the Lands Between. But Queen Marika absolutely had a plan here that Lord Godfrey and his descendants would one day return stronger. Having struggled outside of grace, [Melina] Then, after thy death, I will give back what I once claimed. Return to the Lands Between, wage war and brandish the Elden Ring. Grow strong in the face of death. Warriors of my Lord, Lord Godfrey. [Vaati] Soon after she found a new husband. Either that, or a new husband was found for her. [Miriel] When Godfrey, first Elden Lord, was hounded from the Lands Between, Radagon left Rennala to return to the Erdtree capital, becoming Queen Marika's second husband and King consort, taking the title of second Elden Lord. The mystery endures to this day... as to why Lord Radagon would cast Lady Rennala aside... and moreover, why a mere champion would be chosen for the seat of Elden Lord. [Vaati] Whatever the case, as a part of this union, Radagon's prior three children with Rennala became demigod stepchildren, granted grace thanks to their new family tree. Rennala was broken by this, and so was her country, Liurnia. The Queens Set reads When Rennala, head of both the Academy of Raya Lucaria and the Carian Royal family, lost her husband Radagon, Her heart went along with him. And then, those at the academy realized that Rennala was no champion, After all. In the wake of Radagon's betrayal and Rennala's poor judgment, Liurnia struggled with civil war with the Academy of Raya Lucaria On one side, and the Carian Royals on the other. And it's here, During the Age of the Erdtree that Luna Princess Ranni, daughter of Rennala and Radagon, stole a fragment of the Rune of Death. [Rogier] It happened during the golden Age of the Erdtree, long before the shattering of the Elden ring. Someone stole a fragment of the Rune of Death from Maliketh the Black Blade. As mentioned previously, Maliketh was Marika's shadow, and he had sealed Destined Death in a black blade. Then a fragment, Only a fragment of this Rune of Death was stolen. And once this happened, Maliketh went a step further in protecting Destined Death. He bound the blade within his own flesh, such that none might rob death ever again. It was too late, However. this fragment of the Rune of Death was used immediately that night to kill a demigod. Marika's own sun. Godwyn the Golden. [Rogier] That was the first recorded death of a demigod in all history. And it became the catalyst. Soon the Elden ring was smashed and thus sprang forth the war known as the Shattering. [Vaati] ow there is a lot of really credible evidence that Marika was behind this plot to have a fragment of the Rune of Death stolen. There's also a ton of evidence that Marika is behind the entirety of your tarnished quest, but we'll talk about that in another video. For now, all you really need to know in terms of the timeline at least, is this. After the marriage of Marika and Radagon and after a fragment of the rune of death was stolen, Marika went on to shatter the Elden ring, and Radagon attempted to repair it, To no avail. The Elden ring had been broken into runes. Some great and some small. [Miriel] You know, it's said that Lord Radagon harbored a secret... A famed sculptor of the Erdtree capital was once summoned to render Lord Radagon's likeness in giant stature. When he glimpsed the skeleton in Radagon's closet. And as such, it said, the great statue harbors his secret too. [Vaati] Of course, the huge twist in Elden ring is that Radagon is Marika, or depending on what you believe, he became her, for she knew it was going to happen. {Melina] In Marika's own words, O Radagon. leal Hound of the Golden Order. Thou'rt yet to become me. Thou'rt yet to become a God. Let us be shattered. Both mine other self. [Vaati] You can tell when Fromsoftware is keeping something a little bit open ended and of everything in Elden rings lore This will also go on to be one of the biggest unknowns as we move forward. For example, the wording "thou'rt yet to become me" reinforces that Marika and Radagon were two separate entities before the shattering however, In contrast, there is also evidence that Radagon was always part of Marika. For example, Enia says that [Enia} the demigods are each and all the direct offspring of Queen Marika [Vaati] But how can this be? If Radagon married Rennala and had those demigod children? The only way that makes sense is if Radagon was always Marika and he just went over there to seduce Rennala long ago. I'll present more concrete theories in the future, but on this matter, the most important thing is. What do you think? While you can figure out a ton of Elden Ring story. Not all of it is open to interpretation. Certain things are. And this is one of them. And your interpretation is a big part of what makes this story special. At any rate, the Union of Radagon and Marika seems to be a union of two fundamental opposing laws of the Golden Order. We mentioned these laws earlier. Actually, there's the Law of Causality, and Marika is an agent of cause and effect. And there's the law of regression, as Radagon is a character who aspires to be complete and to regress together. So I have a theory that forcing these to beings that represent these concepts together would have corrected Marika's deviance. But even so, she was imprisoned in the Erdtree for the crime of the shattering. [Enia] Marika's trespass demanded a heavy sentence. But even in shackles, she remains a god and the vision's vessel. [Vaati] The conjoined Radagon and Marika even had two demigod children of their own. Miquella and Malenia. These two children were born afflicted. Miquella was cursed with eternal childhood, and Malenia harbored a horrific rot within. Even so, these two children were both chosen as empyreans. They were immensely sacred beings and eligible to inherit godhood from the Greater Will. Perhaps the Greater Will was just desperate to find a worthy successor. And indeed, in the shattering war to come. Many would try to claim the shards of the Elden Ring and they would try to take the throne, including, of course, the tarnished who returned from their long march at long last, which we'll talk about in the next main lore video. I should probably also mention here that if you become a patron, you'll see upcoming lore videos early as that's one of the rewards you get if you pledge to the three dollar tier. And if you think my channel really adds a lot of value to the Souls Games for you to the point where you pledge $20, then in this new tier you'll receive a new mug every three months that has a unique design on it to do with the games By Fromsoftware. There are four to collect the first one you'll get is inspired by Dark Souls, then Elden ring, then Sekiro and finally Bloodborne. And they all have fantastic art that I worked on with an amazing artist named Choo. But anyway, I figured this is the right place to end this video because the information here is gonna be overwhelming. I bet it probably was too overwhelming, you know? It took me ages to commit these names and the relationships they had with other characters to memory. So I hope you guys are doing all right. One thing that helped me a lot was that we designed an enormous mind map with pretty much all of Elden rings lore, all of its item descriptions, all of its dialogues, all of the relationships between characters that we can think of. We added all of this together, and it helped a ton in learning about the story and visualizing it all. And one day I will make this asset available to you all because I think after doing it, I think this is the quintessential way to piece together the story. And I think giving you guys this asset eventually will make that accessible for people. So I'm really excited about that. I want to thank Absa and Zard for accepting the paid task of helping me put all the raw data into this mind map So that I could better understand everything. I want to thank TheParryGod for fulfilling all of my footage requests and creating so many cinematic scenes for this video and for you all to enjoy. And a last of all, want to thank John Devlin for the incredible thumbnail. And of course, thank you for watching. There are some really exciting things ahead, And I actually believe this might be the best story that Fromsoftware have ever put together. I just think not only are there so many amazing item descriptions, but so many of them are impactful. There are so many moments where you piece together the story and have like a eureka moment and I'm enjoying it so much. But now I'm going to go and play the game a little bit because I've been editing this video for too long, so, see you next time. Captioned by in2thevoyde