Elden Ring (DLC hype room)

[proven cloak]

yeah looks like it

[kind garden]

The cape and sword combo is so cool though…

[proven cloak]

no I agree I can roll my eyes at the ds3 artorius fanclub because he's not that cool
but you know I'm still pogging when the Faraam armor was revealed for nightreign. I'm not any better.

[light bridge]

I plan to get my hands on the faraam

And never change it

[vestal night]

Faraam armor was good tbh

just a nice set

too bad it's so far into the game haha

[light bridge]

It just looks so good

If I can't get a skelly head, I always run a faceless helmet

[languid tiger]

it's wild how far into ds2 the faraam set is

compared to the ds1 and ds3 iconics

makes it feel more special, though

[light bridge]

Very nicely balanced stats too

[languid tiger]

yeah it's a great set

on top of being a great set

[light bridge]

[vestal night]

usually I wear Drangleic or Vengarl's armor

[light bridge]

When I'm not using faraam, I'm usually running dragonkeeper + darkwraith

[languid tiger]

i ascribe to a very particular school of thought

if your armor stats mattered, skill issue

skill issue, skill issue

leveling vigor means you're unwilling to accept punishments for imperfection

shrimply tech it

as such, i like to go lion mage drip

0 vigor, all strength, powerstanced crypt blackswords

[light bridge]

Another one I like is Throne defender + Darkwraith head

[languid tiger]

throne defender set is great, yeah

[light bridge]

Looks amazing

[languid tiger]

not a fan of the dome hat

but the cuirass is gorgeous

[light bridge]

That's why I change every set's headpiece for the darkwraith or the faraam's heads

[languid tiger]

understandable

i like to rush [dlc of choice] and pick up a crown, sometimes

or the bone king crown

also a huge fan of alva's helmet

if i'm actually running armor

[light bridge]

Alva is so peak

It got a whole set of background in ds3

[feral linden]

Alva and Zullie's sets/backstories are one ds2's breakout hits

[proven cloak]

I'm kinda hoping for a Velstadt skin for the Raider

not sure who else would really work vibewise

maybe Smough but.... I don't know if I want a smough skin......

[light bridge]

I'd prefer veldstat too, but they already have a decent smough armour done so

[languid tiger]

...fuck

i never actually considered

but i would love a ds2 lion clan character

[light bridge]

That'd be cool

[languid tiger]

their drip is impeccable, their axe fucking rules, and it would be a perfect excuse to make a lion clan mage like we never actually see in the game

[light bridge]

We already have eagle boy

[glossy delta]

I loved DS2's 'short greataxe' weapons in general

[languid tiger]

i wish they were a bit faster to compensate for their terrible range

or at least like

give the bandit greataxe a moveset that isn't scraping your own chest

[glossy delta]

They do have terrible range yeah
But I feel like they're already faster than every great weapon except maybe plain greatswords

And have Ultra tier damage

[languid tiger]

they're like half the range of greatswords with about the same damage as other, longer greataxes

and ~+10% av damage vs greatswords

[glossy delta]

They're definitely faster than the long greataxes though
Unless I've totally lost it

[light bridge]

Actually wait

We DO have a lion head in ER

Well, vaguely

It could absolutely be a playable skin for the eagle boy

[proven cloak]

huh, theres some mentions of a 1v1 boss arena thing seperate from the main runs

like the ability to challenge specific bosses again in a fight

or maybe ||its just for this character, and the others have other challenges appropriate to their stories?||

similarly, during runs there are 'lore objectives' depending on character, apparently

[warm knot]

iirc that was a thing in Sekiro, with the Reflections of Strength

[frozen olive]

yes

it was

[proven cloak]

huh you know,
I've thought of the Numen as fantasy elf-y before (close to nature, plant-y*, has a dark-skinned matriarchal society under the earth, 'long-lived' but 'rarely born')

and I've idly wondered if the Fell God having one eye + being connected to giants was a reference to the Balor / Fomorians, given all the irish-isms in the aesthetics and stuff

but I dont know if I ever connected these to each other, are the fuckin Numen / Nox pulling from the Tuatha? Is that why they live underground? Why they come from an 'otherworld'?

on the literal fucking "Siofra" - Elf - River

(same root word as 'Sidhe' or 'Si' like 'Aos Si')

[frozen olive]

solid catch

[proven cloak]

ngl I feel like I should have been thinking along those lines earlier, its not like I havent thought about the Lands Between and the Book of Invasions at the same time before

its like once I thought of them as 'ah its like fromsofts take on the Drow' I stopped thinking of any other angle 💀

[frozen olive]

yeaaaaaahhhh

[proven cloak]

its probably not one or the other, but a mix of inspirations - I just can't believe I missed this as maybe one of them

[frozen olive]

once you have an idea it's easy to tunnel vision on it

[proven cloak]

mhm

I wasn't even really thinking of the numen as a take on the elves until Shaman Village underlined the tree-worship, and I saw from bonfirevn the bloodfiends were labelled in the files as 'orc'

[frozen olive]

mhm

[proven cloak]

had me think "I wonder if theres any other generic fantasy race that- ah."

[frozen olive]

gods Shaman Village altered my brain permanently

[proven cloak]

its sad!

and it doesn't need to be more than it is to really hit

just the music and the emptiness

[frozen olive]

genuinely probably just like

the most impactful place in Elden Ring for me

me and my friend burned through the DLC in 3 days

and we were compiling all sorts of lore theories and shit

while playing

and getting to Shaman Village was SUCH an "oh fuck" moment

we were confused by the erdtree knights and wondering why the fuck they were there

then we enter the village and we recognized the music and our confusion grew

then we found the items...

and everything came together and it just hit

doing so much with so little is such good writing and area design

it's not in your face about it, and you don't necessarily get it immediately

but it hits you all at once

and it's just

sorrowful

and it's not only sorrowful

but it just fucking recontextualizes everything so well when combined with the jar clinic and dungeons

[proven cloak]

yeah its somber

[frozen olive]

genuinely just fucking flips everything sort of on its head

[proven cloak]

to me its the hopefulness of the past, right

[frozen olive]

yeah

[proven cloak]

its knowing what happened

[frozen olive]

this was once a home

[proven cloak]

but for a second seeing how it couldve been, what people wished for

[frozen olive]

there were once kind people who lived here

[proven cloak]

before it went wrong

[frozen olive]

family

[proven cloak]

[frozen olive]

and it's also like

the, pardon my pun, crucible for everything that happens

this is why we have Marika, Queen Eternal

[proven cloak]

no exactly

and its also just a reaction to the forces of history itself

[frozen olive]

this little sad place in the middle of fucking nowhere

[proven cloak]

makes me feel like that image of the horse staring at the ocean

[frozen olive]

is perhaps one of the most important places in the world

[proven cloak]

"this shits been going on forever, huh, damn....."

[frozen olive]

that little tree back there with an old lady in it witnessed the genesis of a god

that's where this version of the cycle began

[proven cloak]

and its why I think its a great later thing for the dlc with Miquella in it

[frozen olive]

yeah

[proven cloak]

it sets you up to look at his whole thing in a similar light

with the difference between him and his mom that its not too late

[languid tiger]

does anyone know if mod engine 3 is out yet, or is me2 still the way to go for elden ring mods?

[median rock]

i used ME2 for current patch ER modding a couple months ago, and i don't think ME3 exists yet, so i'd assume ME2

(mostly seamless coop & randomizer stuff, rather than overhaul mods or whatnot)

[real shadow]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OGJVzBiPIGk

[gray leaf]

Having not yet watched that video… wasn’t that a mistranslation of “mensch” basically?

[proven cloak]

I wouldn't call it a mistranslation, its a fitting word

tbh I always thought it was a way greater leap to assume holy homunculi. Well, besides the ones that already exist, the jar people.

the bowl / jar people should talk about more is the interior sea of the Lands Between imo

might be the reason the lands of shadow have all those horns in the first place? Ground zero center of a giant basin, raised above sea level, rock walls all around.

[chilly forum]

So the final 8th night lord did get leaked for ER: night reign and it had me so hyped I just went and pre ordered the game 😅

[languid tiger]

who is it

[feral linden]

Pray tell

[proven cloak]

Mr. Knight 😱

[chilly forum]

I will not post picture of the achievement with the boss's imagine, but its ||"Heolstor THE Nightlord" a three armed night with the blade of night and flame on one hand, the freaken Moonlight great sword on the other and a dargger/wand in the third, they look like a Carian Knight in hallow armor with the rune of death in the middle of their chest and a cape of stars||

[proven cloak]

and his evil rain...

[cinder jay]

Release was this Friday, right? If anyone wants to play some at release, do feel free to ping me.

[glossy delta]

I think I might shell out for nightreign on launch
Its cheaper than a full game and I HAVE both wanted to play more Elden Ring and realized I've already played Elden Ring back to front

[chilly forum]

Having looked deeper at the image ||It might be that he has Marika's body inside him or the Elden ring itself, he looks very familiar and yet odd which was what I was expecting ||

[cinder jay]

Mm, tbh I'm fine with something lighter since I did burn out myself on the main game a fair bit lol.

[real shadow]

https://www.fanatical.com/en/game/elden-ring-nightreign?v=5654 If you don't mind preordering, Fanatical has it at $5 off.

[glossy delta]

Alas, I worry if my PC can run ER (I am a PS4 gamer)

[real shadow]

Well, can always check the specs.

[proven cloak]

I'm more interested in (launch trailer spoilers) ||how each nightlord has something evocative of an eye in the sky of their arena. Or literally an eye in the dragon's case.||

• the mention of ||'fighting until their beings have been ground away', and that each main character + the nightlords overall are more known by their title than their name,||

||makes me wonder if its something like the memory of the world itself is getting erased, or if it ties into the remembrance / spirit calling stuff from the base game setting||

wont know for a few more days!

bowl deniers in shambles though

||look at that arc||

[plush cliff]

We appreciate this being spoilered, we won't be able to get the game for a while and we don't want to know more than we already do

[gray leaf]

Thoughts: the Jar Saints were, if I recall correctly, translated elsewhere as "rather kindly folk". And the thought of kindness in particular being the virtue that's called out is interesting, because it forms a very pointed parallel with Miquella's Age of Compassion. Shadow of the Erdtree seems to be saying that you cannot force other people to be kind.

or, perhaps more generally, that you can't help everyone, and it's a mistake to try. It was outright stated that ||without his love, Miquella could not help those who "could not be saved". And I think it's easier to think of that as "those whose suffering is so great that all you can do is ease their pain", but I'm realizing now that it can equally mean "those who cannot be redeemed". That in the face of the wilfully wicked and cruel, the only thing you can do is love them.|| Although that might be a weird reading.

[languid tiger]

that was the living jars in the outer lands between, afaik

not the jar-saints

doesn't mean everything, but they're absolutely distinct groups

[gray leaf]

They are, but I think it was the same word in Japanese?

like, yes, they are distinct groups, but I feel like conflating two separate groups of the same type of being who are referred to with the same word is not a tremendous leap.

And even then that's kind of just my thoughts about "you cannot, or at least should not, make morally good people".

[atomic plinth]

||IS THAT THE FUCKING BLOODBORNE MOONLIGHT GREATSWORD||

[languid tiger]

post the image

[chilly forum]

You know this kinda matches with why I feel that miquella is evil in that you can’t force your own will upon others you cannot use your own will to force others to be better. It’s hard to explain but I feel the worst kind of evil is evil for the pure sake of “niceness” it’s ok to have mistakes or make mistakes or just not understand so long as one willing to learn and be better. But force kindness doesn’t give people that second chance so to speak. It’s one thing to want a better world or for people to be better towards each other but the road to hell is paid with good intentions, blah blah blah.

[chilly forum]

Massive spoilers don’t click but very excited to see how ||he fights against three people ||

I love the design though and all this for “a spin off game”

[sleek plover]

||I HOPE THAT DAGGER PARRIES ME AND TAKES MOST OF MY LIFEBAR||

[chilly forum]

Have fun with this one lore theorists
||Nameless third city no longer||

[proven cloak]

both re-living meat, though

mostly a difference in where that meat comes from, imo

bodies of fallen warriors versus condemned prisoners

[languid tiger]

also their cultures

[glossy delta]

New places like this make me sad that there seemingly will be VERY little time to explore in Nightreign

[cinder jay]

Debating whether to get the deluxe edition or not, but with Fromsoft's track record on dlc I'm leaning towards why not.

[real shadow]

https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/349689386662756354/1377293640879308811/image.png?ex=68387028&is=68371ea8&hm=bb8553444059b9fcd6c62625dc44e34047273a38cd67c06edfc7fb855d3578d7&

[sleek plover]

the only why not i can give is that im a firm believer that fromsoftware titles usually get better with age and updates so saving for a sale could be good but also on the other hand
i do want to support this kind of direction they're taking

[real shadow]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xpVkt2iba4k

[sleek plover]

:0

actually another why not is their online experience isn't exactly stable

[cinder jay]

Indeed, which is why I'm not getting into Shadow of the Erdtree for the foreseeable future funnily enough. Nightreign is ironically about where I want to be engaging with Elden Ring rn.

Still, solid argument.

[sleek plover]

🙂‍↕️ 👍

[old brook]

I've never been 'well guess I'll see the next one' about a Fromsoft this is a strange space

[sleek plover]

oh god they really are releasing another titles soon, too, aren't they

[old brook]

the Nintendo dealie

[limpid peak]

I know for a fact I'm skipping the Wii exclusive

[old brook]

I've just Never Not Been Stoked for one of their games before, Nightreign has be so ehhhHHH

[sleek plover]

I do want the elden ring equivalent of a pop and play buuuut

again I'd need to keep a close eye on how well the networking goes

but also the iron pineapple vid has me thinking

ehhhhhh if it's not that varied and it gets formulaic fast..

that's just booting up another elden ring run

[old brook]

That's what I've thought from the start, like.. how much meat is there possibly on this bone

[sleek plover]

i would've thought like

the different zones would be cool especially like

if it was All four quadrants at once but apparently not

funnily enough I don't think the game is experimental enough

[old brook]

I get less excited about The World/Zones when it's this sort of.. flash-in-the-pan? Idk

It's just Scenery For Fighting

Not gonna be a 'pulling up to Liurnia for the first time'

[vestal night]

I'm much more interested in Nightreign than the other one tbh

[old brook]

and the Warframe Sprinting ain't helping with that

[sleek plover]

or entering the river well for the first time

[sleek plover]

im straight up not playing the other one 100% certain

[old brook]

'surely this elevator is stopping soon'

'anytime'

'what the fuck'

[sleek plover]

elden ring casually dropping one of the most beautiful views and transitions in the fucking early game

bold as fuck move

like WOW

but yeah I'd love to play around low gravity shit like jumping from the nokron platforms or broken rooftops but it's like

not a big enough enemy pool, infrequent changeups

I'd rather them hit the formula with hammers and saws and paint it elden ring than try and stay shackled to two competing notions of genres

[old brook]

'near breakneck speed and you never wanna stop moving' /closes video

[sleek plover]

truly the ultrakill of elden ring

[glossy delta]

tbh that'd be where you'd put it
Much like Stormveil being one of the meatier dungeons

[cinder jay]

Yeah, it's not exactly rare for the best part of a game to coincidentally also being the first.

[sleek plover]

that tracks, i just didn't expect it from fromsoft since their early games aren't

my favorite part

then again elden ring is the one exception where yeah actually pre altus is my favorite

[cinder jay]

For comparison; https://youtu.be/PltrSuUIGFY?si=rbrJUtOXgrO7VviL

[frozen olive]

Skyward Sword type shit

[sleek plover]

i feel like that's a different type of thing since it's the intro

i think there's something a little special about placing it in a well that you really didn't have to take ever

or at least were expecting like a gritty dungeon than Holy Shit

[cinder jay]

They're not? Mayhaps I'm forgetting something, but they do tend to generally enjoy beginning in a cramp location to then literally or figuratively open up from there.

Dark Souls 1 upon defeating the Asylum demon and opening up the doors to the grand outside/being taken to firelink shrine.
DS2 transitioning from the tutorial area to Majula.
Bloodborne opening up the doors (and gate) of the clinic to Yharnam proper.
DS3 is a bit more arguable since there's Gundyr's open arena or the wall. The moments fall a bit flat with the teleport there ;p.

And lastly Sekiro has the transition from Dilapidated Temple to Ashina Outskirts (though it's also weird considering the game begins with a cold open).

[frozen olive]

Majula my beloved

[cinder jay]

Going from the restricted to blooming out seems to me at least a fairly common throughline of theirs (and for good reason, because it works).

[sleek plover]

it does work, im just more on the space of like

i could have just went my entire life missing the river well

probably wouldn't have but the idea of like if i play through elden ring there's just this beautiful view in a completely missable spot is like really potent to me

[cinder jay]

Or oh you mean Nokron, thought you meant leaving the tomb since that's the fan favourite oft. Though entering Nokron is itself not a super rare thing for them to include, even if doing it in succession is something I'd say they take from Dark Souls 2 more than anything.

[sleek plover]

which im glad for since ds2 is my favorite

[cinder jay]

I'm thinking specifically Tutorial > Majula > Heide's Tower of Flame.

[sleek plover]

oh no i mean

https://youtu.be/HG1HCupvziM

[frozen olive]

Siofra river was so cool

[sleek plover]

my focus is on like

this is just an old building in a foresty area that leads to THAT

just. on the map for you to find or not find

it's stunning in the sense that i keep going "i could have just missed this." whenever i remember it

like you gotta open the tomb

you gotta enter majula

you could just skip the river well on a normal blind playthrough

but yeah i remember someone saying er takes more from ds2 and that's probably why i like it so much

[frozen olive]

Ds2 did have a lot of cool locations

beautiful game a lot of the time

[sleek plover]

it also had a lot of silly shit that ranged from absurdly stupid to just regular stupid and i think it added really well to the overall experience, given the locations and atmosphere

[frozen olive]

mhm

[sleek plover]

and it really was experimental

and had a good amount of spirit to show for it

like the care to add such details to a project that may as well flop

idk it means a lot to me

[frozen olive]

it had some stuff that really shouldn't exist but that's not unique to DS2, Bed of Chaos exists

[sleek plover]

yeah adp is the famously bad shit

[frozen olive]

Frozen Outskirts...

[sleek plover]

and there's hitboxes but also all--yeah that

[frozen olive]

the passage bosses are kinda just ass in general

[sleek plover]

i personally never engaged with the dlc much since uh. my copy just seems to be fucked?

[frozen olive]

least offensive is the blue smelter demon

[sleek plover]

for some reason?

[sleek plover]

yeah boss clones weren't fun/don't seem to be

[frozen olive]

Gank squad my beloathed

[sleek plover]

but hey

powerstancing was sick as fuck

[frozen olive]

i used a rapier and a staff for the entire game basically

chaos rapier my beloved

[sleek plover]

oh god the hexes got out of hand

majula still is some of The Best

[frozen olive]

i'd show a pic of my drip but my character got deleted somehow when i finished the game so i only have this screenshot of my build by the end

[sleek plover]

Parrying was really awkward but i think it taught me good lessons

[sleek plover]

making me want to play again...

gavlan

i think the invasion system sucked but it had workarounds so

...you know for my favorite of the series i really do have a lot of complaints

[frozen olive]

out of the games i'm a fan of DS3 mostly so i got nothin

played them in inverse order which was kind of fun

[sleek plover]

oo my order was 2 -> 3 -> 1

[frozen olive]

i played 3 first so the obvious course of action was 3 -> 2 -> 1

[sleek plover]

🙂‍↕️🙂‍↕️

[frozen olive]

closest i have to a screenshot of my endgame armor, the gauntlets and greaves are wrong but the general idea is the same

suffice to say, i had that shit on

honestly one of my favourite fits i've made in a from game

[sleek plover]

shit u right

one thing better than a good hoodie is a good helmet with it

[cinder jay]

Again, think that's more core to the experience of soulsborne than one might expect at first. What's worth noting with the underground areas is that they have multiple points of entry and are tied to some big questlines, so whilst one might not stumble across it immediately, you'll most likely come across it all eventually. I do think that facet is what distinguishes it the most from previous stuff, since Darkroot Basin is very easy to miss much like the Haligtree may be.

Darkroot Basin being the example I'm going with since it can be accessed after Blighttown which is quite early still, though Dark Souls does arguably have more examples than that. Miyazaki loves the stumbling across things.

[sleek plover]

that's a good point

Miyazaki loves stumbling across things

and his poison swamps

he knows what he likes

[cinder jay]

Admittedly my own experience with the underground of Elden Ring was that it was at its best the first time, and after that had highpoints but could also feel confusing about where exactly you were meant to be going.

Not in a "wow this is so interconnected!" kind of way, but rather "okay which hole am I supposed to fall down?"

[sleek plover]

yeah eventually it got to the point where i was playing with a guide open

a wiki*

[frozen olive]

I feel SOTE optimized that a bit while still keeping the explorers spirit alive

[cinder jay]

Y'know, I'm realising that Nightreign is one of those games I'd love to have a demo of.

Of course every game with a demo is better than one without, but I'm feeling so especially with Nightreign due to how the various reviews hint at a game which approaches a solved status rather quickly.

[old brook]

SOTE had a lot of good 'now how in the hell do i get to there' while showing you a cool vista

And then twenty hours later you stumble out of some cave and go 'oh'

[frozen olive]

yeah

[proven cloak]

it feels very, hmmm

Theres an art term on the tip of my tongue

even more than the other works or base game, its expressionist? almost surreal? in the way the world and locations fit together. The vibes go from subtext to the main deal, the reality is less important

the world literally - literally - twists around its motifs

nearly every boss in shadow has a couple of moves where they just start spinning

the blue and red flower groves, the absolute nonsense of ||the geology of Saint Trina's pit ||, the wild shifts in the skybox from Ruah to Enir-Illm to the Hinterlands

more than any of their other games it felt like walking through a painting. including the ones where you walk through a painting.

except maybe Ash Lake or the Dragon Aerie

[languid tiger]

ash lake my beloved...

[proven cloak]

does this point make sense at all idk if I know how to explain it

its more stylistic

[light bridge]

It feels surreal, yeah

[cinder jay]

Moreso than expressionistic I think it takes from romanticism, much as the two do have their connections.

Especially in the centrality of the fragmented knowledge, such that you have hints at the whole but never the complete picture.

That there's a point to it being incomplete, and the sense of awe born from that which you cannot know but rather only behold.

[light bridge]

The blue shore area, I can't remember the name

Invokes the Wanderer above the Sea of Fog vibes greatly for me

[cinder jay]

Lake Liurnia is definitely very explicit about it.

[light bridge]

Thank you

But yeah, I'd argue the DLC dabbles more into the surreal

The infinite towers in the sky, the literal veils from the tree

The tree itself

[cinder jay]

The dlc does evolve from where they're at, but I do think there's still the presence of the romantic if more in the vein of Sandman.

[light bridge]

This one specifically

[cinder jay]

Again where romanticism and later art about the psychological go hand in hand. Then again I do think soulsborne is at its core very romanticist, so even when other influences are present there's almost always a strain of it still lingering in its core.

[light bridge]

Funnily enough, I'd argue that's present from ds 2 onwards

[cinder jay]

Rather explicit there haha, though admittedly there's also the facet that Fromsoft love their hands for the dlc. Think DS2 and the Ringed City dlc are the only where you're not being physically pulled inside it.

[cinder jay]

Eh, I'd say it's still heavy in demon and ds1

[light bridge]

DS1 doesn't evoke the same romantic vibes

Demons does sometimes

Others it feels

Bosch-esque

[cinder jay]

Beg to differ with undead asylum and such.

[light bridge]

That's fair

But most of it still doesn't IMO

[cinder jay]

There's also again the general fragmentary approach to storytelling, leveraging the incomplete to instill in people a vivid imagination aiming to fill out the gap. Think that facet of romanticism came to be especially with Friedrich Schlegel's Fragments if memory serves.

The deliberate incompleteness, the obfuscation of details meant to leave room for interpretation and extrapolation of a whole that you cannot truly know, is rather central to soulsborne as a whole and what I believe it shares most strongly with the romanticist movement.

[light bridge]

Oh, I was more focused on the aesthetic

[plush cliff]

Help, everytime we play elden ring we turn into some sort of caster build 😭

[proven cloak]

Seek close quarters battle,
and then try two-handing

[chilly forum]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ot6j_qqYQaM

NO WAY LOL

[plush cliff]

brb, forcing Rose to do a sword and board build

Rose (It/Its) | The Labrynth Doll ↩️

[Reply to:](#1251763655578488872 message) Help, everytime we play elden ring we turn into some sort of caster build 😭

[light bridge]

Peak.

[obtuse halo]

holy shit

this is a time portal to 2005

[signal harness]

well fuck, I can't not buy it now

[chilly forum]

https://tenor.com/view/evanescence-wakemeup-cantwakeup-bringmetolife-music-gif-6158984

[plush cliff]

...make that shield and thrusting weapon then

Sophia (She/Her) | The Labrynth Princess ↩️

[Reply to:](#1251763655578488872 message) brb, forcing Rose to do a sword and board build 📎

[obtuse halo]

honestly Elden John using an extremely basic sword and shield setup with square off on the sword is really solid

[gray leaf]

just so we're on the same page: can you play as Elden John in Nightreign??

[obtuse halo]

the guy with the grappling hook is probably closest of the characters I've seen

[languid tiger]

the wylder?

or was that someone else

[obtuse halo]

yeah that one

[gray leaf]

...okay, who are you calling Elden John? Because the guy I was calling Elden John was the ancient dynast, that bald guy who there's a bunch of statues of where he's holding one tablet and standing atop a pile of other discarded tablets.

[languid tiger]

ah

i assumed you were making the John Darksouls joke

of "the protagonist"

[obtuse halo]

Oh I was absolutely making the John Darksouls joke

[languid tiger]

because that's what everyone calls the mc

[gray leaf]

a person who is clearly very important, seeing as how there's a ton of statues of him, but we know almost nothing about him. So people took to calling him "Elden John".

[languid tiger]

elden john

wylder does look pretty sick ngl

[obtuse halo]

By Elden John I very much just meant "guy with a broadsword with square off, a shield, and the knight set"

though if I were making a case for a serious character to be Elden John, my vote would be for Vyke

he's right there on the cover

[languid tiger]

vyke is definitely pretty elden

and pretty john

[gray leaf]

https://youtu.be/ZyiOtwyH0Sk?t=340 I'm talking about this guy because I know at least one video took to calling him Elden John (timestamped to the relevant chapter but you might want the earlier context)

[obtuse halo]

Yeah as soon as you described it I realized who you meant

I've played a lot of this game and seen a lot of architecture 😛

[gray leaf]

fair enough.

so if it turned out you got to play as him, and as such learn more about him, I was about to lose my mind.

I'm not sure how I feel about the Tarnished Archeologist. They do some interesting stuff, and some of their older videos in particular do some interesting stuff with archeological techniques, but they also feel like they sometimes jump to Shocking Conclusions for the sake of being Shocking Conclusions even when they're a bit weird.

[proven cloak]

https://tenor.com/view/me-atrapaste-es-cine-its-cinema-cinema-esto-es-cine-gif-12869046600151364058

[proven cloak]

yeah its a known term for the beard guy statue

though I dont think that guy was a particular guy in the setting backstory, its just a generic priest

the uh

Uhl / Ancestor statue

[gray leaf]

I mean, if a major civilization makes 50000 identical statues of the same person, it's a safe guess that person is important.

[proven cloak]

gun to my head would be that if this statue was of particular importance, it was cannibalized by the dlc going into a slightly different direction with the Hornsent

[gray leaf]

I think we're mixing watsonian and doylist analysis here.

[proven cloak]

the same way you have cut content of the ancestral followers as the main enemy of the lake of rot, and then the Ruah ruins connection to rot - they had ideas and then finalized them in shadow, but some rough edges remain.

probably - but I dont think theres much watsonian to this guy

[gray leaf]

There's not much that we know, but an ancient culture doesn't make tons of giant identical statues of "some random dude".

[proven cloak]

he's put in these areas to let you draw a connection between Mohg's cult as a revivalist cult and the ruins of the Uhl

He doesn't cleanly fit into any power structures in the current, or even former, Lands Between

which is overall pretty matriarchal

[gray leaf]

he doesn't! Which of course begs the question of who is he?

[proven cloak]

a pop culture druid? Maybe someone numen-y?

the two shaman villages you can visit both have entombed statues(?) of ancestors which use the same model

the lands of shadow have petrified ancestor corpses too - this guy might've just been a generic patriarch for whatever group(s) settled the different ruins

Important, but in the way that House Marias was important - not much impact on the overall setting?

[gray leaf]

Maybe! As noted, he has a discarded tablet of the Imago Mundi and is instead clinging to a tablet with a depiction of a tree. He is, symbolically, a guy who discarded a map of the world, and who holds tight to a depiction of a tree (the erdtree? the greattree? it's unclear).

Probably. He was very important at some point in the past, but not terribly meaningful now.

[proven cloak]

every damn mural in the lands between has a tree on it, its basically the one universal relief

Farum, Divine Towers, obv all the GO cities,

[gray leaf]

There's several different tree depictions, interestingly.

[proven cloak]

even the Nox and Enir-Illm evoke the elden ring and floral patterns

thats where I'd also lean into more doylist views - I dont know if the narrative is getting that nitty gritty with it tbh

I dont see a meaningful distinction between conifer and oak and willow or w/e, especially when so many of the floral reliefs are root-patterns

which would be universal to each

[gray leaf]

There is direct text which clearly talks about the greattree.

[proven cloak]

ya

I think there was probably some sort of great gold-y swampland with a bunch of twisting roots for a while, but its speculative

[gray leaf]

So the theory is that there's a standard coniferous tree depiction for the greattree, and a standard depiction for the erdtree which looks more rounded.

[proven cloak]

my main issue with those is a lack of impact on the world and place in the story - the only singular continent-spanning tree ever discussed is

well

the Erdtree

it makes it seem like what Marika did was at a different scale, or creating something meaningfully new

Farum azula is more concerned with the skies and the wind, Enir Illm has tiny golden sprouts

nothing like the Erdtree

[gray leaf]

I think one of the arguments is that, as much as various characters try to claim otherwise, nothing is ever really new.

[proven cloak]

that, at least, is true

and imo thats more clear in how many plans to reach the divine amount to mass human sacrifice

Rykard, Farum being made of corpses, Enir-Illm, the Graven Masses - its all retreading the same ground

though Enir-Illm earns the most style points. Really picked a solid location.

apparently if you load both maps at once its centered in the middle of the Divine Towers, on the geometry grid underneath

[gray leaf]

Here's a wild conspiracy theory with no evidence: what if Marika was originally supposed to be a lord-consort rather than a god? We know that "the lord's soul requires a vessel", which seems weirdly specific to directly call out as A Thing if "the lord's original body" would work just fine. There's no seeking of an alternate vessel for you in the Age of Stars, but then again, Ranni isn't really trying to become a god, and even then there's weirdness involving discarding flesh.

[proven cloak]

mmm

[gray leaf]

And we know from Shadow of the Erdtree that some traits of the vessel are preserved in the lord. So what if that's what Radagon was?

[proven cloak]

I read the secret rite scroll as non-specific

its not "A lord will usher in [a person who is a god]'s return" to me, but "[the presence of a lord] will usher in [a return to having a God at all]"

but I don't feel strongly about that at all

its just a very cryptic item

[gray leaf]

I'm more analyzing the other half of it: "the lord's soul requires a vessel".

[proven cloak]

'return' in this case because the dragon one 'fled'

🤷

I think Marika definitely pulled a sneaky one

and maybe made herself Lord and God

which has the really interesting implication that Godfrey was not 'her Lord' in like a mystical-magical-legal sense

she just liked him?

[gray leaf]

That is very interesting. And could possibly also explain why she was able to abandon him. And how he was able to be tarnished.

[proven cloak]

Gives a solid reason to bring Radagon back to the capital, too

the foundation of the Golden Order was built on him and her as inseperable, literally

[gray leaf]

Who was Messmer's father?

[proven cloak]

and his name is in it, and one of the fundamentalist laws is 'things yearn to return' - maybe it was literally hardcoded that he needed to go back and be the 'real' lord? Maybe she called him back because she wanted out & he has the half that can birth Empyreans? idk.

its possible they werent split at the time, or she split to do the ritual

probably Radagon*? Or Marika as a single birth with herself (which would include Radagon?)

[real shadow]

Given the red hair it's safe to assume Radagon.

[proven cloak]

overlapping themes is pretty hard to ignore, as is the red hair

yeah

[obtuse halo]

Yeah, radagon is a safe assumption

[proven cloak]

I've got my eye on him for Nightreign btw

[gray leaf]

Radagon is a safe assumption. Since he looks like Radagon. But he seems older than her children with Godwyn... or, at least, I think he is? I don't actually know for sure.

[proven cloak]

its suspicious how most of his pictures are missing in the Roundtable hold, while Marika's are still up

and his items call him the 'red haired lord', idk. Just a vibe that he's been more sidelined or something happened to him,

[gray leaf]

And Godwyn is, very explicitly, the First Elden Lord. Not Radagon.

[proven cloak]

but that wouldn't make Godfrey the lord tied to Marika, necessarily

he was politically the first Elden Lord

and Radagon was politically a nobody who had no backstory before he showed up, did some cool moves in some wars he lost, and then married a goth baddie

but we know where he comes from, broadly - he's Marika

and he's almost certainly what Saint Trina is to Miquella, to Marika

I actually think its a pretty reasonable read that Marika did the ritual with herself, and split the parts of her culture / the crucible off into Radagon

[gray leaf]

So either:

• Messmer is in fact younger than Marika's children with Godwyn.
• Even while coupled with Godwyn, Marika had a child with Radagon.
• A child of Marika and Godwyn exhibited some of Radagon's signature traits, because Radagon is Marika.
  And all of those are interesting for different reasons.

[proven cloak]

ya

He's a bastard in the nobility sense

[gray leaf]

I had been assuming situation 3, previously, I think.

[proven cloak]

also in the colloquial

[gray leaf]

he spent his adult life doing horrible deeds in the hopes his mother would love him, cut him some slack

[proven cloak]

want to underline here how much of Enir-Illm uses Gold+Red as a color combo, including them even intertwining together in DBDL's arena, and then looking at Erdtree society's relationship with red in general

theres a strong and consistent theme of red as undesirable, and gold as pure

Mohg's cult? Red. Rot? Scarlet. Misbegotten? The strongest are red in hair color.

The strongest bears in the Land of Shadow are red in hair color

[gray leaf]

That... is true.

[proven cloak]

I dont think its a leap to read Radagon as the 'impure' bits of the duo

the scorned red in their red-gold, who she sent away because chaotic + hornsent

and yet....

her children with Godfrey were horn-touched anyway

if only there was some sort of, idk, freshly scholarly type who could help you really delve into the mystery of whats going on + why you're still popping out children tinged with grody natural elements. Would be a big help.

I dont know why Godfrey was sent away, and Radagon called back. But if I had to guess it would probably be something like that.

Marika thought it was over when she brought everything under Order and snipped away the stuff she didn't like. But it wasnt

stuff just kept bubbling up through the cracks

what a fundemental mistake! Shouldn't have merged with a powersource connected to all life if you didn't want the gross bits. If only someone did that but actually did cut out all the unwanted colored tinge to the gold

I'm sure his plan would go so much better

anyway thats kinda why

I focus more on the themes and character reads over the statues

it could be important, but it ends up wildly speculative, and for what?

I assume the devs are showing you the parts of the story they wanted to tell, even if its sometimes only in like. Vague 'doesn't this remind you of x' ways.

which is also probably why Placidusax, Metyr, Renalla, Mohg, Malenia, The-Nox-in-general, Ymir, etc are all half-devastatingly waiting after the loss (or 'loss' in mohg's case 💀) of a specific person who's left them incomplete

arguably Radagon too

with more bosses if you include a longing for the past or an idea to make you 'whole' in the mix (Morgott with the Erdtree, Godrick with his lineage)

its a continent for real yearners

so I try to look at why that theme is touched on so much

now me? I'm here to kill John Nightlord with a hammer

and a hawk, too

[obtuse halo]

I’m a little sad I’m probably going to end up skipping nightreign. Looks neat but money’s tight and idk if i’ll have people to play it with

[proven cloak]

I couldn't believe they dropped that trailer

tbh I got off topic but I came here to post it if nobody else did

[proven cloak]

like its crazy

[proven cloak]

it stings a little for the price since I don't think I'll get as much out of it as base game / sote

but I've got some really hype friends so I'd been saving

[obtuse halo]

Yeah my friends seem not-super-hyped so it’s we’ll see territory

[proven cloak]

I get to be the one of us that s at the lore implications and then gets smug when I call it

chips rn are on "stars / fate is all fucked up, night ate em" and "theres gotta be some issues with identity and memory with all these titles instead of names"

[real shadow]

I'm also on the fence about it. A big thing for me is that I just...almost never do multiplayer stuff? Unless it's some couch co-op stuff I'm strictly single-player, Splatoon notwithstanding I suppose.

What hampers things is that I don't have a mic so if I do want to play with other people I know (or sorta know, in the case of peeps on pnet) there's no way to communicate. Which complicates things.

I just spent like 20 minutes double-checking that my headphones work, which they do, but the built-in mic doesn't--which it never fucking worked when I got it a decade ago lmao

[proven cloak]

I've got absolutely no interest in Duskbloods

80% of that is a lack of switch

18% is probably the pvp arena

It'll probably be worth it if they make another big rpg that picks up pieces from these other projects

[real shadow]

I want to know more about Duskbloods before I write it off because we know very little right now but if it's 100% just PVP shit then nah, miss me with that.

[proven cloak]

the dinosaur was cool

that / executor + the recluse's gimmicks makes me a little more excited for what magic might be in the next soulsbornelike

more interactable than just holding down the cast button

[real shadow]

Yeah honestly I'm interested in seeing where these experiments lead to.

DS2 was itself an experiment, messy as it was, and it produced a bunch of interesting game mechanics they've continued to use.

[languid tiger]

speaking of

[feral linden]

Lmaaao

[frozen olive]

Dark Souls II sure is one of the games of all time

[sleek plover]

IT'S PEAM

[proven cloak]

thats right

[atomic plinth]

0 bad games

Shows DS2

Hmmm

[chilly forum]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2wy6SkI2F_k

[proven cloak]

did they stutter

if they wanted to be really funny

it should've been all the armored cores

and only the armored cores

[median rock]

objectively ds2 is wildly popular with a specific subset of ppl, so it's reasonable to put it there

and that's disregarding generic ds2 hate from ppl who have never tried it lol

at least for AC people can agree the early ones were ROUGH in a lot of ways lol

[sleek plover]

life gems bonfire ascetics the drip the humor

intricate little details

i never knew sir alonne could just do that

a more forgiving system of enemy encounters for people who genuinely can't get past an area while also having a stopgap to keep people from Grinding an Area ™

playing around with torch mechanics and even that one torch npc in i believe the wharf

power stancing

like power stancing alone

though the experiments on pvp i think were ultimately negative it did give some interesting moments

[median rock]

I mean it also, just casually, isn't a horrible game

[sleek plover]

it isn't!

[median rock]

regardless of the experimental features or their legacy or whatever, most ppl don't bounce off it immediately bc of the way CoC works lol

I personally don't really fuck with it and so I haven't been assed to replay it but i did enjoy it the first go around

[proven cloak]

I think collectively its dlcs were a highlight of the entire franchise

[sleek plover]

😔

i really should replay it and see if i can engage with the dlc

[proven cloak]

like I count all three of them together as the only thing that could compare to SotE for 'best fromsoft dlc'

and then slightly behind is Ringed City and maybe Old Hunters

the vibes are just crazy, each location is so memorable

[gray leaf]

something fairly obvious has just occurred to me: furthering the parallels, Miquella seduced Mohg before betraying him.

[vestal night]

Its the best one of the three main Dark Souls games, so yeah

[light bridge]

[cinder jay]

Continues being the case that you can oft divide people into the camps of those who love Dark Souls 2, and those who love Dark Souls 3.

It's an interesting little divide, because god if Dark Souls 3 did not work for me. I know very well what their aims were both thematically and a sequel, and it just never clicked in the way 2 did.

However at the same time I don't think it's difficult to say why DS3 is beloved by some, because ultimately it ends up being about which facets of a game someone emphasizes and what's important to them.

[dusty kraken]

I like dark souls 2 a lot

[cinder jay]

There's the at first unexpected facet of it too where it'd generally regarded to be the soulsborne game with the strongest PvP (to my knowledge, though I did go and check whilst writing this). Admittedly this is a result of concessions made in later game towards a higher pace in PvE which coincided with changes to players that to me at least lead to a less viable meta for PvP.

Which is fine considering the series has never been particularly concerned with its PvP, but is my main concern with Duskblood being a PvPvE game; I'd have to actually see the player Vs. player stuff to see whether or not it'd be good.

[frozen olive]

I really like bosses so DS3 is easily my favourite

Emerald Herald is the GOAT tho

[dusty kraken]

I really liked the pvp tower in Dark Souls 2.

[frozen olive]

And Majula is my fav hub world i'd say

[dusty kraken]

In part because it was my favorite sort of pvp. It wasn't about Fair Duels.

It was about 'this guy wants to get through and you get to Fuck With Him'

[frozen olive]

Followed up by ds3 firelink

[dusty kraken]

You were playing a malevolent fucker who's job was 'stop this guy achieving his goal', while he didn't need to beat you, just escape you.

If that remotely makes sense?

[frozen olive]

Yeah for sure

I mean

I don't get it personally

But it makes sense with how i've seen my friends be with situations like that in games

[cinder jay]

I do wonder at times why the soulsborne series never moved away from rewards requiring ya kill your target, since being a little fucker is one of the more enjoyable facets of invasions in most games.

[dusty kraken]

I think part of it was that it played more into sneaky usage of stuff. Playing Prop Hunt with the other guy or actively working with the monsters there to get an edge.

Hell, sorceries were a lot more viable there than in 'just fight each other' PvP

As there was a lot more room for blindsiding a guy while he's busy or just zoning him out while he's trying to dodge monster attacks

[frozen olive]

I don't like invasions at all so this doesn't appeal to me

But i do kinda understand

[dusty kraken]

I think part of it was also that it let you play in one of the more mechanically interesting areas.

A lot of places people fight in dark souls tend to be kinda 'flat open area' as it causes the least disruption to normal fighting.

[frozen olive]

Mhm

Yeah

[dusty kraken]

While the PvP tower was more 'welcome to Takeshi's Castle'

Ironically, I mostly don't like PVP

This was like the one time PvP really appealed to me

[frozen olive]

Fair nuff

[dusty kraken]

I think part of it is that 3 and especially elden ring made there a lot less of a 'run back' aspect for boss fights.

Getting to the boss is no longer part of the boss' challenge

As there will generally be a respawn point just outside

[frozen olive]

Mhm

[cinder jay]

Which ironically also makes it one of the few instances that line up with the purported aim of PvP in the series, since IIRC Fromsoft generally regard PvP as an extension of the PvE challenge but oft fail to assist the invader in terms of being that extension. They do it here and there, most notably the classic invader fights that have been a thing since Demon, but the Tower is when it became realised in a way it hasn't really since.

[dusty kraken]

ironically, NPC invaders have an area I really don't like about then.

[frozen olive]

Elden Ring especially optimized boss run back with Stakesof Marika

[dusty kraken]

They're predictable.

If a guy invades me when I go here, he will always invade me there until I beat him

[cinder jay]

Closest you get would be DS1 forest people I think, maybe the forest covenant in DS3 but both of those are restricted to locations that are themselves not really designed to be Saw's Jigsaw Traps!

[frozen olive]

npc invaders might be my least favourite part of DS2 aside from the health loss thing

[dusty kraken]

There isn't any 'oh shit, unknown factor' with them.

[frozen olive]

I didn't have a single fun time with them personally, either it was comically easy or i had to expend literally all of my spells and carefully chip them down to win in an incredibly pitched battle

[dusty kraken]

Also: Dark Souls, add more non-tarnished invaders.

For all the issues the Pursuer had in DS2, he was interesting for not just being 'built liek another player'

He was an Actual Boss Fight

[frozen olive]

Pursuer is mad funny

Love him just fucking showing up randomly to ruin you

[cinder jay]

Okay here's a devilish thought; PvP covenant in DS1 based in Sen's Fortress.

[dusty kraken]

I'd love if more invaders were like say going 'Houndmaster Bob has invaded' and it's 1 above average but nothing insane enemy...and like 3-4 hound enemies alongside him all rushing at you.

[cinder jay]

Pursuer is so good.

They even had the concept with Margot

Who did it a grand total of once.

[dusty kraken]

'Hey Margot here, here to wreck your shit again'

Would have been great

Have him gain an Extra Trick from his final boss fight each time

Until the final showdown where he's got all of them (Plus one that only turns up for this fight).

[cinder jay]

(and had a less cool entry scene, because divebombing from a bird is so darn cool)

[frozen olive]

I did kinda like that random invader guy npc

[dusty kraken]

Like my heretical thought would be - Make the first margot boss fight not get the hammer. Have him go 'Oh, you shithead' a bit earlier and then have him turn up again and go 'Hammer time asshole!'

[frozen olive]

But i never ended up fighting that guy really

[cinder jay]

Oh yeah briar. He's neat as a concept but like you said you don't really end up fighting him much unless you're doing so intentionally.

[frozen olive]

Mhm

[cinder jay]

The funniest instance of him is in Caelid, since for some reason they thought it'd be a good idea to divide an early game area and a late game one by a small jump and no visual changes (beyond the increased presence of dragons in a small section).

[frozen olive]

There was also a guy like that i wanna say in ds2

[cinder jay]

So suddenly the guys you were just fighting earlier now have a ton more hp and damage. It was a tad bit jarring.

[cinder jay]

Pursuer would be that guy.

But there was a human one too who stalked you if you set him free

[frozen olive]

No like an npc invader with an elk head

[cinder jay]

That'd be Bloodborne.

Specifically the dlc

[frozen olive]

He'd just fucking show up randomly to harass me

Forlorn

That was who i was thinking of

[frozen olive]

Forlorn has a bunch of random spots where he can potentially spawn at

[cinder jay]

There were the forlorn in DS2 as well, but the description you're giving of a recurring guy with elk horns is Brador since I don't believe an equivalent to that in DS2.

As Forlorn are a more diverse group, and not a single guy.

[frozen olive]

I mixed them together in my head

[atomic plinth]

The Forlorn is such a cool fucking design

Armored up Nazghul with a giant fucking scythe

[sleek plover]

Margit and the Pursuer is one of my favorite bits of their games. What if there was a guy that wanted you fucking dead

[light bridge]

Funny, having playing them in order, DS1 is still my least favourite of them all

[frozen olive]

i played them in reverse and i think my enjoyment of them was directly connected to newness

[proven cloak]

I love forlorn!

such a wild experience playing co-op with my friend where

the first 2-ish times we werent sure if it was another human or not

unique moment

[frozen olive]

yeah for sure

[languid tiger]

i hope that one day fromsoft manages to code what they've been trying to do

and we get the night's cavalry True Wandering Monster encounters

dudes that just fucking hate you and hunt you down

like pursuer was meant to be as well

but yeah, more non-NPC invaders would also slap

[sleek plover]

imagine pissing off the wrong guy and there's just constantly a group of Night's Calvary ANY time it becomes night ANYWHERE

until you whoop them obviously

[languid tiger]

like, imagine if fume knight invaded at random across the entirety of brume tower

once you collected your first soul of nadalia

or if marvelous chester followed you out of the ds1 dlc

and just...showed up in randomly-generated places

running away usually

but coded and visually set as a red phantom

so you just see this fuckass redbro out of the corner of your eye, running into a room

[cinder jay]

Fume Knight dropping you like you're Aerith

[sleek plover]

the hijinks you could get with a dedicated invader that just wants to fuck your day up

[gray leaf]

Random fact I ran into again which may not actually be true but would be interesting if it was:

the test for purity in the middle ages was heating. If it turned heated red, it was pure, so "red gold" was another name for pure gold.

[obtuse halo]

I don't think that's true but I'm not an expert, just a dilettante

[gray leaf]

fair

[obtuse halo]

though the alchemy allusions are absolutely relevant since yellow and red are the final two steps in the great work

[gray leaf]

true.

Upon further research, it seems like Pliny said "you can tell if gold is real by heating it until it turns red" but it's unclear if he was actually correct, really?

but again that's preliminary research, with many other people arguing about that statement's veracity.

[plush cliff]

Nightreign in a few minutes

[glossy delta]

I thought the whole 'red gold' thing was just because gold back in medieval times usually just had impurities that gave it a reddish tinge

[gray leaf]

apparently the sun is not visible from the Mountaintops of the Giants.

...which, you know, might actually turn out to be relevant once we figure out what nightreign is about.

[proven cloak]

gameplays fun so far

movement is slicker feeling than I expected from footage

I thought It would be clunky, but no

[plush cliff]

...for what game?

[proven cloak]

nighter

elden rings movement is clunky in the good way 😌

[proven cloak]

theres also, hmm

Gold suspended in liquid is reddish

or maybe its when mixed with aqua regia

and forms the gold solution with the acid

yeah see

it also might be playing off amber-the-color with amber-the-substance, the old tree power is more orange-y

[proven cloak]

honestly imo the most important alchemical allusions are actually the monist magic system

"As below, so above; and as above so below. With this knowledge alone you may work miracles.
And since all things exist in and eminate from the ONE Who is the ultimate Cause, so all things are born after their kind from this ONE." (Fulcanelli translation, Emerald Tablet)

the underpinning of so many strains of alchemist thought was a sort of monism, that properties could be shifted because things had common origin

[proven cloak]

'Things of the earth and things of heaven follow the same rules, just on different scales - and since everything comes from the same source, they are all already connected by nature. This is the basis of magic.'

it fits pretty directly into the setting

[proven cloak]

you could maybe through the philosopher's stone / cinnabar in here too, since it was considered important for the process of making gold alchemically, and was pretty much always described as red

though theres also a thematic play on gold as power or ideology arising from blood

'perfection' requires a lot of sacrifice, usually of other people, and a lot of violence

[rough pilot]

Hey hey, I'm sure there's plenty of people playing Nightreign rn. Anyone want to do a few runs?

[plush cliff]

I'm gonna wait until tomorrow to try out the multiplayer stuff unfortunately

[rough pilot]

o7 o7

[chilly forum]

If anyone wants to try out some Nightreign run I just started maybe we can set something up

[sleek plover]

.

not sure if they have duos tho

[plush cliff]

Only trios and solos

[rough pilot]

Yuuup

It's unfortunate.

[atomic plinth]

...why...?

That is genuinely such a weird design choice

[obtuse halo]

It was also the case in AC6

Might just be how the netcode is set up

[rough pilot]

It’s quite odd yeah

[nova smelt]

insane that nightreign might have one of the best soundtracks in the franchise

[glossy delta]

Huh
Character story spoilers for one of the player characters
Specifically ||Executor||
He is apparently... ||The owner of one of the Artist's Shacks in Elden Ring||

[cinder jay]

||God forbid a man has a hobby||

[glossy delta]

Nightreign is downloading now 😌

[charred crane]

I got my first #1 victory royale. Comp was Wylder (me), Ironeye and Raider

The dog doesn't like holy damage

[glossy delta]

Nice!!
I'm looking at Executor, the summon lady and, oddly, Ironeye

[charred crane]

Ironeye is incredible

Theee Revenant(?) is the summoner and she's really fun

I haven't gotten to play her yet but she's got a group rez that's very clutch

I'm lame and just adore John EldenRing

Gimme big stick, gimme grappling hook

[plush cliff]

Revenant is the doll right?

[charred crane]

Shes like a little ghost girl

Maybe shes a doll I haven't gotten to look at the model closely

She starts with this sick claw weapon that is really fast and good for early resurrections on downed allies

Well when you two hand it it's really fast

[plush cliff]

Yessssssss

I love playing healers 😌

[charred crane]

Same! And the customization is such that a lot of classes could heal I think

[plush cliff]

Or, well, support I guess

[charred crane]

My current plan is to find relics that have the "flask heals allies" ability, and then maybe just rush churches in the early game and have a huge healing pool

[plush cliff]

How do you unlock Revenant?

[charred crane]

POIs are really important but fights don't seem worth getting locked into if you can't finish them quickly. The circle is roooough

There is a little jar man that sells you stuff. The bismerched frame is the item you need to buy. Then theres a little ghost that appears in the hub ||and you have to fight her and her summons to unlock her||

But you may need to retrieve a pocket watch first. Which is a random drop I believe

Then give that to the fire keeper-esque lady

I think you have to do the watch first

[plush cliff]

📝

[charred crane]

Games super fun, I know people are really upset with the multiplayer situation. I can't really relate because I have two cliques to play with and I'm sure I could recruit from here or other places. But my first W was with randoms in matchmaking. And there was no hard carry. Just good synergy and moderate comprehension of mechanics.

So for any one still iffy about it I think it's worth it. I think there is easily 40 hours of fun to be had in game

[glossy delta]

Yeah like
I hope it gets duos BUT
1 or 3 is absolutely not a problem for me

[charred crane]

And! There is a patch coming soon that will give solos a single self revive

[glossy delta]

Oh neat!

[charred crane]

Because don't get me wrong it's still a fromsoft game, dragons kinda just do whatever the fuck they want on the geometry

Style on you from on top of a church

[plush cliff]

Oh hell yeah!

Barclay ↩️

[Reply to:](#1251763655578488872 message) And! There is a patch coming soon that will give solos a single self revive

Wait I just realized, if the Revenant's ultimate is reviving your allies, what does it do in solo mode?

[charred crane]

I think it also refreshes your summons?

Hold on I have a cheat sheet

Oh wow it does like three things

[real shadow]

https://www.nexusmods.com/eldenringnightreign/mods/3

[plush cliff]

Oh neat

Well that was fast

Slimnoid ↩️

[Reply to:](#1251763655578488872 message) https://www.nexusmods.com/eldenringnightreign/mods/3 📎

[charred crane]

Lol ye

[plush cliff]

Feel like it'd be a bit risky to use it on such a multiplayer focused game though, might get you banned

[real shadow]

Can this ban me?

No. The mod prevents you from connecting the FromSoftware's matchmaking servers, and it uses save files different to the non-modded game. There's no way to get banned using this mod unless you modify it with the intent of connecting to vanilla players.

[plush cliff]

Oh nice

[charred crane]

I remember that's how the original seamless worked too, no invasions is the downside (imo)

But some people hate invasions

[plush cliff]

Also we see the executor is just the sekiro class 😌

Barclay ↩️

[(click to see attachment)](#1251763655578488872 message)

[charred crane]

It most definitely absolutely is

It's also the class that gets bullied for trying to learn the parry timing

[glossy delta]

I've been readin up on the classes and apparently sekiro mode doesn't even have a cooldown
The skill is just a toggle between your normal weapon and the special parry katana

[frozen olive]

ALREADY???

well

that uh

solved my main issue with the game

i kinda gotta get it now i feel

[real shadow]

Probably existing shared elements with Elden Ring making it easy to get that mod out so fast.

[charred crane]

I know I just said it's worth it but it theres still even a slight question about the price I'd wait them out

[frozen olive]

i'm not buying it immediately

mostly cause i have no money in my account rn

but also cause i already have shit i need to play and do first

[charred crane]

Saaame

And also this game plays regardless of zeitgeist. The player count really means nothing, unless you're totally geeked to play with randoms

Which I kinda am because I've had some really sweet interactions

[frozen olive]

honestly opposite

i just want to play with my friends

[charred crane]

Thats how I initially felt

And my friends are very ok elden ring players like myself. But I think there is virtue in dedicating time to a specific class

[frozen olive]

i'm maining revenant lmao

[charred crane]

Which they do not want to do. And if I was a sweat that absolutely has to win I'd be tilted but meh

I'm just gamin 👍

[frozen olive]

i might try the caster class or executor but i will prolly be almost exclusively focusing on revenant

[charred crane]

Shes cool and good!

Her weapons are nifty

[obtuse halo]

if I play this (unlikely short term unless someone randomly gifts it to me; wouldn't be the first time), my heart belongs to Duchess but I suspect I'm going to end up playing Ironeye because Bow-only memes

[charred crane]

Duchess is giga fast

Her abilities have incredible potential

[obtuse halo]

Oh I meant because she is the finest of lesbian bait and I am a sucker. I would learn to play any kit

I have played...so much ER lol

[charred crane]

Respect

Yee...

It doesn't help

[obtuse halo]

you don't do the dlc bow-only unless you're a truly broken person

[frozen olive]

huh

Duchess Darkwraith outfit

interesting

[obtuse halo]

(okay I still haven't beaten PCR bow-only, but I did reach him)

(...and beat every other story boss)

[frozen olive]

lmao, Raider gets Havel and Catarina

[obtuse halo]

Also Malenia

[charred crane]

Nightmare

[frozen olive]

Revenant gets Sister Friede which makes sense

OH

Emeral herald outfit for Recluse

well shit

i guess i HAVE to play Recluse then

[obtuse halo]

oh god

[charred crane]

Magic cocktail is really cool

[obtuse halo]

now that is tempting

[frozen olive]

Emerald Herald my beloved 💜

[charred crane]

Idk how it works exactly but you're basically making your own spells

[obtuse halo]

Shanalotte by Belovalotte

[light bridge]

I'm John Defaultman, who likes Dark souls 2, so I'm playing the faraam knight

[frozen olive]

this is uh, Karla from Ds3?

[charred crane]

Swing big stick

[obtuse halo]

I'd say I'm surprised she doesn't have a Zullie outfit but I guess that's just kind of her default

[charred crane]

Profit

[frozen olive]

Yuria of Londor for Executor

[obtuse halo]

that rules actually

I appreciate that the skins are happy to cross gender lines

[light bridge]

Which bodytype does executor use?

[frozen olive]

Duchess Darkwraith btw

[charred crane]

I'm playing for my beautiful boy

[light bridge]

You can't do this me.

[frozen olive]

sorry not sorry

i genuinely don't remember who this is based on even though i recognize the hat

oh neat, Guardian has Solaire and Alva

[charred crane]

There he is, praise the sun 😌

[light bridge]

RINGFINGER

LEONHARD

[frozen olive]

Leonhard

that's who it is

[obtuse halo]

Ring Freddy?

[charred crane]

Guardian has a cool kit, it's turtle build tho.

With a really neat ultimate that makes everyone take less damage

[obtuse halo]

yeah guardian doesn't do anything for me but I know people who are hype

[frozen olive]

ok yeah i'm for fucking sure playing Recluse and Revenant

[obtuse halo]

I have at least one friend with an Avian fursona who is all about that

[frozen olive]

bit sadge that Revenant didn't end up getting a Plain Doll skin

[obtuse halo]

isn't the Darkness skin at least adjacent?

[frozen olive]

yeah

not quite tho

[obtuse halo]

or did it only look that way in the preview

ah

[frozen olive]

Sister Friede skin looks good tho

[obtuse halo]

YEAH she does 😌

[frozen olive]

def gonna be Emerald Herald and Sister Friede

damn Executor Thorn looks fucked up

[glossy delta]

The crossover skins aren't huge for me but the actual original alt skins look great
Big fan of the Ironeye skin that gives him a Robin Hood hat

[frozen olive]

idk if these are supposed to be crossover skins too

[charred crane]

Black bow pharis moment

[frozen olive]

it looks like most classes have two crossover ones but i can't place these as anything

[light bridge]

Kirk...

[glossy delta]

The first one is one of the mage sets from ds1
It's called Dragon School

Considering all the moveset changes I wonder if greatbows have been tinkered with like normal bows...

[charred crane]

My ironeye I won with was swapping between two bows for their arts

[obtuse halo]

Yeah the first one is pretty much a standard DS1 sorcerer set

[frozen olive]

seems there is some conditions for unlocking the crossover skins

[charred crane]

*greatbows

[frozen olive]

guess that makes some sense

[charred crane]

I haven't hit that point yet

[glossy delta]

Neat! I just hope they feel good to shoot like bows seem too
Which characters do you start with?

[frozen olive]

well, so long as i can play Recluse and Revenant it's fine i suppose

i'll get them eventually

[charred crane]

Wylder, Raider, ironeye, recluse, and executioner

Oh and guardian

Dah birb

[frozen olive]

so duchess and revenant are unlocks?

[charred crane]

Ye

[frozen olive]

guess when i get the game i'm going to hard focus on getting Revenant

[charred crane]

Duchess is easy and you have the chance to get Rev shortly after

[frozen olive]

nice

that's good

[charred crane]

I hope we get more classes

A dedicated spellsword would be so fun

Lemme play Rogier

From playing with people duchess kinda does that but it's more status effects

Not straight up spells

[glossy delta]

Apparently duchess does have quite good int scaling yeah
But- glad I can start with executor or Ironeye

[charred crane]

Happy parrying

Executor ult is really funny for trying to pick up allies

[obtuse halo]

Duchess appears to have A int scaling based on the table up above so she's probably the dedicated spellsword yeah

[glossy delta]

Even in nightreign, I gravitate towards ARC....

[charred crane]

pting

I figure we'll get more bosses to hunt before we get more player characters but idk. I was looking to see if they had a road map for future release stuff last night and couldn't find anything

[plush cliff]

We have to say, even though we haven't even gotten past the first night, we are really enjoying this game

[charred crane]

It's big fun!

I like the speed, I like that it's completely unforgiving

The tide is bruuutal

[atomic plinth]

Yoooooooooooooo they got the mf Faraam Armor

THEY GOT THE KATARINA ARMOR TOO

[plush cliff]

Holy shit the Duchess's intro is amazing

[wild sierra]

i think there isn't even a confirmation that there will be any post-release content at the moment, although it's reasonable to assume that it's likely

[glossy delta]

Okay, have started the game
Officially better than Jerma ||Beat the tutorial margitt first try||

Gets a lilll laggy on my comp but fairly playable

[plush cliff]

The deluxe edition mentions dlc later this year so there’s gonna be something at least

Jacquerel (he/him) ↩️

[Reply to:](#1251763655578488872 message) i think there isn't even a confirmation that there will be any post-release content at the moment,…

[obtuse halo]

I could see them dropping new characters or more skins for sure

[real shadow]

They just drop the Orphan of Kos on players.

https://tenor.com/view/kos-bloodborne-gif-8334151

[obtuse halo]

is that not just Putrescent Knight

[plush cliff]

Wow, Revenant is short

Sounds perfect for you then! :3

[languid tiger]

SMOL

i love the design variance on goobers

itty bitty and then bird up

[plush cliff]

Question, when do you start being able to buy skins?

[languid tiger]

and also john bloodborne

[glossy delta]

Okay, Executor is pretty cool
The cursed sword mechanic is cool
It's deflect window is bigger than even Sekiro, which I feel is because Elden Ring NPCs were not designed to have readable animations for timed blocks, as I still got hit a lot in the training yard

I also deeply appreciate that it's a toggle stance mechanic and not a cooldown
Cooldown defense mechanics feel worse than cooldown offensive ones imo

[charred crane]

Lol, when I said little ghost girl

[signal harness]

How is Nightrain for people?

Thinking of picking it up

[charred crane]

It's good!

It's big fun

There is some jank but it's like pretty acceptable levels of jank

[glossy delta]

I'm a little sad that they didn't port any Shadows weapons into the loot table
Carian Thrusting Shield my beloved

[charred crane]

Yaa

[proven cloak]

In this one they made it so

two handing a greatshield increases its guard boost

so unironically my friend has been running around weaponless in boss fights and just taking aggro

[charred crane]

OOOOOOH thats how it works!?

I thought it was just the basic block was reinforced

[proven cloak]

I think? I've been playing Wylder and Raider so Idk shield mechanics 😌

[charred crane]

Same I gotta just swing the stick

How do you like wylders ult?

[proven cloak]

its really funny next to Guardian and Raider

my third friends been running her a bit

we call it the "Two Gay Dads and their daughter" build

shes going through a bit of a chuuni phase rn but we still support her. she'll figure it out.

[charred crane]

They always do

[proven cloak]

now

I will say

the downside to a Two-hand greatshield Guardian player, and a ranged bow Revenant player

very little overall damage

[plush cliff]

Did our first multiplayer with randos, that was fun!

[proven cloak]

having two ults that AOE res means its hard to lose off one bad attack though

[plush cliff]

(We lost but still)

[proven cloak]

oh you were asking about skins right?

its two successful runs

[charred crane]

It happens to the best of us

[plush cliff]

That said, we feel like the revenant’s summons really do not scale well

[proven cloak]

idk if they needed to be different Nightlords or not

[charred crane]

Does guardians ult rez!?

[plush cliff]

They have like no hp and die instantly to the end boss

[proven cloak]

mhm

[plush cliff]

Ahh, okay 👍

Scout | #1 Crucible Fan ↩️

[Reply to:](#1251763655578488872 message) its two successful runs

[proven cloak]

and clears status, I think, and adds a brief invul

[charred crane]

Ya the invul is huge. Aside from Rev you mentioned that someone elses ult has a rez. Or did I misread that?

[proven cloak]

Guardians if it hits you

it instantly fills the downed circle, no matter the size

[charred crane]

Holy shit

[proven cloak]

so a team comp with Guardian and Rev has two AOE res moves

[charred crane]

Ya thats huge

The biggest bird

[proven cloak]

honestly revs is crazy for the invul

its such a long period

[plush cliff]

Question: can you check weapon scaling during a match?

[proven cloak]

I havent looked

[charred crane]

I've been playing green number 👍

Number go up? Good weapon

I wonder if a full charge from Wylders pilebunker is a rez

Need to test that

[plush cliff]

Just realized, the duchess is unlocked ||with the old pocket watch. Which she can’t even equip||

[charred crane]

Lol. After your first W ||you can buy loadouts that change the color of your relic slots||

[proven cloak]

I'm interested in the Duchess' journal, because ||It looks like she and Wylder are related?||

also something that surprised me about the overall progression,

||You dont need to beat the 7 to unlock the Nightlord||

||I think its only 4, and he shows up. It also changes how Roundtable looks.||

[charred crane]

Oh shit

[proven cloak]

Raider is very funny because his questline is literally exactly what you'd expect from him

I think the first 3 entries are variations of ||"Wow, I wish I had a really strong dude to beat the shit out of."||

just rephrased

[charred crane]

Lol I thought it would be wow I wish I had a really strong drink

[proven cloak]

it does get a little interesting when its revealed ||He wasn't just a random pirate, but one of two legendary captains of the region, who had an equally fearsome rivalry.||

||Apperantly they fought for 7 days and 7 nights without either getting the upper hand, and then-||

and thats as far as I've gotten

[plush cliff]

||If you’re rivals for longer than five years you’re not rivals, you’re just gay||

[languid tiger]

https://bsky.app/profile/luxlucifer.bsky.social/post/3lqfueyee7c2f

Lux! ✨️ (@luxlucifer.bsky.social)

nightreign fextralife users are also kinda funny (around all the typical soulsbro stuff)

Likes

166

Bluesky · May 30, 2025, 6:28 PM

[plush cliff]

[proven cloak]

favorite NL fight so far would be ||Sentient Pest||

all of them have been fun enough though. And the music and visuals are crazy

[real shadow]

I should probably fire up the game I bought last night and actually, y'know. Play it.

Time to figure out what Dave Ryder name to use for this character.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RFHlJ2voJHY Don't think I've used "Splint Chesthair" yet

[kind garden]

Dave Ryder names are a good gimmick, my dumb Dark Souls character name gimmick is to name them after objects/phrases that kinda sound like names

Bikeway Narrows is a great gag name

I named my Bloodborne character Deagle Fudd the gunman

[old brook]

Ryder names are good for wheezing out in exasperation as he dies the same way a 50th time, too

[charred crane]

Deagle fudd is very powerful

[proven cloak]

Thick McRunfast fits the game

[glossy delta]

I have discovered Secret Tech already
Namely, ||the Skill on Executor's Sekiro Mode Katana itself has deflect frames on the startup||
||They don't start instantly- there's a bit of a delay, but I've managed to get to blocking with it reliably against the training dummy||
||Basically on button press he quickly moves the blade so it's like, laying across his back, then does a dash slash- if you get hit while you he's positioning the blade no block, but if a hit lands while its across his back you'll deflect||

[kind garden]

Roll Fizzlebeef is a classic

[proven cloak]

I've heard its also on ||putting it away||, and I think ||I did it once by accident||

good QoL feature

[glossy delta]

I know it works ||on draw||, have yet to get a ||sheath deflect||