#Elden Ring (DLC hype room)

1 messages · Page 85 of 1

median rock
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esp bc it means they're not competing with phys+4

proven cloak
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oh were they in beforehand?

median rock
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only for deep relic effects previously

proven cloak
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I played mostly near launch, so I missed some of the cooler relic effects that got added

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still need to clear like half the everdarks tbh

median rock
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so you had to hope you rolled the stat swap you wanted and ALSO something else useful

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because the stat swaps alone are good but not worth turning down the infinitely more common phys+4/affinity +2 effects

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the only ones i think thatre standout useful are arcane ironeye and str/dex guardian. the +intelligence recluse one is also good but it means you spend a lot more time recovering fp ime

proven cloak
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I've heard the scholar one is pretty nice for turning him into a solid attacker, it apperantly ups his dex by a ton but his Arcane is high enough that even reduced its the highest in the game

median rock
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yeah ill fully believe that. same with the +dex for undertaker, likely

proven cloak
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and its not like your ult is any worse with less arcane

median rock
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since frankly her faith is not that useful given her bad mind stat

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i still havent really figured out if the scholar +runes on scan is worth running

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its 1300 runes per unique enemy type scanned (so 1/type/expedition), but that does give you level 5-7 or abouts substantially faster

proven cloak
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might be better than any reduced shop price ones

median rock
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but since scholars melee dmg is so bad anyway at that point, idk lol

proven cloak
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same effect, but a bit more versatile

median rock
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i also have to see if the dreglord relic is actually useful with depths relics downsides to poison/rot/etc. you when you take damage

proven cloak
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our Scholar player just loaded up on the Ult Charge Boosters + Fathom and never really changed off, lol

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ooo, thats an idea

median rock
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since on paper it sounds like a really strong synergy but im wondering if its viable when you get 2-shot at best by so many attacks, at least in depth 3+

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might be more viable with like, poison or rot when under max hp, and then staying perma poisoned/rotted somehow

median rock
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ok. undertaker definitely feels better than wylder for the standard 'optimized dps' lineup of recluse or duchess, ironeye, + 1 more (wylder or whatever)

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in depths - ult merchant undertaker goes CRAZY. defeating enemies refills art gauge, esp +1, means that the whole team (especially recluse & undertaker) can cycle ults constantly for insane damage & stagger openings

proven cloak
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I never followed up on Nightreign story speculation, treated it as more of a fun game foremost instead of a narrative,

any consensus on what the Huge Giant Tree-Walker People are?

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(besides 'cool as fuck'?)

median rock
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afaik they haven't been mentioned by anything in game, and definitely not anything added since launch, so i doubt it lol

kind garden
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We have absolutely no idea what they are or why they matter

glossy delta
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Considering-

The time space fuckery
How they look like Heolstor
How the root giants are heading towards the map during gameplay
How the one root giant turns and heads away from the map during the ending cinematic

My assumption was that the root giant is basically Heolstor, and represents the Night descending onto the land, with the many phantom giants indicative of how there are many worlds the Night is influencing alongside the one we see
And the one less phantasmal, 'real' giant heading away in the ending is indicative that while the Night as a metaphysical concept stretching across many worlds still exists, it's been driven from this one world in particular

proven cloak
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There are quite a few corpses buried in the Great Hollow, for them

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I wonder sometimes if they aren't like, the updated visual representation of whatever the Skull-Giants in Caelid & Deeproot's concept art are

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^ these guys

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sort of like how the ancestral followers and the 'elders' mentioned in the basegame seem to have developed (visually) into the Hornsent

kind garden
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so Night, as I understand it, is the dissolution of Order

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I wonder what the root giants have to do with that

proven cloak
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If they aren't something Heolstor specific, they could be literally foundational?

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Like they died and formed the roots of the world

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Provided structure in a very direct way. Maybe the dissolution of Order shakes them loose too.

median rock
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new rune count record for me, no in-game increased rune amount pickups (avarice, passives from bosses, item side effects, anything like that). no fucking clue how i got so many, but i think the scholar had +share items and was popping fowl foots for us, as well as +rune acquisition up (which i think is only like 3%)

image.png
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ended up lvl 15 with like 345k runes or something crazy. shame that it was a depth 3 normal adel fight, rather than literally anything more interesting (don't get me wrong, i love adel - but he's gotta be one of the easier bosses)

hybrid perch
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Chat

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I want to play iron eye the moment I get the game

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Any advice?

real shadow
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PROTIP: shoot the night lord until it dies

arctic geyser
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Spam r1

real shadow
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But more generally in my experience, the iron eye is invaluable on getting teammmates up because he can pluck away at the downed status bar at range, which keeps them out of trouble.

arctic geyser
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Save ult for mechanics or rezzes yeh

real shadow
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Learn to dodge as well. Often the iron eye is the last one standing because he's busy dodge-rolling like a mofo.

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That is more general advice for any character but I feel it's especially necessary for that character.

steep wing
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use manual aiming to properly aim at heads and squishy parts of bosses to inflict much more dmg; nearly noone does it

median rock
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ironeye is a really strong character, arguably top 2, but his actual damage output is very weak not counting the mark. you're not horrible but you don't hold a candle to most of the other classes, damage wise

kind garden
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ironeye's job is mostly that his damage uptime is really good

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like REALLY really good

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so he's very efficient at applying on-hit effects or peeling enemies off of his teammates

median rock
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for ironeye mark specifically -

  • you'll notice it starts at a pale red and darkens as you deal more damage. after you deal enough, it'll "pop", dealing a chunk ala bleed or something. it'll only pop once its fully darkened.
  • if the mark times out naturally, it'll reset the progress. right before it expires (for ~4 seconds or smth) it'll start flashing, giving you the opportunity to refresh it by applying mark again. the duration lasts around 1.25x as long as it takes to charge the mark in the first place (so you've got wiggle room, but only if you're landing the mark in the first place)
  • the mark has pretty great iframes and will pass through enemies. you can use it to phase through to the other side of certain bosses very effectively, especially stuff like dragonkin soldier (hug his kneepits), bell bearing hunter (his magic telekinetic sword CAN spin 180 degrees to keep attacking, watch out), etc. - makes dodging certain attacks a lot easier
  • as a very specific tip, you can save a second or two every time you "fall" by using the mark dash about 5-10 ft above the ground, it'll reset your fall momentum and you won't do the hard-fall roll. useful if you're trying to run by a boss, to shave you a bit of time, or just to look cool. i use it when coming down from spiritsprings all the time
kind garden
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oh also you can "bounce" off of enemies when you hit them with mark if you hold a new direction, it'll let you reposition completely

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and you can cheat the mark timer enigma by having faster art charge + extended mark relic effects, allowing for infinite mark uptime

median rock
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i would also personally suggest not playing ironeye if there's somebody else on your team playing ironeye. normally stacking classes isn't a horrible idea, but ironeye's main damage source is his mark, not his bow, and marks from different players don't stack. its totally possible to win with 2 or even 3 ironeyes, to be clear, but it'll be substantially harder since the best thing in his kit is missing

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(also - duchess cannot replay mark pops. i don't know why people don't know that one, this long after the game released, but go figure. it's very obvious if you just look at the hp bar lol)

kind garden
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she can't restage mark pops BUT her restage contributes to mark allowing you to pop it easily

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so there is synergy

median rock
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mark should pop easily enough anyway, duchess just happens to have the highest dps of any class in the game

kind garden
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mark - restage - pop - 2nd mark is really good

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uhh the other big piece of ironeye advice I can give is that ironeye scales well with increased Endurance because you can basically always redline his stamina gauge

median rock
# hybrid perch I want to play iron eye the moment I get the game

other misc tips

  • bow options for ironeye are slim in terms of 'different options'. functionally there's only 2 bows thatre different from your starting bow in effects - purple serpent bow (lowered damage, does poison on hit) and erdtree bow (60 phys/40 holy dmg split). the other bows are just "blue physical damage only bow", "purple physical damage only bow", etc. skills are also random. greatbows are horrible on ironeye and should not be used, even the legendary greatbow (they're str and he has ass str)
  • if you're going vs. tricephalos or heolster and you find an erdtree bow, use it. if you're going against gaping jaw and you find a serpent bow, use it. otherwise? you might as well hit a mine every run, don't bother expecting to get a crazy weapon drop from a boss or chest. drop anything your teammates might want instead. you can also use any other dex weapon (katanas etc.) ok though, so there is that.
  • charging the ult does nothing for damage. it does make it easier to aim if you popped it in an emergency for the iframes, and the entire ult has full iframes and will mini stagger almost every boss out of almost every attack. but don't charge it for damage, it changes absolutely nothing unless you have a relic for "fully charged ult poisons"
obtuse halo
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but yeah this makes sense

hybrid perch
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and is wylder good?

median rock
hybrid perch
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I also think wylder looks fun

kind garden
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more endurance = more bow shots = more value

median rock
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and she's fine outside high scaled depths runs where she runs out of fp

obtuse halo
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unlimited ammo is a fundamental game changer for bows

median rock
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wylder is just playing normal elden ring with better mobility, basically. nothing super special to consider

obtuse halo
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because 99 shots is simply not enough to deplete boss healthbars in basegame ER later in the game

kind garden
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re: Wylder
Wylder is the default sword-n-board knight and has very universal skills with self-explanatory usecases

median rock
obtuse halo
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Poison is your friend as basegame ER archer, because you can just buy Serpent Arrows in unlimited quantity and once you proc poison, you can totally just wait it out and it does percentage hp damage. Efficient!

median rock
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my recommendation btw is just to try to complete every character's rememberance quest. it'll help you figure out which ones you like playing, and its nice to know how they all work for when they're on your team

kind garden
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the only thing worth considering about Wylder is uhhh

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get the second skill use

obtuse halo
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Bleed Arrows have to be crafted but thanks to rose church that's pretty tolerable

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rot and frost arrows suck ass though

median rock
obtuse halo
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not in that they're not good, they're just agonizing to amass

median rock
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vs ironeye gamba being annoying

kind garden
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Wylder with two skill uses is a maniac who can swooce across the battlefield at a moment's notice

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and then crash into enemies with his skill followup attack

median rock
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wylder 2 grapples is good at doing key checks and also 1 bar rezzes

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its not gonna be very useful for your combat effectiveness vs bosses but its very fun lol

hybrid perch
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Also I just love iron eyes design

median rock
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the one thing i dislike about ironeye is that none of his drip is crazy

hybrid perch
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I really like his special skin u get from the remembrance

median rock
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they're chill but nothing there is peak the same way Large Hat Recluse is great

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ironeye??

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its just bloody

hybrid perch
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I like that

median rock
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fair enough lol

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if you wanna queue nightreign I'll probably be on tonight after work, unless you haven't pulled the trigger on buying it yet lol

obtuse halo
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I still intend to get around to it eventually, just very hard to justify buying a game when I have like a thousand indies I haven't played and no job

median rock
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yeah, that's totally fair. i actually bought it as an unwise financial decision to try it with two friends

hybrid perch
obtuse halo
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plus, and I know this is super cynical, I'm notoriously hard to shop for and several of my friends already have it

median rock
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a bit later, im the only one who's put more than like 10 hours in the game. I've got a couple hundred, so

obtuse halo
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if I don't own it yet by xmastime I probably will after

median rock
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solo queue into depth 4 makes me question my sanity

kind garden
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my trio never went past depth 2

median rock
kind garden
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because it just got kinda unreasonable for Revenant Gaming

median rock
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you don't gotta be good, just fast

median rock
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rev "starlight merchant" anant

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her early game start is NOT the fastest

kind garden
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before DLC came out it was basically always Revenant + one other character because both of my trio teammates main Revenant and would trade off playing another character between rounds

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and then I played mostly Ironeye or Harvey Birdman

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harvey birdman had it rough on launch

median rock
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harvey birdman got a massive buff with deep of night

kind garden
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still kinda does because so many bosses are just made of shield blowback attacks

median rock
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just having the relic to up str/dex

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all of a sudden you can deal relevant damage

obtuse halo
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yeah one of my friends mains revenant hard, he's always been the guy to lock onto the necromancer concept so being able to actually summon ghost minions tickled him silly

kind garden
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I reckon Scholar is kind of a Revenant buff by existing

median rock
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dubious...

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i guess for her summons living longer?

kind garden
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Since Scholar can transmit SP and buffs to the party

obtuse halo
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Scholar is very cool. I like both of the new characters a lot on vibes though

median rock
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i haven't tested if the heal actually works on them but it should, the relic effect does

obtuse halo
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Even if, uh, i'm sure certain parts of the internet are having a field day with undertaker licking the walls

median rock
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fextra comments got some gooners talking about that interaction

median rock
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you'll probably want like rev undertaker scholar or something there?

kind garden
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I tried crunching starlight shards as Scholar to go full caster party and it was nuts

median rock
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its nice that iirc warming stones n shards are the same category

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and warming stones are super cheap to drop to lvl up

kind garden
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Starting wraith calling bell on Scholar converts him into a silly little support caster

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With that + item affects party members you can just be the Roundtable SP Reserve Bank

real shadow
feral linden
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lore people, pray tell

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what the fuck are the Balancers

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theyre the most angel of the enemies in Soulsborne so far aside from the actual ds3 angels

frozen olive
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Is this a nightreign dlc thing

feral linden
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yeah

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they look like they come from a different genre of fantasy

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curious if theres any breadcrumbs

languid tiger
feral linden
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oh darklurker, how could i have forgotten you

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tyrael lookin ass

languid tiger
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p much

feral linden
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hmm there wasnt any lore on him either

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them

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its got a light soul compared to the actual shards of manus, makes one curious

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at the same time, iirc the beta version of Grave Warden Agidayne summons the Darklurker as his Stand, so

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the lack of lore is probably from the reshuffling of assets

languid tiger
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prolly

feral linden
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ok i googled their expedition blurb

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what are you, oh seven heavenly valkyries?

languid tiger
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huh

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i just realized, thinking about the balancers

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not a single nightlord is weak to magic

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two lightning, two fire, two holy, (increased when looking at all of straghess's weaknesses), one for each status except bleed, even bosses weak to all of the different physicals

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but none for magic

languid tiger
# feral linden what *are* you, oh seven heavenly valkyries? 
The power of its namesake can be unlocked by performing a relic rite.
A tiny farming village was besieged by bandits, who proceeded to ravage both its plots and people.
A young village girl, seeking help, dashed into the forest, where she prayed to the statue of a protective deity that held a weapon raised overhead.
By the end the village was steeped in red and settled in silence. The village girl, drenched in blood, stood with a vacant stare and a heroic weapon in her grip.```
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fascinating

feral linden
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fascinating indeed

kind garden
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Balancers are just like

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this random unmentioned in-setting deity or power

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actual literally-whos

frozen olive
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Gods all die the same

frozen olive
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lots of interesting theories in the comments on this one

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the idea that the Harmonia were children that sought power or protection from the unnmaed protective deity and were possessed by the weapons it granted which forced their bodies to sort of age rapidly into a mockery of adulthood which left their faces still looking young and their bodies sort of grotesquely proportions is quite interesting

proven cloak
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covered eyes, braided haired blonde(?) women, huge flower motifs

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re: this part

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she prayed to the statue of a protective deity that held a weapon raised overhead.
I wouldn't be surprised if the protective deity shown is the Harmonia, and this is sort of like the Land of Shadow's tutelary (guardian) deities.

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people who become protective deities through something something spiritual communion

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Nightreign plays a little loose with the narrative justifications for the bosses though imo. Like how Libra is a 'demon' with that not particularly meaning anything in base ER.

proven cloak
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their skybox reminded me a bit of the cord's end secret

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with the sort of blooming petals

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Likely flower... so to speak Be wary of taking on all at once.

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there might be something in their golden holy weapons, them bringing 'balance' or purifying 'chaos', and the light theming

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and the unalloyed gold or light-balancing nature of Order,

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but I'd personally want to check the Japanese text before committing too hard to anything

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(not because its more accurate by default, but just to check is there's something that can be easily clarified that isn't in English, like is this chaos like societal disorder or Chaos like the frenzied flame?)

median rock
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but apparently they made the wise decision to. not do that

obtuse halo
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At least in base elden ring magic is an odd duck of a type

median rock
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considering if they did do that, they'd either have to tweak shattering crystal, crystal torrent or they'd have to give that mf a ton of HP

obtuse halo
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It’s rarely anything’s actual primary weakness but it’s also the most boostable damage type

median rock
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the ominous recluse with "attack power up for evergaol cleared (6)" and "attack power up for night invader defeated (3)":

median rock
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er not dlc. deep of night

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each type has X element up +1/2/3/4 going up to like +10% bonus, but DoN also added just "affinity damage up" 1/2, which is also +10% at best

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can't stack em on the same relic but it means you might as well just go for affinity damage over magic damage passives. kinda wacky

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(doesn't change sorceries being better than most incants but hey)

median rock
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i have gotten, in a row:

  • everdark gladius
  • everdark gladius
  • everdark libra
  • everdark gladius
  • everdark libra

:(

languid tiger
obtuse halo
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Amazing reaction image

languid tiger
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i don't use it enough anymore...

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but it's so good

proven cloak
languid tiger
real shadow
signal harness
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Huh, I've been saying her name wrong haha

languid tiger
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damn, that's a spicy design

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the corset-pierced neck

frozen olive
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super cute design ngl

signal harness
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yeah

languid tiger
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yeah i'm a big fan

proven cloak
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good aesthetic

obtuse halo
hybrid perch
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I have a question regarding the nightfarer lore

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Are some of them evil

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Like I’ve heard people call iron eye evil

arctic geyser
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About as evil as the dark souls protags

glossy delta
jaunty solar
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I have a new theory about the world of Elden Ring

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The lands between specifically

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I think that it's history is entirely a construction of Marika's mind and biases, and that it's a living storybook land in search of a new host

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Also the three tarnished we see who mention they've lost the ability to see grace have all bought into the world in some way

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Corwyn and Gideon have both fallen in love with the lore of the lands between, and Boggart loves the fishing scene

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Meanwhile the primary tarnished just drinks the fucking gas and killeths

kind garden
vestal night
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He does get that special ending yeah

kind garden
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because he's Living In Death and when the Night ends and Order is restored he will not be able to continue living

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Wylder is also in a bind in that regard because he's only able to survive thanks to the power of the Roundtable Hold keeping him bound to life, but his solution is arguably more deranged but less directly evil

jaunty solar
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I like how arcane seems to be the element of things that are assuredly natural but also bewildering and scary

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And specifically it seems to be the element of motherhood

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The formless mother is a sea of infinite blood stoked by Marika's only natural born kids who are covered in the crucible horns, which indicates an abundance of primordial life

kind garden
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Arcane seems to be Knowing Stuff as opposed to like

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inventing stuff

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or believing in stuff

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Arcane is the stat of knowing how shit already be and using it to the maximum

jaunty solar
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And it's also the element of dragons, who all are related to this mother dragon, who is disabled but still cared for by her kids. Her kids who have grown strong and spread everywhere across the land

kind garden
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huh what

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dragons is a little bit more complicated than that

jaunty solar
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Dragons who seem to have no living unhatched eggs, and the people who attempt to become dragons all become deformed magma wyrms instead

frozen olive
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yeah there is

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so much more

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than that

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going on with Dragons

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that's also Drakes

kind garden
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they have a blood war going on

frozen olive
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big blood war

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they have a satan

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and a god

kind garden
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DAMN YOU, BAYLE

frozen olive
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CURSE YOU, BAYLE

jaunty solar
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Okay but those are the DLC dragons

kind garden
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yeah but the DLC has all the dragon lore

jaunty solar
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The lands between and the DLC area are like

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Conceptually different

kind garden
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no

frozen olive
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i mean

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maybe

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but that doesn't mean the lore is different somehow

kind garden
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the DLC just reveals the truth about all of the dragon stuff

frozen olive
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Bayle is not somehow unrelated to the ancient dragons of Farum Azula

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he still took off Placidusax heads

jaunty solar
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Because Farum Azula is a piece of the DLC world

kind garden
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that guy is fucking crazy

jaunty solar
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It's not even really in the lands between

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It's outside it

kind garden
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I legit do not get what you are trying to assert, unless it's "the DLC lore is separate and unrelated to the not-DLC lore and also Farum Azula which counts as DLC lore because it's not in the Lands Between"

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which does not make sense

jaunty solar
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It's not unrelated but it is separate and different

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The lands between was created by Marika

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Marika is from the DLC world

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The shaman village

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The lands between is a reflection of the DLC world filtered through Marika's perception

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For some reason farum azula exists in a weird space between those two that even the game acknowledges is outside the continuity of the lands between

kind garden
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I mean it's a fun theory but I don't think it's supported by the text basically at all?

jaunty solar
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I mean if you just assume the creators are incapable of using subtext then sure I guess nothing means anything except what it literally says

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And Miquella and Radahn where screwing around at the DLC flesh pillars made of the shamans because they're stupid or something

kind garden
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subtext is indeed subtext but if you're asserting theories at the nonanalytical level, i.e. about the in-fiction world and its nature then I think it's important for those theories to be grounded in the text and what we actually know about the in-fiction world rather than asserting that something which is true at a level above the textual because the story is a story that has things to say about its core cast of characters is also literally true in-fiction

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like it is true that Marika is a person with a history who has a specifically constructed view of history and the forces that she's at war with because of her past and pursues conflicts that fit the world into that view

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but that doesn't mean the world is a metaphor for her to explore those things, it means she's an especially powerful god-person who has the power and the might to write the history books and decide that these things mean the things she wants them to mean and pursue those conflicts with an army at her back

jaunty solar
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What we do know about the world is that it's a fromsoft game and the gate of divinity mirrors the tower of the godhand from berserk and was also a site of mass bloodshed that heralded the manufacture of a new god sovereign and an entirely new world

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The leaps in logic I'm making are leaps but they're like

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Leaps of centimeters

kind garden
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Maybe for you they are

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I don't find it that compelling to state that because Elden Ring borrows a fantasy motif from another work that they're Literally The Same and not echoing an inspiration while still doing something distinct

jaunty solar
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Y'know I think it would be redundant to preface my every single thought with "This is my take" because obviously it's my take I can only have my take living a subjective existence and the stakes of misinformation on the plot of a video game are very low

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Because it seems like the most offense was taken here with me not going "Well that's just a theory"

kind garden
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I'm not offended I'm just also offering my take on your take that you offered

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and then asserted repeatedly in response to other people talking about their takes on elden ring lore

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like you repeatedly forwarded your opinion seemingly in hopes of someone engaging with it and now I'm engaging with it

jaunty solar
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Saying "That's not the text of the game" is really helpful in a game where a lot of the story is inference in between text boxes attached to items

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Text that is often mistranslated

kind garden
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it was written in english first?

jaunty solar
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Isn't Miyazaki the head writer of Elden Ring

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I'm pretty sure he speaks and writes in Japanese primarily

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Like obviously he didn't write every single text box

kind garden
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there's a whole thing about it

real shadow
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George RR Martin wrote the world, basically.

kind garden
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sorry let me be clearer because I spoke imprecisely

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English is the only dialogue language, so anything said by a character was written in English first and exclusively

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also yeah GRRM wrote a lot of the lore in English first

real shadow
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Huge game bible that he handed off and Fromsoft did stuff after, so technically it's written in english first but who knows what the original stuff looked like before Miyazaki and crew took a cheese grater to it.

kind garden
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anyways re: "not supported by the text" since I might as well fully explain myself

jaunty solar
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The elden ring lore schism starts NOW

kind garden
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Elden Ring is a highly interpretable game with sparse sources of directly "true" in-universe lore so when you're talking about unanalytic interpretation of the story, ie asking what happened in the world of Elden Ring, there's a lot of room to make assertions about what did or didn't happen or what's true or untrue and so on, and that means there's a huge berth for wildcat theories that don't really relate to what's stated in the game or happens

frozen olive
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i think the only reliable source of lore is Bayle, we should kill Placidusax and usurp Farum Azula

kind garden
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"the text" is the game as a whole to be clear, treating the game as a source text that's being analyzed by us

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but there is actually a text and there's a fair amount of things that are stated or indirectly suggested by it, and there are theories that are more grounded and less grounded in that content

jaunty solar
#

Well I like my reading because it traces a narrative arc that is mirrored in many parts of the game and ties in well to most of them and I'm unconvinced by the rebuttals so far

#

Death of the author and death of all readers until only one remains was surely the way this story was meant to be enjoyed

kind garden
#

I don't think the theory that the Lands Between are a storybook reality created by Marika is well-supported by what we know and what's told to us by the game, mostly because it's a form of theory that undermines what we can consider evidence or source text

#

that being said: I do think that it identifies Marika's character very well and points out something that people miss about her and her relevancy to the world at large, which is that her Order is basically her using the power of a God to play out her insecurities and hangups using the entire world-at-large as a stage to reenact her sentiments about becoming a God

#

It is very true and relevant that Marika basically takes the power of godhood and uses it to do what? Replay the exact same persecution she faced over and over again while casting herself as the oppressor instead of the oppressed

jaunty solar
#

How many griffiths does the game have btw

#

I can think of like three

#

Marika Miquella and Darrawil

#

Oh and Ranni I guess

obtuse halo
#

"When education is not liberating, the dream of the oppressed is to become the oppressor", finally, a marxist reading of elden ring

jaunty solar
#

A griffith being defined by someone who does a griffith thing and/or has a guts that they betray

kind garden
obtuse halo
#

who said I was being insincere?

kind garden
#

lmfao

jaunty solar
#

Marika's accord gets 30 miles to the griffith

obtuse halo
#

okay I was being a little catty suggesting that elden ring's intended reading is marxist but I do think that's an entirely sensible reading of Marika's critical flaws

kind garden
#

I mean

#

this is Anarchist Georg's fantasy epic about how pursuit of power is a bad thing

jaunty solar
#

Oh here's a fun thing, so the lineage of gold is probably like, a direct blood connection to the Elden Beast right?

kind garden
#

does the Elden Beast have blood?

#

this isn't me trying to be catty I just

jaunty solar
#

It has golden stars in it

#

And it seems to be like

kind garden
#

actually have to wonder if the Elden Beast is sexually transmitted

jaunty solar
#

Inside Marika?

#

But it's like a jellyfish thing is the point

#

And it turns out grafting isn't just a tree thing, scientists can also graft new limbs onto jellyfish

frozen olive
#

wonder how the Elden Beast tastes

#

finna fry up the avatar of gods will

jaunty solar
#

So Godrick being able to graft more limbs onto himself might be because he's literally part jellyfish

#

Also probably explains why Godwyn uh

#

Looks like that

obtuse halo
#

connecting the elden beast to a jellyfish gets weird quick because so much of the Sea-related stuff in elden ring is tightly bound to death and death magic

jaunty solar
#

What's wrong with your friend

#

He ate a jellyfish

kind garden
#

a jellyfish that shoots out thorns that are made of bugs???

#

Godwyn is so weird

jaunty solar
#

Godwyn is at the crossroads of like 5 different metaphysical elements

kind garden
#

Godwyn is so weird and they just deadass never explained anything, I was seated for the DLC going "alright time to learn everything about death and the afterlives of Elden Ring and find out about Godwyn" and NOPE

jaunty solar
#

And he's not having a good time

kind garden
#

also I think that the Anchor Ring rune of the Elden Ring is what gives you grafting power

frozen olive
#

also

#

Jellyfish are like

#

a thing with specific connotations

#

in Elden Ring

#

specifically spirits of dead children iirc

jaunty solar
#

I wonder if it's something like, the eternal life of the Lands between that the tarnished enjoy is related to an immortal jellyfish humor

#

And when you die the jellyfish part of you just doesn't

#

And reintegrates with whatever the grace of gold is to be spit back out again later

#

That's probably the most crackpot thing I've got so far

kind garden
#

I mean hold on for a second tho

#

dead kids turn into jellyfish if not returned to the tree

#

it's like a thing, the spirit lives on in the ash and the spirit is a jellyfish because idk it's just like that I guess

#

that's a known quantity.

jaunty solar
#

Could explain what Godwyn's deal is

#

Dead but not because he's still got unkillable jelly dna

kind garden
#

now Tarnished are exempted from the spirit ash death thing because of Grace

#

they just cannot die

frozen olive
#

100% jellyfish

jaunty solar
#

The jellyfish shield does raise your aggression

kind garden
#

which means their spirits and bodies are bound together basically, they can never be reduced to ashes and disembodied

jaunty solar
#

And those jellyfish share like an aggression hivemind

kind garden
#

instead spirit and body are resurrected repeatedly by the power of Grace because Marika said death is kinda lame

jaunty solar
#

And the grafted scions/ chrysalids are made of tarnished aren't they

kind garden
#

yea

jaunty solar
#

This is hilarious

kind garden
#

the grafted scions are essentially cheating Grace by using the power of the Anchor Ring (I think?!) to integrate permanently living, spirit-bound bodies into themselves

#

bodies that cannot decay and be reduced to ash

#

because of Grace

#

but so Godwyn right

#

he's dead, but also alive, and his body and soul are bound together by Grace, except his soul was killed by the Death Rune

frozen olive
#

Ranni got his ass

kind garden
#

so his body is alive forever and can't decay (because of Grace) but his soul is dead (because of the Death Rune) so he lives without a soul as a body that grows infinitely

#

and propagates itself everywhere

jaunty solar
#

Yeah!

#

That's what I've heard

kind garden
#

this does NOT answer why he is a jellyfish

#

HOWEVER...!

#

hold on this is gonna get really stupid

# 
Bruise-colored putrescence that oozes from stone coffins, congealed into a large viscous lump. Material used for crafting items. Found underground in the land to where stone coffins drift. The putrescence is what remains of the impure lives kept within the stone coffins.
In an age long past, Death was burned by ghostflame. Even the remains of tainted flesh were given equal treatment in death.
All tainted flesh eventually becomes putrescence.
#

so in the DLC we learn that the bodies of the impure dead float on the sea in spirit coffins and become putrescence

#

before flowing into The Putrescence Hole and becoming purple sludge

#

Godwyn SHOULD be being returned to the earth as putrescence but cannot die

#

so instead of becoming a sea-floating spirit coffin'd corpse he became a sea creature???

#

I fucking guess?

#

this has become wild speculation but that's all I got for "why is Godwyn a jellyfish"

obtuse halo
#

a lot of the spirit stuff is sea creature-y in general

kind garden
#

death is water in Elden Ring for some reason

obtuse halo
#

both the spirit jellyfish and also the tube worms

jaunty solar
#

UCGT
Unified Cnidarian Ghost Theory

#

So maybe the death build-up isn't like thorns perse but more like uh

obtuse halo
#

There's also the Helphen, which sounds a lot like a Lighthouse from its description

# 

The lamplight is similar to grace in appearance, only it is said that it can only be seen by those who met their death in battle.```
jaunty solar
#

What are those things on jellyfish tendrils that shoot out harpoons

#

The sting they have

kind garden
#

Cnidocytes

jaunty solar
#

If you'll humor my Marika theory again, I think that it's a very childish thing when you live near the ocean to have your first experience with death to be sea creatures

#

Which if I remember right a lot of the shaman areas are seaside

kind garden
#

I uh

#

I think the shaman village was landlocked hold on

jaunty solar
#

Washed up jelly fishes would be just the thing to stick in a kid's mind as "That's what death looks like"

kind garden
#

yeah Shaman Village is like up in the cliffs

#

but also the death-is-water thing is still happening even in the SotE regions

obtuse halo
#

the death as water thing that gets to me is the masses of corpses on certain beaches just...staring blankly off into the sea

#

(until you aggro them anyway)

kind garden
#

the undead corpses staring off at the water hoping to die properly and float away is a very mournful image

jaunty solar
#

Which the Mohgwyn dynasty that has all these fetal looking albinaurics and sanguine nobles dressed in robes that look like swaddling cloths also has a bunch of near dead looking bird things in it's underlying lakes, and this is mostly a personal and kinda gross/sad anecdote but ||if you've ever seen a baby bird that's fallen out of its nest it looks like a dead fetal thing that's swollen with blood. Very fitting conceptual thing to be at the base of a blood empire under a giant tree that worships "The formless mother".||

#

I feel like a lot of things in the land between are very like "Here is a subjective grouping of concepts that a religious person would place together"

#

The omen lore really interests me

#

Mostly because Morgott is my favorite character

#

So does Nightreign like

#

Relate at all to ER proper

#

The most I've seen is theories that the new Undertaker lady is an Albinauric

kind garden
#

uhh

#

Nightreign lore is very weird

#

Undertaker is a weird mutant

#

Scholar seems to be an Albinauric

#

but also everything seems to be happening in a weird alternate-universe timeline where the Erdtree existed and the Demigods were born, but also the Erdtree fucking died and Marika may not be around at all?

#

some unknown catastrophic event happened after the Shattering we don't know anything about that seems to have just blown up all of the stuff we know about Elden Ring's narrative present and also triggered the Night

jaunty solar
#

And Manus is here too

kind garden
#

do you mean the Dreglord

jaunty solar
#

Yeah

kind garden
#

He's just ||a fused clump of dead Nightfarers as far as I was able to figure out based on what Nightreign is willing to share||

jaunty solar
#

That's what happens when you don't clean the shower drain in the roundtable hold

kind garden
#

seems like

frozen olive
#

i do like the implication that like

#

Manus like

#

banished Artorias to fuck with the Nightfarers

jaunty solar
#

Artorias got isekai'd into a slightly more grim world

frozen olive
#

cause when you fight him he doesn't die when you win, he gets sucked into a portal and fucks back off to the abyss presumably

jaunty solar
#

At least he has three dogs now

#

Four if Red Wolf of Radagon is chill

feral linden
#

Sad that theres no Pursuer in Nightreign

jaunty solar
#

I KNOW

#

I was hoping they'd add it as like a thing that jumps people who get too far from their squad

frozen olive
#

would be peak

#

he should be like Fell Omen

jaunty solar
#

I was excited when I saw the curse effect in the new shifting earth

#

I was really hoping he would be a field boss in that

obtuse halo
jaunty solar
real shadow
#

If Bloodborne wasn't stuck in the Sony mines it would've been real cool to see some of those bosses make it in.

#

Let a whole new generation of players face the screaming tantrum baby that is Orphan of Kos.

atomic plinth
#

What is Sony's deal with just sitting on Bloodborne anyway

real shadow
#

No clue. There's no clear reason given.

#

I'm of the opinion that someone higher up just hates the game or something like that and vetoes any use of it aside from occasional promotional items. There's no reason not to give it a next-gen upgrade of PC port or whatever--I know some people say that the source code must be lost but I find that rather unlikely.

feral linden
#

Contempt and spite for all executives and investors who hoard ips for themselves

proven cloak
#

it rhymes thematically

#

like the whole thing with Recluse and ||The Infant / Nightlord|| is very clearly exploring the same space that the base game does around motherhood and what it means to seek purpose

kind garden
#

They kinda brought back Orphan of Kos recently

#

A little

proven cloak
#

Stuff that it adds (like the Pinionfolk, or Blood Magic, or the orgs that the Ironeye / Scholar are a part of) are things that 100% do fit the setting, and its really biological themed magic

proven cloak
#

but that something about the destruction of Order or the Night being released (coming back? being unsealed?) caused it to rapidly get worse than the usual history

#

you can kinda compare the intros

#

same location, same general event

#

one split the sea open

#

and as the camera pans down it equates that directly with the purple-night-energy & the Nightlord appearing

proven cloak
#

theres maybe an element of coming from the sea (alien life) and then going back there too (death) (which fits into the broader motif of 'returning to roots / origin / homeward yearning going on)

#

the Elden Beast itself seems to have been channeled at the top of a Death-Magic hex magic tower of corpses, by people who's main cultural practice was 'Invocation of Sacred Spirits'

#

Its a living avatar of the cycle of life, which is going to include the death part just as much

#

thats, imo, the main reason the Elden Ring is a ring, and why most of its runes relate to biological elements. Its the cycles of the earth and living things.

#

Birth, Death, all that other stuff.

proven cloak
# kind garden Godwyn is so weird

And I think Godwyn's all Fucked Up in part because he got the sea life part of Death, but without the spiritual basis- so he's just an eternally rotting and growing fishguy.

#

nasty

#

like a glitch in how the process is supposed to go thats half completed

#

maybe being buried at 'Crucible Current Central' also didn't help, I could just as easily see that as the reason his body is mixed up with other parts.

proven cloak
#

deadass I think its got a good chance for being the origin of blood, or related. At least terrestrially?

#

Amber, Glintsone (& Starlight Drops), and Blood are equated in a few places, and all are pretty much the same thing at a base level

#

medium for vital energy

#

I could totally see a read where the Elden Beast's 'blood' is the stuff that the Amber Medallions are made of, or the Flasks of Tears. Holy treesap.

#

even if it doesn't bleed in the fight

#

you also have the Crucible spoken of in really water-y terms, which the Elden Beast is pretty tightly tied to

proven cloak
#

and this last one is cut-ish content, the 1.00 Translation,

#

but its talking about the design of the Crucible Knight Armor

#

the 'conduits that seethe' with the coursing energy are the root-blood-vessels sprouting from that center area (I think the japanese translation might literally call them 'veins', too)

#

the same 'Torrent of Life' design you got on Devonia's Hammer

#

so I think the comparison between tree-roots and the circulatory system is definitely intentional

proven cloak
jaunty solar
#

Fire wolves day raid in nightreign solo is making me unstable

#

It's practically unwinnable

median rock
#

god, i imagine it is. that sounds actually miserable

proven cloak
#

its giving Mother (of Fingers)

#

and the Greater Will ultimately takes the place of a universal mother in the cosmology

#

fitting on two counts. three actually if Ymir got it custom made.

jaunty solar
#

:3c

#

Love a silly hat

proven cloak
#

Imo the Nox Priestesses still win that

#

I cant look at this and not see a Two Fingers wearing a blankie

jaunty solar
#

My friend loves drawing characters with these

#

I unlocked White Morpheus

SPOILER_2015401.jpg
kind garden
#

morpheus drinkin a forty in a death basket

proven cloak
#

the perfidious poopie puncher

#

Internal Name: King of Rubble
it sure is

median rock
#

huh. so deep of night CAN give balancers. i wonder if it can do dreglord? I'd imagine so, right?

#

nevermind. i just queued into dreglord, IMMEDIATELY after sending that message (which was sent immediately post balancers expedition)

proven cloak
#

wow

#

Everdark Balancers

languid tiger
#

oh shit everdark balancers are coming soon?

proven cloak
#

that sure was 'Weapon-Bequeathed'

languid tiger
#

OH THEY'RE OUT?

proven cloak
#

playable

#

yeah lmao

languid tiger
#

oh fuck

#

i'll have to get on that soon

proven cloak
#

went into it blind & recommend you do the same

languid tiger
#

CAN DO BOSS

proven cloak
#

its wild

median rock
#

bro i went into it without knowing there were like, patchnotes

#

nightreign just had a random kinda big update and i didn't see anything on steam, so i assumed it was a weird artifact of the unity artbook bugfix like a day ago

#

i clicked purple balancers on the expedition list because i was just willing to believe they were always purple? and then the balancers fight was NOT normal

median rock
# proven cloak

man, i got no clue what happened in that fight. me & my two randoms first tried it, and it didn't seem crazy hard? but idk. ||i picked up RoB as scholar right before the final fight, and that weapon seems.... very good against that boss?, so that may have skewed things||

#

definitely one of my top fights though, i think. up there with everdark fulghor and gaping jaw, imo

#

tested for others too lazy to, re the ED balancers relic - ||if you put both balancer & ED balancer relic on - yes, both of the first two relic effects DO stack with each other. not sure it's crazy good, but i'll probably run it for fun for a bit, and it seems good on hollow shifting earth aka no evergaol runs||

real shadow
languid tiger
#

we're so back

image.png
kind garden
#

Salvation's Standard-Bearers is an atrocity

hybrid perch
#

Also chat

#

5 more days till night reign

median rock
#

a depth 4 dreglord fight of all time

image.png
languid tiger
#

waow

#

quite a backpack you were carrying

median rock
#

i had a wending grace, dunno if the others did, so it was PROBABLY ok if we did wipe at least once. but it would've sucked, bc my "no evergaol relic" setup also has ~45% reduced max hp upon down

rare depot
#

I have got to play Nightreign

median rock
#

yeah u do, it's peak cinema

median rock
#

i personally think libra has the best reward by a longshot (guaranteed symbol of avarice + demon plating is just crazy good, and i think you always get eventual greatness too if you don't want to avarice), but the fire dog stamina regen seems super noticeable to me

#

however - jesus christ, is that raid miserable to do depending on where it spawns vs where you currently are. i had it on the normal map, it triggered at the evergaol bottom-left-close to castle, and i had to run up all the way to where the north center church spawns to kill my fucking dog. even with 2x wylder grapple that still takes a century

#

also, i think its already been posted online but re the everdark balancers relic - ||any random -8% damage negation weapon passive downside IS enough to trigger its effects. so you basically have a permanent 20% chance to fully ignore every single non-dot damage instance you take in deep of night, which seems super good on a relic with 2 other great passive effects||

median rock
#

huh - i thought you couldn't get shifting hollow on non-DLC bosses?

jaunty solar
#

Wish base game Elden Ring had the two spells to a staff system from Nightreign

#

I'd run Carian Slicer and a nuke spell like Loretta's mastery or Cannon of Haima on right then on left I'd have Thop's Barrier and Night Shard

obtuse halo
#

I like having a "spellbook" to go through but do wish you could maybe use the second button on the staff for something other than a hilariously limp melee attack

vestal night
#

give every spell unique light and heavy versions clearly

obtuse halo
#

that would actually be an interesting change. There are already quite a few spells that have contextual modes based on how much you charged them

glossy delta
#

sword spell that's carian slicer on light and carian greatsword on heavy......
Honestly I think I'd just appreciate catalysts having ashes of war worth using instead though

vestal night
#

This would also potentially let you condense the spell list a good bit, which I consider an upside too

obtuse halo
jaunty solar
real shadow
rare depot
#

I'm so glad she's popular enough for a statue

#

good for her

hybrid perch
#

So my friends and I started playing nightreign

#

And I just felt drawn to iron eye

#

So my current role when playing is clutching when everyone else is dead

kind garden
#

That’s one of them Ironeye jobs

#

Guardian and Revenant also very trustworthy for clutch revives

hybrid perch
#

All my friends keep dying

#

I sometimes wonder how because I’ve tried executor and iron eye so far and both times it’s mostly been me who had to revive or not die

#

Shoutout to all the undertakers though

hybrid perch
#

Jeez the ice dragon is hard

median rock
#

ice dragon is resistant to slash (15%) and pierce (10%) for physical damage, and then to magic/lightning/holy (20%)

kind garden
#

Ice dragon’s an asshole with party wiping AoEs that are poorly telegraphed >:/

median rock
#

the actual HP stat is not hugely more than the other nightlords (tho iirc its marginally higher than avg), but they mostly have 0 for everything but their one or two resists/weaknesses each

kind garden
#

Unless you mean Caligo

#

Caligo is fine

#

Mountain dragon’s a fucking jerk

median rock
#

caligo is weak to strike (15% more) and weak to fire obviously (35%, but more considering enough fire damage will apply attack/defense down debuff for a bit, idk how much). but basically everybody but wylder & raider don't have amazing weapons to deal dmg to her

#

(rev/recluse can obviously do fine, but a lot of the fire weapons tend to deal slash/pierce more than standard or strike - RoB, eleonora's, mohg, etc.)

kind garden
#

Wylder gets to slap Caligo around in several ways

#

Grappling hook is REALLY good for not getting your ass beat by Caligo AoEs

median rock
#

yeah. wylder is probably the best into her. anecdotally ive found ironeye is really bad into her, since its harder than avg. to keep mark up (esp. without 2 marks / extended duration mark), and its a lot of damage to pop mark on her

#

(obviously ironeye is still good if you've got a nuclear bomb recluse on the time, for reviving, etc. but its just a lot worse than the other nightlords)

kind garden
#

Ironeye struggles to do much other than pitifully Marking dash through explosions and cry as her wind attacks deflect his arrows

median rock
#

i haven't had too much of a problem with the wind, its mostly just the pierce resist hitting hard, yeah :( you kinda gotta find RoB/eleonora/etc. to have a good chance, but even they are still dealing reduced dmg, so hey

kind garden
#

Weirdly

#

I think Everdark makes Ironeye better against Caligo because now you can target weak points

median rock
#

well. assuming you find a fire bow, at least, lol

#

or do you mean when she's armorless? i just realized i don't actually know how the armor debuff works besides "she takes damage when you break 3/4 and repairs it"

#

do ED caligo's naked bits take more damage?

kind garden
#

Stripping the armour also staggers her and prevents her from doing the giant nuke move

#

So Ironeye just gets to pitch in a lot more

median rock
#

yeah but you can only strip the armor with actual fire damage, not with physical damage

#

(i've had an ED caligo run in depths where nobody had a viable fire weapon, and the armor never broke even though we did kill her, so I don't think you can at least)

glossy delta
#

I honestly did assume they meant Caligo
Every time I have fought them it was extremely miserable

median rock
#

mm. ED balancers is now in the deep of night rotation as of a hotfix

#

i think i'm glad i read those patch notes before queuing. i should probably actually figure out how that fight works BEFORE fighting a turbo scaled version

kind garden
#

Standard Bearers of Salvation is beyond my understanding

real shadow
proven cloak
median rock
#

meat elves who took a lot of pcp

proven cloak
#

& they blooming, too 🙂‍↕️ with blood

proven cloak
median rock
#

i wish random teammates understood if you just run fuck-ass far away from them, their AI shits itself and means they walk at you

#

please stop trying to 1v5 the crackheads. you will keep dying

proven cloak
#

Hi welcome to Darkness City. its filled with nature-attuned-people but they use dark colors instead & are ambigiously amoral & have this matriarchal social structure (unlike the tree-people of the surface)

#

you can find it underground. on Elf River.

median rock
#

are there even any depicted male nox?

proven cloak
#

I think some of the npcs are guys (maybe the ant riders?) but I'm not really sure

#

I think textually its not even clear what specific relationship the Nox have to the Numen have to the Shaman, tbh

#

easy to just call them all the same thing, but I think its still an assumption, if a reasonable one

median rock
#

ah, google tells me the nox monks have masculine features under their hoods

#

i think in-game they're exclusively called nox swordstress & nox monk, so i'd assume that's supposed to be the division

#

the ant riders IIRC are identical model & AI to the non-mounted ones, at least once you knock em off

proven cloak
#

yeah the priest class all being women seems the important bit

#

& male Numen clearly exist from the character creation options (& Radagon (& Miquella? (& Messmer??)))

median rock
#

the nox guys are pretty fun to fight. in shifting hollow now you actually see them outside very occasionally, and they're mildly interesting

proven cloak
#

they just don't have the social roles

#

I like their funny weapons

median rock
#

I would like their weapons more if the movesets weren't kinda slow :(

proven cloak
# 

Soaked in arcane dew, it gives off the faint glow of starlight. ```
#

its sort of headcanon,

median rock
#

they're super cool but they seem to be very slow for how little dmg they deal

proven cloak
#

but given all the plant-theming those groups have

#

I wonder if the Nox aren't just, like, 'Dew-Kissed Numen' or something

median rock
#

maybe they'd be more interesting in an elden ring where physical damage type was actually relevant outside of crystalians & borealis

proven cloak
#

like going underground away from sunlight or bathed in 'arcane dew' actually changed them in some way

proven cloak
#

if / when they make more traditional souls

median rock
#

does NR have any meaningful interactions w physical damage type?

#

like besides borealis 2: now she's bigger and has PURPLE ice

proven cloak
#

I don't think so

#

its just got more mechanics

median rock
#

yeah fair

proven cloak
median rock
#

i think ive been pleasantly surprised by the majority of the nightreign character abilities, at least. there's very few ones i'd say they kinda whiffed on

#

gives me hope for the future of more interesting movesets & other wacky things in the future

proven cloak
#

I think it'd be cool to give phys builds more interesting things to do with large investment

#

ER already kinda strains with its assumed lategame level, its almost always better to just go a bit into a spellcasting stat vs. continuing past the caps

#

wouldn't mind a system where only the martials eventually get something like Wylder's Hook or Raider's Punch or whatever

hybrid perch
#

So like idk it this is with randoms but like why do people start doing weird stuff the moment it matters

median rock
#

randoms are fascinating and frequently very confusing

#

my solution has been to queue only everdarks or deep of night depth 2/3, helps ensure people are actually trying

#

it also helps if you are very aggressive with pinging where you want to go next, and you're generally pinging reasonable things (nearby churches, evergaols, etc.)

median rock
#

holy shit, second ever "lightning on starting wep" relic and it's actually solid - lightning on starting, phys +1, improved sleep res

#

thats ideally for fulghor but might actually be mildly nice for augur? at least as long i'm careful so that everdark augur isn't a throw for the other relics

median rock
#

first phase skip on mohg in deeps :) all it took was this + an inventory full of +10% magic/sorceries/etc.

image.png
obtuse halo
#

lmao, what a god roll

median rock
#

i got more shit but ill take a screeny after we lose to depth 4 ED balancers

#

fuckk it actually is ED :(

#

nevermind, we win those, when you've got enough damage that a fully charged stars of ruin oneshots the ED balancer guys

median rock
# median rock fuckk it actually is ED :(

also, a super neat interaction: normally it reveals ED vs. non ED on the map as soon as its obvious, so you'll get it on spawn for basically everybody but ED libra iiirc (who gets it post deal?)

#

everdark balancers, on the map icon, still appears as normal balancers until you kill the first phase + the last guy standing explodes into a shower of blood. when the screen comes back, they'll be revealed as ED (if it wasn't clear)

#

gotta say, i did not expect recluse's tonsil stone relic to be this good. turns out blood loss + attack up on ult is really great when you've got "ult charge on kill +0/+1", since you can have an ult for every fight. shifting hollow buff works as well

#

then "ult raises max hp" is also really good when it comes down to another charge of +32% damage resist every you ult

#

wtf you can queue for multiple expedition options at once??

cobalt radish
#

Night Lord defeated

#

I was surprised that I was about to defeat him first try with my partner

#

But using Raider like a caveman that punch everything just works I guess

#

I really did find my calling with Raider, he really just works

median rock
#

congrats!

arctic geyser
#

@blissful sierra

#

This one

blissful sierra
#

I guess this is nightreign yea

kind garden
#

TAKE AGGRO ON BLOCK

blissful sierra
jaunty solar
#

Just realized the Erdsteel dagger looks like the Bandit's starting knife in DS1

#

Wonder if that's implicating the Golden Order nobility, since it's a symbol of being in their service

plush cliffBOT
#

I think the great knife has a closer look tbh

300px-ER_Icon_weapon_Great_Knife.png bandit-s-knife.png
jaunty solar
#

That looks more like a skinning knife

#

This is what it looks like in game

iu_.png
onyx trench
#

oh wow yeah

jaunty solar
#

Impossible to find a good image of the updated look it got in DS2

plush cliffBOT
#

Ds3 version

image.png
median rock
#

just did a depth 4 ED caligo run with a scholar using hacked throwing pot relics

#

where every normal relic was throwing pot up + fire attack +2, and every deep relic was throwing pot +1 and fire +4/affinity +2

light bridge
#

Ah, the nuclear operator

median rock
#

and i'm aware that that's an incredibly high roll loadout, but holy shit, did it rip crazy. like 8% of caligos hp per throw

#

(the other relic effects were like - small pouch on start, items boost allies, ult does continuous damage, etc.)

#

i wonder if its actually good enough on non-caligo bosses to be worth using that, if you've got non-hacked relics and therefore have like ~8 throwing pot/fire damage boosts? plus presumably night invaders & evergaol if you can

#

google does not help because everybody and their mother who's made youtube videos says "throwing pots are OP on scholar!"

blissful sierra
plush cliffBOT
feral linden
#

"I wonder what i taste like" "I can help with that"-lookin' dynamic

frozen olive
#

Nightreign bosses really do have some incrediboe themes and character concepts

kind garden
#

finally beat Salvation's Standard-Bearers

median rock
#

wooo

#

balancers but in red

median rock
kind garden
#

nah

plush cliffBOT
#

TIL that the Ranni’s Chamber grace (that can only be accessed after she leaves) points you directly towards Renna’s rise

IMG_9267.jpg
frozen olive
#

Grace of gold moment

real shadow
cobalt radish
#

So I just tried to play Executioner at Night Reign

#

I don't know how to parry but I still won with my bf partner against the dragon

#

it was real clutch though

light bridge
#

If you mean mechanically, use the skill to get the parrying sword out and block in time

#

If not, it's just feeling

median rock
#

yeah it just takes a lot of practice to be able to parry without losing hella tempo

#

at least in trios (and probably to a lesser extent duos), when you're using the skill you're not super mobile. only using the unsheath/resheathe to parry helps some, but you're still not very good at chasing down a boss that's turned away

#

personally i had better luck just learning the 1-2 boss attacks that i really WANT to parry (like BBH) and not worrying about everything else

glossy delta
#

Fortunately(?) the skill doesn't factor into Executor's gameplay a ton because he's the Arcane Guy and your skill sword doesn't inflict status or anything
......Executor is so odd
All his skills feel incoherent with what his stats want to happen

#

Mind you I do try for parries a ton but it's more a nice to have than a thing you need to do to get the most out of Executor

light bridge
#

I mean, the skill CAN factor if you want

#

Like any other skill and character

plush cliffBOT
#

Did they ever fix it so that his skill’s damage scales with level?

median rock
#

it always has, since release?

#

maybe it was buggy for the first week or so, but both its damage and dex scaling improves as you level

#

my main complaint w him personally is that his ult is just not useful lol

light bridge
#

I've seen people pull out cool things with it but like

#

It's one of the IMO weaker ults

#

Alongside raider. Which is often even detrimental

median rock
#

it does OK ish damage but you just get killed out of it 90% of the time imo

#

like outside of deep of night every character is equally viable and it really doesn't matter what you bring, but once you're in depth 2+ its basically suicidal to pop exe ult

glossy delta
#

Apprently a patch JUST dropped to address that a little
Executor now can't die while doing the big L2 slash that ends ult

median rock
#

yeah, that helps the optimal strategy of ult -> L2 to immediately get the big stagger, but its just a slower wylder ult imo

#

dunno. maybe it does enough dmg now that the other attacks are useful

#

RIP just saw they fixed the bugged successive attack power relic lol

#

oh shit they made shattering crystal a lot rarer

median rock
#

(wylder was running around doing a lot of jack and shit, not even killing random fort minibosses, and then using a holy greatbow w/ bloodflies for like all of the first phase of the boss)

mighty warren
#

That might've been the under taker actually, unless there's no way she did enough stagger with her ult

median rock
#

oh shit wait you're right

#

i legitimately did not even notice the undertaker until you said that, since she's off my screen to the top until she actually connects?

#

but i did notice that the dragon seemed to stagger a little before the fire actually comes out, so i think you're totally right, and the wylder looked cool but didn't actually do anything. lmfao

mighty warren
#

i almost feel bad for the wylder

light bridge
#

Tricepahlos everdark without dying

image.png
median rock
#

got first ever ED gnoster one cycle, in depth 4 of all places

#

as in - animus resurrected one guy (scorpion) and did not get a chance to do literally anything else. didn't even get a chance to come down to TRY to resurrect the moth, which is where ive killed it a bunch before (as it's floating into the moth)

kind garden
#

insane

median rock
#

man. yall think they'll ever make ed libra not balls?

kind garden
#

It’s called going solo

median rock
#

does it really suck less in solo, or is it just a lot easier?

#

i don't think it makes the ed libra fight more interesting in any way 😔

signal harness
languid tiger
#

bonk

signal harness
#

I didn't even say it!

kind garden
#

I would not want to spoil it for you

signal harness
kind garden
median rock
frail sky
#

The queen of weird challenge runs with oddly restrictive rules has posted again
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c2OxuskWqSQ

YouTube
Eleum Loyce
Beating Dark Souls With Only My Left Hand (mostly)

In this Dark Souls challenge run, I will beat the game using as few right-handed actions as possible. I must use my left hand only unless using my right hand is absolutely necessary to make progress in the game. This means I cannot perform any actions that the character does with their right hand such as using estus, consuming items, lighting bo...

▶ Play video
proven cloak
#

that just ain't right....

real shadow
frozen olive
#

Oh yeah i know all the demon souls bosses now

proven cloak
#

Ornstein & Smough at S is kinda crazy imo

#

unless you are including "(& the pillars)". They are a big part of why that fight works

#

I think in an empty field they'd feel a lot worse

frozen olive
#

Yeah

#

Idk i generally think O&S is kinda overrated

proven cloak
#

I really had my fingers crossed for LGK in the Nightreign DLC

#

oh well 😔

frozen olive
#

Mmm

proven cloak
#

Bed of Chaos event is kinda cooking....

#

Platformer themed event?

#

👀

languid tiger
#

i think an updated Lud & Zallen would be kinda goated, actually

#

they'd need more attacks to be interesting, but their duo boss implementation kinda works really well for mp

feral linden
#

only if they put Frigid Outskirts in Nightreign

languid tiger
#

with the "two agile beast that swap off melee and magic"

#

you joke, but i would love an ice map

frozen olive
glossy delta
frozen olive
#

Demon Prince my beloathed

#

I think Demon Prince for sure would be better in Nightreign though

kind garden
#

it's in Nightreign?

frozen olive
#

So it is

#

I have not looked at the dlc at all

kind garden
#

I still find that fight kind of annoying.

frozen olive
#

I only fought the ds3 ringed city version solo

#

Which was not a fight i liked in any capacity

glossy delta
#

I also have not gotten forsaken hollows!

median rock
#

demon princes in nightreign is remarkably doable when you consider the trio/duo player part

#

sucks solo but like. for better or worse thats not what the game is designed for

frozen olive
#

Solo is just the ds3 experience lmao

#

That's just how the og version was

languid tiger
#

yeah, demon prince was just not a fun sp boss

frozen olive
#

It was not

#

I only did it to say i neat every boss in ds3 solo

#

Which then expanded to doing every fromsouls boss solo, which i am close to doing

median rock
#

yeah but in ds3 you can at least level up a bit more LOL

frozen olive
#

True

covert schooner
#

thinking about sote again

#

god damn miquella is such a good villain

frozen olive
#

SOTE is peak

covert schooner
#

also saw a really interesting read of miquellas curse

#

its not to be a child

#

its to never actually be able to finish anything

#

it's the curse of stagnation, the parallel to his sister's rot

#

he can't grow up, his haligtree will never become divine, he will never complete his metamorphosis, and he is stopped right at the apex of his final goal

frozen olive
#

That is pretty neat

covert schooner
#

god ough

#

also thinking about how it's the culmination of miyazki's like

#

anti-establishment thread in his works

#

we finally meet someone who genuinely wants the best for the world, and has the power to do it, and they end up cutting away everything from themselves that would let them actually know what that is

#

the act of gaining the power to change the world made them blind to it's true needs

frozen olive
#

Also hella killed em in the end

covert schooner
#

?

#

wdym

proven cloak
#

kinda involved them sacrificing being an individual to become a symbol

#

literally depersoned themselves

#

also literally led to their death

proven cloak
frozen olive
gray leaf
#

See, that's interesting, because there's also an argument that Miquella's plan worked until the Tarnished crashed into it and killed him out of nowhere.

#

But the "curse of eternal nascence" idea... is implied, not explicitly stated, but also fits what we see. But there's no textual confirmation that a curse is the reason why none of his plans are completed, which honestly is the right way to write a curse, arguably.

#

SOTE also puts the Age of Stars into more context as... not a bad ending by any means, but certainly not obviously better than the other endings. Because we get to see what people look like when the gods don't talk to them; it's Metyr. Because the story very pointedly conflates gods and mothers, and so to be freed of the meddling of the gods is to be bereft of the comforting voice of your mother.

median rock
#

ok i wrote that while downed i forgot i had an ED balancers run right before that that i actually ragequit for the first time in a long time. but my point stands

image.png
frozen olive
#

Looking at gods voice on earth and original chosen emissary to see the effects of being cut off by god is to me kinda different than seeing how the general populace is affected

#

Also i don't think that it is as much of a revelation as you think, the idea of the age of stars was always shown to be the excision of gods from directing the world, which never was shown to be specifically a good or bad thing

#

To me at least, it's a kind of hail mary in very much a similar vein of the Age of Dark from Dark Souls

#

It's genuinely impossible to know what the result is going to be of seeking that Age (Of Stars/Of Dark), however the status quo cannot be allowed to continue, because we do know what that entails and it's a continuation if a legacy of suffering put upon the world by the gods

#

Which is personally also why i consider it the better of the endings

#

Fracture continues the status quo unmodified, Duskborn adds those who live in death to the elden rings ok people list(i have no fucking clue what ramifications this might entail), Age of Order concretizes the status quo kinda but turns gods into symbolic leaders and as far as i can tell strips them of their actual power over the world by making them a figurehead, Blessing of Despair curses everyone forever, Age of Frenzy returns the primordial soup

#

Fracture, Order and Duskborn continue the status quo mostly which we kinda know the results of

#

Blessing of Despair and Age of Frenzy are just

#

You could maybe read some nuance in Blessing of Despair if you REALLY have to but it is also called blessing of despair and the guy who tells you to do it is named Dung Eater, and he explicitly tells you he wants to curse everyone forever so badly their souls can't even return to the erdtree so, i personally wouldn't think about it too much

#

Age of Stars is the ending that really has big thoughts about changing the status quo that don't start and end with killing/cursing everyone and everything forever

#

I don't think this necessarily makes it better from the lands between to be divested from the Order brought forth by the Greater Will, but it represents choice to me, which i personally think is better than eternal divine rule

frozen olive
#

Miquella iirc was driven to essentially despair over learnimg what his mother did, and chose to go so hard on his path at least partially in reaction to this

frozen olive
#

Sorry if i bulldozed over your point a bit

hybrid perch
hybrid perch
gray leaf
frozen olive
#

I'd argue Blessing of Despair and Age of Frenzy are pretty darn bad but yeah it generally is just up to interpretation and values

gray leaf
#

Okay, yeah, those two are pretty clearly Just Bad.

kind garden
#

the Age of Stars is the Miyazaki anarchism take of "actually authority is kind of bad, even if it makes some people feel better"

frozen olive
#

Mmm

#

Though

#

Ngl

#

SOTE did make it abundantly clear to me the Golden Order had to go

#

It was brought forth by the genocide of the Shaman, for the cause of returning the favor to the Hornsent, with the result of even more genocide and discrimination when it blossomed and took hold of the lands between

#

The Giants, the Omen, the merchants, etc

#

Twas as much order as it was oppression

cinder jay
light bridge
#

Give me Aldia.

frozen olive
#

Aldia invasion event

#

It's a quiz

#

Grandma Torgue style

feral linden
#

Give us and Aldia boss fight where he has an arm that sticks out of the ground when you least expect it

proven cloak
#

most humanized of any of the starborn

#

Gendered, a mother, given emotional reactions like resentment and clinging

#

And you see humans in the game doing the same thing as Metyr, generally.

#

I'd put both Radagon & Rennala in the same space, easy, and more if you start stretching a bit. Messmer too.

proven cloak
#

that's the causality / original sin he's trying to bury

#

I think Ranni has a better solution, and will stop the worst excesses, but I also read that the game is critical of any sort of permanent fix in general.
Rannis works for now, and might make things better, and may have its time to end too. Thats just how it goes.

proven cloak
#

they wanted to reach the heavens and bring about the return of a single God-Person... but also they did everything with the gaols and the shamans before they actually made it up there.

#

Same with the Graven Sorcerer sacrifices

frozen olive
#

Ranni isn't trying for a permanent solution

#

A thousand year voyage to the stars

frozen olive
frozen olive
#

While also enslaving multiple people with his mind whammy powers

#

Ranni is hardly a saint but she only seems to have compelled Seluvis to serve her, and not through mystical means

frozen olive
#

Age of Fracture is the only other ending that isn't trying to make a permanent world altering change, but even that one is trying to continue the rule of Marika the eternal

frozen olive
#

I think it's important that Ranni's plan has that aspect baked in unlike everyone elses

#

she doesn't want to be god queen of an eternal age, she doesn't want to impose her way of doing things eternally, what she does want is change and choice, which i think the Age of Stars likely accomplishes even though we don't know the consequences

#

Though looking at that Miquella also promises a thousand year journey which is interesting

#

A thousand year voyage under the wisdom of the moon VS. A thousand year voyage guided by compassion

#

Comparisons betweem them are interesting

#

Especially cause they both did pretty bad things in the attempt to achieve their goals, though i'd argue Miquella was a fair bit worse

#

Think it's kinda neat that the demigod known for kindness and compassion, that we have seen tangible evidence of, would go to such extremes to the point it kinda just contradicts their goal and ultimately kinda undermines themselves

#

Kinda shows a difference between Miquella's goal of personally enacting compassion on the lands between and Rannis goal of cutting down the throne of god and leaving the lands between to determine its own fate

gray leaf
frozen olive
#

remember that Caelid was Miquella's doing

#

and he fucked over Mohg as well

#

getting both him and Radahn dead

gray leaf
#

Did he do Caelid? It was the consequence of his actions, but arguably it was Malenia's decision to escalate that far, and it's unclear if he charmed her or if she made her decisions out of genuine loyalty. I won't defend his actions with Mohg or Radahn, though.

frozen olive
#

i mean yeah but then you can't really blame Ranni for The Shattering can you

gray leaf
#

We also have no idea how Radahn felt about all this, which really conspicuously changes things. Was he charmed? Did he originally agree of his own free will to go along with Miquella's plan, and then change his mind and break an oath? Was he never consulted with? We really have no idea.

frozen olive
#

it was hardly her intention or direct action that led to it

#

and it certainly was not an exclusive result of Godwyns death, that much i feel confident in saying

gray leaf
#

Fair, although she clearly orchestrated the Night of Black Knives. There... aren't really any clearly good people anywhere in that whole family tree, are there?

frozen olive
#

Godwyn

gray leaf
#

Okay, fair. Godwyn was pretty good.

frozen olive
#

by all means and information we have regarding him

#

he was kind of a boss

#

enough of a boss for a whole ass ancient dragon to shack up in his decrepit corpse dream and force it to keep going while lich-ifying

#

i mean Godwyn could have had a secret dark side, we'd never know, but from everything we hear about him he was the best seemingly

gray leaf
#

Yeah, he was The Good One.

frozen olive
#

and even disregarding that Miquella inarguably had Mohg charmed on stand-by to straight up get corpsed to rez Radahn

gray leaf
#

We don't know. Maybe he said he was going to do the Consort thing and then didn't and Malenia showed up to say "hey, why aren't you doing that thing you said you'd do". The entirety of Scholar of the Erdtree seems to be about situations which invite you to pass judgement with imperfect information.

frozen olive
#

but anyway i'm not trying to say Ranni is not a problematic fave, just that Miquella i personally consider Miquella worse

#

it's pretty inarguable that they're both pretty fucking bad

gray leaf
#

Yeah, definitely.

frozen olive
#

time to commit fratricide

#

that apple did NOT fall far from the tree fr

#

not that Marika didn't have reason to be fucked up but it doesn't exactly excuse throwing babies into the sewer or going around genociding everyone you don't like

gray leaf
#

It's also worth mentioning that it is unclear how much of Ranni's actions are out of some sense of benevolence, and how much are just because she personally did not want the duties and responsibilities of being an Empyrean.

frozen olive
#

yeah

#

i mean i think that that is

#

not really important?

#

at least i don't really consider it too important

#

mostly because of the result

gray leaf
#

It's not actually an important question, but I am a fallible human and somehow it feels worse if she was acting selfishly, you know?

frozen olive
#

again Miquella had pretty fucking benevolent intentions from what we learn in-game

#

and uh

#

well

#

you know

#

how that turned out

frozen olive
#

that's fair

#

it doesn't bother me so i don't really care that much

gray leaf
#

logically it doesn't actually matter that much.

frozen olive
#

i suppose the thing that would bother me is the fact that this very much kinda leads into uh

#

ends justify the means think

#

with Miquella being evil because his end is bad and Ranni being good because hers probably isn't

#

genuinely there is a LOT of parallel between their plans

#

and a surprising amount of overlap in consequences

#

such as fratricide and mass destruction

gray leaf
#

Genuinely, yeah, there really is.

frozen olive
#

like i didn't think about it much before but they kinda are doing the same thing

#

Miquella was just kinda stupid about it and was overreaching and it ended up backfiring

#

the way i see it the big difference in their goals is just

#

Miquella personally wanted to fix everything

#

and Ranni kinda just wanted to put the world in a state where things COULD be fixed

gray leaf
#

I genuinely kind of feel like the main reason why Miquella's plan failed and Ranni's could succeed is because the player character can help Ranni and stops Miquella.

frozen olive
#

Ranni wanted to end the stagnation and let it go however it ended up going

#

Miquella wanted to end the stagnation and personally see to fixing things to his liking

gray leaf
#

Miquella's entire plan is in large part because he wanted to be a god, and Rannis plan is in large part because she wanted to not be a god.

frozen olive
#

true

#

that is also like

#

the big deciding factor

frozen olive
#

i don't see it like this at all

#

because given the choice of the Age of Compassion as an ending

#

i would still kill the bastard

#

i would take his shit smoove off regardless

#

but Rannis plan does kinda feel like it mostly succeeds as we see it in-game because The Tarnished is just mega competent

#

and everything goes down without a hitch even with all the complications that occur because of that

#

dealing with Blaidd and having to fucking tomb raid Nokron would presumably be significant obstacles without the Tarnisheds help

gray leaf
#

We don't really know what the Age of Compassion entails. Maybe he's charming everyone. Maybe he's charming everyone, but rather than making them all love him, he's making them all love each other. And it's clear that his charm does more than just make people love him, given how much more functional it makes Leda and arguably Thiollier. Maybe it's just writing Compassion into the laws of the universe so that it becomes a fundamental force of reality, making it a universal truth that kindness is an objectively good thing.

frozen olive
#

yeah but like

#

i ultimately don't care if the Age of Compassion could be good

#

there isn't a situation where i would not be killing Miquella at the end with events being what they are in the DLC

gray leaf
#

Are there problems with it? Yes, absolutely there are. I feel like the most likely outcome is that the Age of Compassion starts off better but eventually becomes exactly as bad as the previous age.

frozen olive
#

Miquella is Marikas child through and through

#

and as soon as i found that phantom by the sleep pit

#

talking about how Miquella the Kind cut out the compassion from their flesh and soul

#

i was set on my course

frozen olive
#

frankly that's about ho i imagine it going too

gray leaf
#

They didn't cut out their compassion. Compassion is universal and, fundamentally, uncaring. It is being nice to somebody for no reason. Miquella cut out love, because love is biased and personal and involves caring about someone more than about other people.

frozen olive
#

ah

#

well regardless when i found that phantom, and later found St.Trina

#

well, that was that wasn't it

gray leaf
#

It's definitely not a good thing to do, either way!

frozen olive
#

yeah

#

look Miquella was willing to fundamentally mutilate themselves to achieve godhood

#

split themselves in twain, rip off their limbs, cut out the love from their heart

gray leaf
#

I think Miquella saw the Shattering, and saw that people loved Godwyn and went to war over him and made other people die as a result, and said "clearly the problem is having any sort of personal love which puts one person above another in any way". But without love you cannot help the lost.

frozen olive
#

yeah

#

the phantom says it best

gray leaf
plush cliffBOT
#

Yes, but abandoning your flesh for a doll body is inherently based

frozen olive
#

Kindly Miquella... i see you've thrown away... something you should not have. Under any circumstances. How will you salvation offer... to those who cannot be saved? When you could not save even your other self?

frozen olive
#

however, this had a very VERY specific purpose

#

and ultimately was not the same fundamental mutilation

#

Ranni needed her flesh gone for a specific reason and substituted it immediately with a body of her own making/design

#

Miquella cut and cut and by the way things looked in PCR, essentially gutted their humanity to make way for the god to be

#

that to me is pretty insidious

gray leaf
#

The removal of the flesh was in part for Miquella to shed the traces of Marika, in an attempt to create something entirely new rather than merely continuing the existing system for another generation. The removal of love... is arguably out of a similar sentiment as the Age of Order, that a god should not be allowed to play favorites.

frozen olive
#

mmm

#

in this, Miquella is hypocritical to me also

gray leaf
#

It's bad, because Miquella basically kind of doesn't want to be a person, but also is a person. Fundamentally it is not ideal for the pillars of reality to be people with opinions, rather than perfectly objective physical laws, but that's just the way that Elden Ring works and Miquella's attempts to work around it just introduce other problems.

frozen olive
#

yeah

#

also kinda just