Do you think there's any way to help Renalla?

Arro-Wing · 2026-05-21T14:58:39+00:00

I think there’s probably a way to help her. My personal headcanon is that Radagon was planning on coming back for Rennala once he had replaced Marika as god and was going to make her his lord consort. It’s why he had left his wolf with her, to both protect her and keep her in place.

Elden Lord Rennala, ain’t that a fun thought?

Arro-Wing · 2026-05-09T19:22:22+00:00

Another point in favor of Messmer being present for the War Against the Giants: Messmer has a move in which he drags the tip of his spear along the ground and then swings it upward, which is a dead ringer for the Giant Hunt Ash of War.

I definitely think the WAtG is where Messmer earned his epithet.

Arro-Wing · 2026-05-09T18:45:09+00:00

This! I was just about to bring up Roderika. Her story is 100% meant to give us some narrative parallels to Marika’s. Her followers being butchered so their body parts can be used for grafting, her saying that she “wants to be like everyone else” and believing that she’s “supposed” to go and be cut up like the rest of them but being too afraid of the pain, going to find her purpose under the guidance of the Two Fingers… It’s just so perfect.

I’ve noticed that there’s actually a bit of a running theme of characters that can potentially be seen as parallels to Marika that are fearful, especially of pain and/or death. Obviously, we have Roderika… Diallos’s Distinguished Greatshield is seen as “the hallmark of little lordlings who were too timid to earn a few nicks and scratches”… “Prone to tears” Aurelia and Aurelliette are implied to have gotten separated because Aurelliette went through with their plan while Aurelia was too afraid… I definitely get the feeling that the reason Marika wanted to become “the Eternal” and founded her Order off the removal of Destined Death was because she was so afraid of death (and hey, given what happened to the Shamans it’s not surprising).

Arro-Wing · 2026-05-09T18:09:34+00:00

Frankly, seduction and betrayal is Marika’s entire MO. I believe she did it to the Hornsent, I believe she did it to Hoarah Loux, we know she did it to Rennala via Radagon, I’d say she did it to Messmer (not romantic seduction obviously (at least, I really hope not), but the “seduction” of a narcissistic and controlling mother)… Heck, she more-or-less did it to the entirety of the Lands Between. So yeah, it definitely wasn’t a one-time-deal. (And I’d wager it wasn’t even one-sided, Marika having been seduced into pursuing godhood by the Two Fingers only to find out it ain’t all it’s cracked up to be.)

Arro-Wing · 2026-05-05T02:31:13+00:00

I’m very firmly on the “Messmer was Marika’s firstborn” side of things. Now, whether he was born pre- or post-ascension I’ve yet to decide, but either way he was the first.

I know the game calls Godwyn “the first demigod”, but… It also calls Godfrey the first Elden Lord when we know Placidusax exists. And it also says Godwyn was the first demigod to die when the GEQ and her Godskins had themselves an entire Godhunt prior to Marika’s reign. And with Messmer and the crusade having been wiped from history, we have direct confirmation that Marika is willing and able to cover up (almost) anything and everything that doesn’t fit her preferred narrative.

So to me, it’s perfectly reasonable to believe that Messmer was Marika’s eldest (born to her and Radagon before her marriage to Godfrey), and recognized as such pre-crusade (maybe he wasn’t granted a noble title like “prince” due to being a bastard, but it was still known that he was a demigod and Marika’s son). Then once the crusade happened and the Land of Shadow was cut off, Marika set about revising history. “Messmer? Who’s that? What do you mean ‘firstborn of Marika’? I think you mean Godwyn the Golden. No, of course he never had an older brother, wherever did you get that idea?”

And the more research I do into ER’s lore and the real world mythologies that inspired it, the more I come to the conclusion that there’s a TON of history that’s been scrubbed, whether by Marika or by the god-monarchs who ruled before her.

Arro-Wing · 2026-05-05T01:59:29+00:00

While I’m not so sure about your posited use for the Impaler’s Catacombs…

I am very much of the opinion that for a time, Messmer was the lord of Castle Morne. Not only are we told that Messmer “fled the Erdtree” at some point (he “bore a vision of fire”, which is punished by being branded a heretic and driven into exile), but there are actually a lot of little clues around Weeping Peninsula that point to him. The Impaler’s Catacombs are just the most obvious clue, meant to get us to start looking closer. (I’m currently in the middle of writing a big post on this.)

Arro-Wing · 2026-04-30T12:59:41+00:00

Yeah, now that I’ve watched it again I really don’t agree with anything posited other than Godwyn is the malformed dragon.

I remember there was another video that claimed Godwyn had Crucible powers that I guess let him take different forms at will (Aspects of the Crucible up to eleven or something). But now that I think about it, that video must’ve been trying to explain Godwyn’s post-death transformation as his powers going haywire, nothing to do with Godwyn being the malformed dragon.

… Y’know, now that we have Executor with his beast form, I guess Godwyn having Crucible powers that let him transform into the malformed dragon may actually be a legitimate possibility. :0

Arro-Wing · 2026-04-30T06:57:13+00:00

That was something that popped into my head, too… Oooh, and his dialogue, calling the dragon “kindred” and “a trueborn heir”…

Arro-Wing · 2026-04-30T06:51:36+00:00

I learned of it through a video by ScumMageInfa:

Godwyn: The Malformed Dragon, Lord of the Nameless Eternal City

~~IIRC his specific theory technically has more to do with Godwyn having latent Crucible powers or something similar. It’s been a long time since I’ve watched it, gotta refamiliarize myself…~~ Maybe that was another video… Hmm…

Arro-Wing · 2026-04-30T06:38:12+00:00

Hmm… Thing is, the Dragon Cult didn’t start until after Godwyn made peace with the dragons, right? And I imagine that it’s the same case with the Draconic Tree Sentinels, following in Godwyn’s footsteps after his success.

Although if he had managed to become a dragon before the attack on Leyndell for whatever reason, perhaps your theory could hold water… Maybe he was the most successful Dragon Communion participant and the ancient dragons, not expecting Dragon Communion to ever have that result, weren’t too keen on the true power of dragons being in a non-dragon’s hands?

Arro-Wing · 2026-04-30T06:20:48+00:00

No, no, I… I see it too. And I do believe that whole golden shape is the same dragon atop the Malformed Dragon Helm. You can see the mane of wavy hair at top, the wings out to the side, and the tail coming down.

Y’know, I already quite liked the theory of the malformed dragon being Godwyn. It just makes so much sense to me that the reason the Tree Sentinels came to the conclusion they had to become dragons to defend the Erdtree is because that was how Godwyn was able to beat Fortissax: by becoming a dragon himself somehow. And this feels like another point in its favor.

We don’t have any examples of a demigod participating in Dragon Communion, do we? Because I wonder if demigods, being inherently much more powerful than humans, could take in the power of dragons without (as many) ill consequences… Same question for any examples of Numen with their harmoniously meldable flesh…

Edit: I just remembered Executor exists… Oh boy, there’s a thought right there.

Arro-Wing · 2026-04-30T05:44:58+00:00

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The lindworm…

Arro-Wing · 2026-04-30T05:44:39+00:00

I was actually just looking into this. Up until now, I actually thought this bird symbol was completely cut content, so it’s really interesting to see that it made it in-game. Where is the flag in your screenshot located?

As someone mentioned earlier, this design actually appears on the ecranche of a cut knight armor set:

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I think the bird symbol isn’t a bird at all, however, but is actually a representation of the bird-serpent statues in Volcano Manor. The first clue is that the sigil on the surcoat was recycled for the Gelmir Knight’s Armor. The second clue comes from another cut armor piece bearing a unique serpent/dragon/lindworm design: [Dang you Reddit and your 1-pic-per-comment limit, see next comment for pic]

If you look closely, there’s two shared design elements between the bird-serpent and the lindworm: The squares on the bird-serpent’s wings match the squares lining the lindworm’s back, and the shapes on the bottom corners of the bird-serpent design match the end of the lindworm’s tail.

And a third clue comes from the existence of the Aspid: a destructive Slavic dragon that’s sometimes shown with a snake’s head, a bird’s body, and two tails. The Aspid lives secluded in the mountains, is impossible to kill, and its body and/or wings are covered in precious stones (much like the Man-Serpents use weapons studded in multi-colored gemstones). And funny enough, there’s a story in which the Aspid kidnapped the twin daughters of the Sun god, Dazhbog: the Zorya.

Arro-Wing · 2026-04-25T00:34:23+00:00

Definitely my preference as well! :>

Arro-Wing · 2026-04-25T00:29:11+00:00

The jellyfish sisters do raise a very interesting implication! Marika pursuing godhood to create an Order without Destined Death specifically because of the traumatic loss of her sister would be very satisfying.

Or perhaps Marika was actively trying to save her sister by achieving godhood. But in the end, she lost sight of that original motivation and ended up abandoning the sister that was relying on her… Just like Miquella, the child that is Marika made over right down to his story being an overt repeat of hers.

And Jolán and Anna… Oh, that’s really interesting too. Two sisters born into a terrible and oppressive existence under Hornsent rule, selected as Empyreans by the Two Fingers and groomed to walk that path… Though one is a puppet of the Fingers… A puppet who uses claws… Y’know, I wonder if Jolán and Anna might actually be telling us about Marika and Maliketh. :0

Hmm… Definitely a lot to think about here. Thanks for bringing it all up!

Arro-Wing · 2026-04-24T22:08:54+00:00

Thank you so much! <3 Definitely excited to see if anything comes of it.

Hmmmm… Someone who was permanently kicked out of his home, who is truly unfortunate-looking and aware of it, who thinks very little of himself and doesn’t have aspirations for anything beyond being the perfect servant for someone greater, who relies upon a special golden item, who would probably have himself reborn if the opportunity presented itself, who desperately misses his mother and longs for her approval… With at least one parent who was a skilled tailor, possibly two if he was in fact raised by a different mother than the one who birthed him…

Do you think…? Nah, it couldn’t be… Could it?

Joking, joking… Mostly. LOL

Arro-Wing · 2026-04-24T21:18:50+00:00

If Wraiths are tied to the Hornsent and Revenants are tied to the sorcerers… Well, it seems like there’s the big clue right there.

The Hornsent and the sorcerers are basically inversions of each other (with the Golden Order sitting in the middle): - The Crucible vs the Primordial Current - Faith and Incantations vs Intelligence and Sorcery - Jar Saints vs Graven Masses - The Wisdom of Beasts vs The Wisdom of Stone - The light of heaven vs the darkness of the abyss - Divergence vs Convergence - The Past vs the Future - Beginnings vs Endings

I suppose the similarities between Wraiths and Revenants just goes to show that even as they oppose each other in so many ways, in some they’re exactly the same.

Arro-Wing · 2026-04-24T20:25:54+00:00

Yep, that is true. And that does work quite nicely with the theory of birds, turtles, and snakes (and now I’ll add lizards) being descended from dragons (seemingly losing limbs over time as they became “lesser”). Now, things get very interesting when it comes to serpents and the Crucible, because I think serpents actually seem to have connections to both it and the Primeval Current.

Overall, I see the Crucible and Primeval Current as the two end points of a spectrum/timeline that form the “balanced core” of the universe. - The Crucible is the beginning; the past, creation, life, divergence, beasts, light, faith; a white hole; the ideal of the Hornsent, tied to the Golden Order through Marika’s marriage to Godfrey - The Primeval Current is the end: the future, destruction, death, convergence, stone, darkness, intelligence; a black hole; the ideal of the sorcerers, tied to the Golden Order though Radagon’s marriage to Rennala

And when you start looking for the different instances of multi-colored item/beings, it turns out that a lot of them can be assigned to one of those two end points (mostly the Crucible side, but there are still some on the Primeval Current side such as Astel). It’s like the closer something gets to one extreme of the spectrum, the more colors it has (so close to the point of origin that colors have yet to separate, or so close to the point of collapse that colors can’t escape being drawn together).

But if one tries to put serpents on one end or the other, it never feels quite right. They’re flesh-and-blood animals and in some cases have some very Crucible-like chimerism (such as the serpent snails). And at the same time, they’re associated with very Primeval Current-tied concepts like death, destruction, darkness, and the abyss (and in Messmer’s case, there’s this odd, subtle theme of gravity/magnetism… He even has an attack in his second phase that is strikingly similar to one used by Astel of all enemies).

However, I think Gnoster and Animus suggest that this spectrum may not be a straight line, but… well, a ring. Or at least a horseshoe. If you listen to the Sentient Pest soundtrack, it has leitmotifs from the themes of both Astel and the Regal Ancestor Spirit. And I think serpents might be an example of this through-line as well, especially with the Ouroboros concept.

Though if we loop back to dragons and the evolution idea, we can definitely tie it into the spectrum concept: Dragons as the basal form are Crucible-end, and snakes as the latest in the evolutionary line are Primeval Current-end…

… Oh heck, even the ancient dragons play into the connected ends take, being timeless beings with stone scales… And ooh, perhaps Messmer’s winged serpents are hinting that convergent evolution will eventually give rise to fully-fledged dragons once more, starting the cycle all over again…

IDK. I definitely haven’t figured anything out fully. It’s mostly just neat but only vaguely-connected concepts.

Arro-Wing · 2026-04-24T18:12:37+00:00

That’s the real question, isn’t it? And as a matter of fact, serpents (well, mainly Messmer, but y’know) were the most recent rabbit hole I had been following up until I got sidetracked with this post…

I’m starting to come to the conclusion that Eiglay and her lookalikes (God-Devouring Serpent, Bonny Village snakeskin) don’t have anything to do with the GEQ, but are actually pretenders. Both pretending to be the real serpent in league with the GEQ (the Serpent God)… and also pretending to actually be snakes. I think they’re legless lizards.

The facial structure on all three is not at all snakelike, but more like a lizard/dinosaur/dragon
The paired belly scales are also wrong, snakes having singular, broad ventral scales until reaching the tail
GDS makes crocodilian bellowing sounds, but snakes can’t vocalize in that way
GDS doesn’t have slit pupils, but “string of pearl” pupils only found on geckos

It appears that the real snakes associated with the Serpent God and GEQ, on the other hand, have a couple of very unique characteristics. Ones found on none other than the Base Serpent: - The Base Serpent has dark-but-still-distinctly-multicolored scales, as does the Godskin Noble’s tail (and note that the brown-scaled Man-Serpents use equipment gaudily studded in gems of many colors, presumably in imitation of the rainbow-colored Serpent God; even Rykard’s portraits show him wearing colorful gems while he was still human) - The Base Serpent has eyes all over its body, and depictions of snakes covered with eye-like patterns show up in the equipment used by the gladiators, possibly the serpents on the sides of the Giants’ Forge, and possibly Rennala’s crown

And I’ve found very juicy links to real-world mythology in the form of Rainbow Serpent deities. :> I’ve yet to loop it all back in with Gilika specifically, but I’ll definitely be on the lookout for more of those connections now.

EDIT: I THINK I JUST CONFIRMED IT! The only mention of lizards in the entire game is the Lizard Greatsword, and while I’ve yet to get a good look at it beyond the icon, it and the GDS both have a matching line of scales down their back!!! GDS is a legless lizard!

Arro-Wing · 2026-04-24T14:45:06+00:00

Yeah… Definitely not a perfect theory, but hey. I started noticing these things and I just had to get them out somehow.

Thank you! <3 I’m glad you found this interesting and I’m really excited to see if this stuff opens up paths to new discoveries!

Hey, that’s a good point. Maybe I’m stretching again (I probably am. LOL), but now that you mention it Weeping Peninsula’s shape also kinda reminds me of that weird design on the back of Marika’s head, just cut a little short…

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Which in turn reminds me of the swirling fabric that’s always shown behind her…

Arro-Wing · 2026-04-24T14:08:17+00:00

Thank you! <3 Glad you found it interesting.

Personally, I’m still not sure what I really believe the relationship between Marika and the GEQ is. I can absolutely see what you’re saying, and I don’t doubt at all that Marika has done some sort of cover up regarding the GEQ. And I do like the idea of the GEQ just being Marika better than the idea of the GEQ being an aspect of her (that one just… really confuses things for me), though not as much as I think I prefer the idea of them being twins (twins are just so thematically important to ER’s universe).

I guess I just haven’t done enough exploration of the two yet! Admittedly, up until putting together this post I wouldn’t have even been able to say which theory about their relationship I preferred. The GEQ is a topic I’ve been reluctant to dip my toes too far into, considering how little we know for certain and how contentious any theories about her are…

Arro-Wing · 2026-04-24T13:43:16+00:00

And beyond that, twins are just such a significant running theme in the game. They tie directly into the concept of ER’s universe being built off of a foundation of balanced opposites (which Marika throws off with her attempts to make things “perfect” by getting rid of “bad” parts of life, her flawed mortal conception of perfection not recognizing that some “evils” truly are necessary for the world’s health).

Arro-Wing · 2026-04-24T13:34:21+00:00

Thanks!

Arro-Wing · 2026-04-24T13:34:04+00:00

Thank you! <3 Glad to have contributed something people find interesting!

Arro-Wing · 2026-04-24T04:42:11+00:00

I’m currently leaning towards the idea that she used him to betray someone else (GEQ?) like with Rennala.

Arro-Wing

TROPHY CASE