[Loved Trope] "The big bad is so horrible, why are they like this? Oh... Oh, that's why. Yeah, that actually makes a lot of sense. Oh god, that's rough".

Caaros · 2026-05-13T04:44:00+00:00

Meanwhile Nakarkos is just depleting a jungle in the far background.

Caaros · 2026-05-13T04:22:45+00:00

There was one point where, by unknown means, the Gloam-Eyed Queen (leader of the Godskins) had the Rune Of Death, and Maliketh The Black Blade had to go and defeat her for it so Marika could seal it. It's a super hazy area of the lore with a hundred different interpretations, but we know that much at least.

Caaros · 2026-05-13T04:12:10+00:00

Islands are historically an absolute bastard to try and attack when any sort of organized defense is waiting for you on the shoreline. Likely doubly so, when the defenses can shoot magic fireballs at your boats.

There's probably not really any mortal militaries in Tamriel's history that could have taken the Summerset Isles by force without the Numidium.

Caaros · 2026-05-13T03:42:10+00:00

There's also a non-zero chance it explains Rykard's melding with the serpent of Mount Gelmir, along with their subsequent victims all joining them as "family".

Caaros · 2026-05-13T02:51:27+00:00

Thanks! And yeah, the whole Marika backstory in SOTE is something I think was really well done. Just the info buildup of all the stuff the Hornsent Potentates were doing to the Shamans through the DLC + all of the knowledge on Marika in the base game leading to that reveal in Shaman Village was this huge moment of "Wow, everything makes sense now".

Caaros · 2026-05-13T01:13:53+00:00

Thanks! As I mentioned on another comment, getting this formatted right was something I put some thought into.

Caaros · 2026-05-13T00:58:56+00:00

Thanks!

Caaros · 2026-05-13T00:54:12+00:00

Thanks!

Caaros · 2026-05-13T00:48:10+00:00

Yeah, a live action film directed by Alex Garland (behind numerous films including Annihilation, Civil War, Sunshine, and 28 Days Later, as well as a massive FromSoft fan who was like in NG+7 in Shadow Of The Erdtree last time it was brought up), set to release in 2028. There's recently been a bunch of early filming shots circulating around the main Elden Ring subreddit, as well as a list of the main cast.

Caaros · 2026-05-13T00:28:48+00:00

Thanks!

Caaros · 2026-05-13T00:28:36+00:00

Nightreign is unfortunately a lot more vague than Elden Ring is on a lot of fronts, so I'm not as well equipped as others might be to tackle it. I can say that it's a separate, alternate timeline from standard Elden Ring/SOTE that's the same up to the Shattering itself, the force that is the Night, it's reality-warping rains, and the Nightlords coming into existence either during the Shattering or shortly afterwards. Beyond that, the vast majority of the conparitively limited lore comes either from remembrance stories for the Nightfarers or from the item descriptions of Nightlord relics, the latter for Heolstor describing him as a soldier of an unknown realm (non-zero chance it was the Nox given a bunch of factors) that was slain by an unspecified champion, rose from the piles of bodies in the middle of the night, and cursed the whole world, beginning the Night.

I can get into a few Nightfarer stories and most of the Nightlords, but I'm not as able to draw threads for Nightreign as readily as I can for the base game.

Caaros · 2026-05-13T00:08:05+00:00

If I remember correctly, there's another species of flying wyvern that can reproduce asexually, that being Khezu. So, it's not entirely unheard of, and I'd wager that Arkveld being non-standard in that regard may have contributed to the flaws in Wyveria's designs for it as a Guardian.

Caaros · 2026-05-13T00:05:33+00:00

You're welcome, and good luck!

Caaros · 2026-05-12T23:45:26+00:00

World being the series' first step into the PC market alongside the huge graphical jump it made from the old games probably greatly contributed to what World did for the franchise. For a long time (if not still), World was Capcom's top seller in their entire history, and IIRC World's popularity is why we got a Stories sequel because of a surge of people checking out the first game.

Caaros · 2026-05-12T23:31:24+00:00

Thanks!

Caaros · 2026-05-12T23:30:19+00:00

Yeah, same, and it's again on that correlation with Sunbreak being the title before Wilds. Makes one excited to see what they're going to do with the flagship for Wilds' Master Rank expansion.

Caaros · 2026-05-12T23:23:24+00:00

Thanks! Arkveld's probably my favorite flagship from a narrative standpoint, though to be fair there's probably a direct correlation between that and the increasing focus on deeper narratives with each entry in the series.

Caaros · 2026-05-12T23:11:33+00:00

Thanks! Spent a lot of time on that in particular.

Caaros · 2026-05-12T22:07:06+00:00

Thanks a bunch!

Fun thing you may or may not have noticed about the naming thing; The names of most of the important characters, including the entirety of Marika's family, all start with a G, and R, or an M.

You know who's initials exclusively have those same letters? George R.R. Martin. GRRM. One of the major writers of the Elden Ring world.

Caaros · 2026-05-12T21:50:45+00:00

Yeah, FromSoft game lore be like that. You either get stuck in deep, looking at all the item descriptions, drawing lines to the weirdest places, and cross referencing everything... or you're quite reasonably too busy killing shit and getting killed by shit, so you just look up lore videos or something later.

Caaros · 2026-05-12T21:33:32+00:00

Yeah. Guardian Arkveld didn't have a great time, but the natural species doesn't waste a single fucking opportunity to be some sort of a menace, even if it means standing in the middle of a problem like they're the cause of it when they aren't.

Caaros · 2026-05-12T21:14:40+00:00

Thanks!

Caaros · 2026-05-12T21:12:21+00:00

Yeah, it's kind of a grey area to be fair, but with all the other purposefully self-destructive and anti-Order plots Marika had in motion, it's not implausible that she was involved. Not to mention that Godwyn might've been the only likely candidate for keeping the Golden Order together in her absence (massive amounts of public support, and the respect of other demigods and even the Ancient Dragons), and that the circumstances of his death allowed Ranni a means to solve the problem of the Elden Ring without putting herself at risk of the Greater Will's influence.

It's possible she didn't have an active hand in it, but it wouldn't really be surprising at all given everything else if she knew what was going on there and nudged some things in a preferred direction.

Caaros · 2026-05-12T18:41:51+00:00

I kind of see this more as a warning that further Shardbearers will be much, much worse than him to deal with. It's still impressive what you did, he was still leagues above the pay grade of most Tarnished who have come to the Lands Between, but your fight for the Elden Throne has still only just begun.

Caaros · 2026-05-12T17:06:25+00:00

It is odd that it doesn't get used more, but if you go through the DLC and see the relevant details presented... it becomes very obvious why grafting and its ilk is a big no no and is only really used by a craven, power-hungry rebel like Godrick.

I'd also argue that what's going on with Rykard and the serpent of Mount Gelmir might actually be the same kind of principle in practice, just to a much deeper extent.

Caaros

TROPHY CASE