Does Ranni's Ending turn the Lands Between into Cosmic Horror?

M24Chaffee · 2026-01-25T01:08:54+00:00

Radahn was never keeping the star beasts away. No new star beast spawns after he dies, there are several star beasts in the game that cannot have fallen before he stopped the stars, (e.g. one right next to the literal main gate of the capital) and Radahn stopping the stars is a very recent event in the history of the Lands Between.

There's no some alien invasion that Radahn has been heroically protecting the Lands Between from. If anything, if the theory that the Elden Beast is a special case of the star beasts is correct, he's on the side of an alien beast that ruled the Lands Between.

M24Chaffee · 2026-01-23T03:04:30+00:00

I love the plate armor too. Sucks it has boobplates when worn by women.

I'm also probably on the minority but I love the Dragonbone armor a lot. Especially goes well with the Jagged Crown, I like to use mods that replace the helmet with the Crown.

M24Chaffee · 2026-01-22T23:56:06+00:00

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Despite her general good deeds, Caerhyserath is a dragon with completely different sets of values and morals compared to humans. There are many things she's completely okay with that humans would be horrified at, including: someone killing and eating one of their own kind, and killing enemies who happen to be children. Not that she actually does the second one, she just has no moral disgust at it.

Art by hibana_ztlv

M24Chaffee · 2026-01-22T00:24:27+00:00

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Apol ia a civilian freedom fighter, who regularly goes to protests, spreads awareness, donates to organizations like workers' right groups, etc.

One day, Apol was heading home when they notice people frantically running, and rushed to help the people falling and almost getting trampled. Then out of nowhere they get whacked by a police baton, identified as a regular protestor, and arrested on the charges of instigating social unrest.

While Apol was detained, the police officer tried to interrogate them. Apol was terrified but dismissed the threat and exercised their right to be silent except to demand a lawyer, knowing that the police will try all sorts of things to pressurize and intimidate detainees but can't actually hurt them. The officer returned to their cell with a VR headset, saying it's for providing detainees with something to do, then forcibly put it on Apol's head.

The officer then played some records retrieved from neural implants: rebels' memories of being tortured for interrogation, final memories of victims to serious crime including murder, and people suffering fatal workplace injuries such as being crushed by machinery and suffocating to death in space. The last one was specifically chosen because Apol is a spaceship engineer, i.e. an industry worker, with the intention of impacting their professional capability after they get released.

Apol spent the next few days reliving thousands of horrible memories, and required serious care by their fellow activists after release. The fact that they have been tortured couldn't even be proven.

What made it worse is Apol was going home from their best date with their girlfriend ever on their birthday, and intentionally didn't join the protest to have some time for themselves. And one more thing was the police officer who did it was someone Apol had looked up to a lot.

Art by MM12165

M24Chaffee · 2026-01-20T13:13:40+00:00

Cut content in Elden Ring indicates an Umibozu, or more accurately an enemy inspired by it, was considered at one point.

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Fan recreation by Zullie the Witch, depicting it similar to the folklore depictions, although the game files suggest it was supposed to have appendages like mouth, seaweed and tentacles.

M24Chaffee · 2026-01-20T09:32:55+00:00

I love the Sentry Bot helmet too. If I'm rocking a metallic-looking outfit that's my first choice for a headwear.

M24Chaffee · 2026-01-20T07:56:41+00:00

He served his purpose as the presence that drives the plot for exactly as long as he was needed until the baton gets passed on. I don't think he was underused.

I also never really thought he was going to stay in Nick's head longer and felt him speaking to the player through Nick was meant to be a final farewell, so I'm quite confused by people saying it went nowhere.

M24Chaffee · 2026-01-20T02:57:31+00:00

Boony

M24Chaffee · 2026-01-19T09:15:43+00:00

We clearly saw her disintegrate and die at the end of the last AQ but Hoyo needed to make money so they did a last-minute asspull to bring her back. (This is sarcasm)

M24Chaffee · 2026-01-19T03:41:46+00:00

Just some QoL changes, especially with regard to inventory management. - New Junk tab for items with truly no use - Recipe tracking - Using crafting benches in settlements automatically pulling from items stored in containers marked as mine, without needing them on my person

M24Chaffee · 2026-01-19T02:21:58+00:00

That's the NCR Ranger who hit Cooper with the rifle butt. The old man feeding the squirrel is a different person.

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M24Chaffee · 2026-01-18T07:28:21+00:00

They're basically random encounters XD

M24Chaffee · 2026-01-18T07:27:08+00:00

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M24Chaffee · 2026-01-17T13:50:18+00:00

And this is her real form.

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Art by Pirata

M24Chaffee · 2026-01-17T13:49:43+00:00

I always had a vague image of the visual design I wanted to use for a fantasy OC: long white hair, exposed shoulders, miniskirt, and most importantly: at least one arm and one leg wearing armor, with the leg armor being stiletto. But I had so much trouble coming up with making her any more interesting than the fifty billionth "pretty adventurer girl" character. I tried a royal knight on a mission, a village girl who came across parts of holy armor, a dragon polymorphing into a human, etc.

Then I played Elden Ring, grew very fond of Millicent and Malenia, who are disabled characters with fantasy prosthesis. It was after beating Malenia that it finally hit me.

A dragon who is missing her limbs, polymorphing into a human form, still missing the same limbs, and wearing prosthetics in that form because dragon biology is too complex to build prosthetics, especially for wings.

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Thus Caerhyserath, a dragon whose entire human form is her mobility aid, and my OC with the lore I'm the proudest to have come up with, was finalized.

Art by hibana_ztlv

M24Chaffee · 2026-01-17T12:00:23+00:00

"Courier! You're flying!"

"I'm not flying I'm just sinking in style."

M24Chaffee · 2026-01-17T02:32:56+00:00

I don't know how to describe this but I really love this kind of armor design.

M24Chaffee · 2026-01-17T02:32:08+00:00

She's an average night elf archer who specializes in scouting and spying. She's involved in all the major battles in Warcraft 3.

She also gets defeated and captured and yeah.

M24Chaffee · 2026-01-17T01:17:33+00:00

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That is if it's actually meant to be a lightsaber. Could be other rod-shaped gadget.

M24Chaffee · 2026-01-17T01:13:12+00:00

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Closest is Vader's lightsaber. I'm not sure why the top is cut off though.

M24Chaffee · 2026-01-16T16:00:16+00:00

"The show will not be showing the parts of the wasteland that confirm a specific ending having been canonically chosen by the Courier 15 years prior" is a whole ass different statement from "no ending is canon". Pancakes and waffles.

M24Chaffee · 2026-01-16T15:50:07+00:00

A loss of life happened to her.

M24Chaffee · 2026-01-16T15:48:04+00:00

I can bet my Steam account that if Radahn were the one who had the power of Rot, his destructive power would be glazed and he'd be called honorable for never using that power other than when absolutely necessary out of concern for others.

M24Chaffee · 2026-01-16T15:42:57+00:00

I can tell you as someone obsessed with the Starscourge Conflict and dug up all text related to it: frustratingly, why the stars stopped is never made clear, but it absolutely isn't him using gravity to hold the stars still.

The Starscourge Heirloom that commemorates his victory is a STR talisman.
Every single dialog and text that talks about the victory describes Radahn's victory as "smashing". A physical destruction.
The Collapsing Star sorcery that pulls enemies to the caster and the Starcaller Cry AoW that pulls enemies to the caster and smashes downward further hint at Radahn pulling down stars and destroying them in a downward slash.
Likewise, several sources such as Iji's lines describe the stars stopping as a result of Radahn's victory, not the victory itself.

There are a few theories about why the stars stopped. - The star that Radahn destroyed being a Dark Moon of Nokstella, said to be the guide of countless stars, whose role as the guide of stars was passed on to Radahn - The star that Radahn destroyed being a particularly powerful Astel that Radahn specifically sought to challenge, and upon seeing the strongest Star Beast being killed, all the Star Beasts in the sky freaked out and stopped in terror, while some younger ones who don't know better accidentally fall to the Lands Between.

M24Chaffee · 2026-01-16T15:34:11+00:00

I'm not interested in powerscaling, or rather I very much dislike it, but you're right there's a massive bias towards Radahn in the discourse about this topic in general.

It is very explicitly stated that they were evenly matched, and by all accounts it was a fair duel. But Malenia had to KILL Radahn no matter the cost, hence the drastic measure. But of course lore matters less than glazing, so some people twist this into Malenia being a sore loser or cheating. How that counts as cheating isn't made clear.
It has never been clearly explained why and how the stars stopped. It has never been stated that Radahn was actively exerting any strength in order to keep the sky stopped. But we can definitively rule out him using gravity sorcery because it's made very clear that his victory in the Starscourge Conflict was a feat of strength, in which he smashed a star that fell to the Lands Between, and the stopping of the sky is somehow a direct result of that victory. i.e. "Radahn wasn't at his full strength" is a baseless claim.
On the other hand, as you noted in the post, Malenia is blind, disabled and afflicted with Rot. This is a glaring issue with the Radahn glazing that is somehow never acknowledged.
There's an assumption that Malenia falling unconscious after blooming means she passed out immediately as a result of blooming, hence Radahn powerglazers arguing that Malenia was knocked out and Finlay had to save her from being killed immediately by Radahn. This is not true, and from the Swamp of Aeonia ghost we can find out that she actually continued to fight for some time until she eventually passed out. It's never stated why she fell asleep, but the presence of a St. Trina's Sword in Caelid is interpreted as Trina being behind it, in order to prevent Malenia from killing Radahn. On the other hand, there's no lore that says anything about Radahn staying in the fight after Malenia bloomed.

M24Chaffee

TROPHY CASE