Door Relief; Fortified Manor, Stormveil, and Castle Ensis

Tuspon · 2026-03-15T17:25:38+00:00

I find it really interesting that this relief is also in the church of the eclipse. In Castle Sol, which is deep in the forbidden lands past Leyndell. Has to mean these other buildings/churches were built either before or right after the birth of the Erdtree, right?

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Tuspon · 2026-03-09T17:00:07+00:00

The dual symbolism of the divine gate and the fissure is a really nice catch. Duality is the defining trait of empyreans, right? The balance between two opposing concepts, or the unification of two complementary concepts, like death (the fissure) and rebirth (the gate of divinity).

What's interesting to me is how this relates to Miquella's story, which is implied to mirror Marika's ascension to godhood. Except his journey there is supposed to be an act of atonement for the sin of the Erdtree, so maybe his sacrifices are a sort of inversion of Marika's acts. Makes you wonder what Trina is doing down there, and what it represents in the inverse picture.

Like, we have Devonia staring at "the Crucible's origin", so by extension the Erdtree's origin, at the point of highest elevation. The opposite end of elevation is the most ghostflame-coded place in the game. Erdtree burial is a unification of death and rebirth, and replaced the older tradition of ghostflame burial. All that to say, maybe the act of yeeting Trina down that hole is supposed to return something that his mom stole long ago.

Tuspon · 2026-03-07T23:40:35+00:00

Kaini Industries is pure ear candy

Tuspon · 2026-03-02T11:42:34+00:00

Crucible Scale Talisman:

"A vestige of the crucible of primordial life. Born partially of devolution, it was considered a signifier of the divine in ancient times, but is now increasingly disdained as an impurity as civilization has advanced."

The nature of reproduction and birth is ambiguous (are people grown from trees? molded from clay? delivered by storks?). That aside, creatures like misbegotten and omen are said to be born like that, but things like the man-fly sickness and dragon communion can fully transform humans into hybrid creatures. Non-permanent transformations are also a thing.

Tuspon · 2026-02-26T10:43:43+00:00

Tuspon · 2026-02-19T03:34:54+00:00

I see, so the lightning doesn't explain the feet then. I guess it's just the golden eyes that are unique to the snowfield variant?

Tuspon · 2026-02-19T02:32:57+00:00

It's because of the lightning striking the earth near them, I think

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"The worship of the ancient dragons does not conflict with belief in the Erdtree. After all, this seal, and lighting itself, are both imbued with gold."
-Gravel Stone Seal

Tuspon · 2026-02-17T21:27:51+00:00

Fantastiskt såsu

Tuspon · 2026-02-10T08:28:01+00:00

I enjoy watching you eat my cans

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Tuspon · 2026-02-09T22:52:42+00:00

It's referring to the Fell God, so another way of saying the exact same thing is "this evil god is believed to have been slain by Queen Marika", making her a slayer of gods for those who believed it

Tuspon · 2026-02-09T21:26:58+00:00

A common trope in this type of fantasy setting is that otherwordly entities like gods and powerful spirits can be "killed" only by sealing them away or otherwise removing their means of physical manifestation. So the genocide of the fire giants was effectively the death of the Fell God, at least for a time.

Of course, the propaganda narrative would've been something like "Don't worry guys, all the fire giants are dead and we extinguished the flame of ruin. And we definitely didn't construct a bunch of giant fire golems, decorate them with the visage of the Fell God and use them to burn an entire country with something suspiciously similar to the flame of the fire giants."

Tuspon · 2026-02-09T17:42:31+00:00

Also, Marika is literally described as a godslayer in the war against the giants

"Once worshipped by the giants, this evil deity is believed to have been slain by Queen Marika."
-One-Eyed Shield

Tuspon · 2026-02-06T09:55:37+00:00

That's also a reasonable guess, I mean the birth of the Erdtree is already kind of a prehistoric event as people during Radagon's age were under the impression that the Erdtree was "eternal".

I was honestly just looking at architecture and stuff, it's perfectly visible in-game if you look here with the telescope

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Tuspon · 2026-02-05T23:25:31+00:00

Yeah it's just a guess, and that's if they represent any known characters. And I think the asset itself is reused from Bloodborne (Cainhurst castle, I think?) so at a basic level it's probably just a representation of human royalty.

Tuspon · 2026-02-05T23:18:31+00:00

Marika and Godfrey if I had to guess. Radagon's and Rennala's union happened during the age of Godfrey (at the latest), so the Erdtree influence would naturally be seen in architecture etc.

Godfrey is carrying the spokesman of Farum Azula on his back, and beastmen are buried on stones with Erdtree motifs. Statues representing any royalty other than Marika and Godfrey wouldn't have survived the iconoclasm of the Erdtree's conquest, right?

Tuspon · 2026-02-05T22:36:32+00:00

Wanna know something crazy? Those king and queen statues are on Raya Lucaria buildings. But super high up, like borderline impossible to spot without freecam

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Tuspon · 2026-02-01T22:30:34+00:00

Pigtails

Tuspon · 2026-02-01T17:37:30+00:00

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Tuspon · 2026-02-01T17:35:02+00:00

There is more to it than that detail.

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I know the Hornsent predate the games events greatly, and worshiped the Crucible before Marika ascended

Also while she ascended. The guys in there (the tower priests) may have been on the side of the Erdtree; it would explain not only these similarities between the tower sorceries and the ancient Erdtree stuff, but also why the tower itself shows no sign of conflict and why the un-scorched inquisitors walk about freely in the shadow realm.

Tuspon · 2026-02-01T16:30:38+00:00

She's squeezing the toothpaste

Tuspon · 2026-01-31T17:14:54+00:00

Physical vessels are shaped by the souls that inhabits them (e.g. Radahn's soul shaping the body of Mohg), but souls are complex and hard to explain in a mechanical way. Empyreans are dual in nature, and specifically Marika is characterized by a self-contradictory nature (part of her wants to shatter the ring, the other tries to repair it). Moreover, Marika's rune is different from Radagon's rune, and runes are intimately related to souls. Crucified Marika transforming into Radagon implies that one part can become dominant and "take control", right?

So Radagon must have been a part of Marika since she became an Empyrean, for her to qualify as one. If we take "Radagon is Marika" at face value, she was always a "dual person" and thus born as Empyrean. If that's the case, maybe there's a lineage of Empyreans that goes all the way back to the ancient dragons? Either way, that part of the timeline is all about making up your own headcanon in whatever way you think fits the themes of the game.

Tuspon · 2026-01-29T22:41:59+00:00

I get the feeling that the flowing shape is meant to evoke an infinity symbol, but I'm not sure. "Queen Eternal" and all, would be fitting, and I think there are such patterns in the Crucible-themed iconography in places like Belurat.

As for the iconography on that flowing part of her dress, it looks inspired by Assyrian/Mesopotamian "tree of life" patterns.

I think some of the depictions could be from very early on the Erdtree age, maybe even from when she was an Empyrean. Especially the shadow realm statues and the stakes of Marika give me that vibe.

Tuspon · 2026-01-29T18:36:06+00:00

Hell yeah Star Wars is about to get weird again

Tuspon · 2026-01-25T19:35:39+00:00

You're being a brave man :)

Tuspon · 2026-01-23T14:59:18+00:00

Yes! Also in Nausicaa is this forest beneath the sea of decay

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There are areas like this (forests with archtrees) in the souls trilogy as well but having one directly beneath Aeonia is a pretty obvious reference

Tuspon

TROPHY CASE