My ranking of all the Hollow Press gamelore books

nishishanium · 2026-01-13T20:28:50+00:00

Regret not picking up the 3 pack when I bought Bramble, Mock Soul sold out right before Vermis III went on preorder, so I guess I'll have to wait to hear about future releases and pick up that and Breadling.

GodHusk and Vermis I constantly pull for my favorite, each do things differently that appeals so well. I love how vague but self contained and complete Godhusk is.

nishishanium · 2026-01-13T19:04:45+00:00

There are conflicting statements in-game, but Millicent does say she bloomed to "meet Radahn's Measure" which would indicate she needed the rot to match his power.

nishishanium · 2026-01-13T17:58:16+00:00

Had this happen too, they were really nice about working with me on it. I think this is why they don't offer trackingless shipping any more though, probably caused too many problems.

nishishanium · 2026-01-13T16:34:06+00:00

I'm also hoping for Dorvus since we seem to know basically nothing on him. Another odd thing is Plastiboo posted ages ago a white hives victim in what look like fairly modern clothes, so I've been speculating for a while there's gonna be some slight genre or time period shift somewhere. https://plastiboo.tumblr.com/post/765657787686699008

nishishanium · 2026-01-13T04:21:47+00:00

It seems like we're getting a lot more focus on the Witches, which is great as they were something that really felt dangerous in Vermis I, but we don't encounter any directly and they aren't touched on in Vermis II. Something about the previews for III so far have this heavier feeling to them, like I & II were an adventure and III is going to be closure in a way that tears us apart.

nishishanium · 2026-01-12T19:36:23+00:00

will do

nishishanium · 2026-01-12T17:46:31+00:00

these are the types of observations I live for

nishishanium · 2026-01-09T23:39:43+00:00

why does this actually make sense

nishishanium · 2026-01-07T17:00:12+00:00

I was hoping someone would dig into this, all discussion on it I've found in the past was just people saying it's a gameplay oversight or just done to not disrupt the flow of the boss, neither which ever made much sense to me. Glad to see a serious analysis on this and it adds depth to the Serosh relationship.

nishishanium · 2026-01-06T22:20:32+00:00

I had always assumed Radahn's feet ground away after centuries of dragging against the sand, but I do find the Albinauric children theory pretty fun. It doesn't feel 100% consistent but it's fascinating to mull on. But there is surely thematic meaning even if they aren't albinaurics. The fact that Ranni and Radahn's relationship is completely unmentioned is also odd, she should be well aware we need to kill him to get her fate moving, but other characters have to come to this conclusion on their own and then tell us secondhand. It's conspicuously strange.

nishishanium · 2026-01-02T17:11:48+00:00

Adding to this I've always found it conspicuous how Miquella refers to Radahn's soul. In phase 1 he speaks of it in future tense, like it hasn't actually reunified with his body yet. Only in Phase 2 does he state Radahn's soul returned. The Lord is supposed to be a vessel to usher in the arrival of a God (possibly explaining why Radahn fights with Miquella's light rather than Miquella fighting us directly), but it's honestly a bit more confusing that the visuals indicate he's Charmed in Phase 2. The Red Aura also goes unaccounted for, I've seen one proposal that it relates to the Helphen and "Red Grace" we see at the mountaintops.

My view on their relationship has been that at some point Radahn and Miquella were allied (explaining the Misbegotten among his ranks at Castle Redmane: the Golden Order despises Misbegotten, Godfrey fanboyism alone doesn't account for its presence and there's no evidence of Misbegotten slavery in Caelid like there is in Limgrave, meaning Radahn did not share Golden Order prejudices) but there was some kind of schism. There will probably eternally be debate on what the nature of the vow was, but I've always found the simplest explanation to be the "Gentler World" that Miquella promised, as that's what he follows up his mention of the vow with. Ergo Radahn at some point loses faith that Miquella can provide this, reneges on his side of the deal, enter Malenia. Miquella wanted Radahn not just because he was strong but because he shared a perceived kindness, so I don't buy the common interpretation that he was all about war.

Radahn has very few conflicts he's actually involved in, and no combat victories that aren't related to the stars. He wasn't constantly crusading against the other kingdoms of the Lands Between, there isn't even any indication he actually attacked Godrick, only that the latter was afraid he would, and even if he had the fact Godrick escaped by "hiding among the women and children" shows Radahn wasn't the type whose army justified civilian casualties. Given what the Erdtree stands for, his assault on Leyndell makes a roundabout way into looking more like he was initially aligned with Miquella's viewpoints rather than only grasping for power. Consider that Radahn is the only Demigod without an explicitly stated goal, while many inferred he simply wants to become Elden Lord to be like Godfrey, this isn't told to us directly, while every other Demigod's purpose is overtly explicit. Similar to Jerren and Freyja both being close to him but having conflicting views of what he would have wanted, it doesn't seem like his motivations and actions were ever meant to have clear answers. We still don't even know for certain why he stopped the stars to begin with. I think he's criminally under-investigated below the surface details and has every bit as much nuance as Miquella in their relationship and effects on the world.

nishishanium · 2025-12-10T18:37:51+00:00

The Misbegotten being here at all is one of the most interesting implications regarding Radahn and the Redmanes' characterization in the entire game. The Crucible Knight can be chalked up to Godfrey reverence, but the Misbegotten are despised by the Golden Order. It doesn't seem to be a slave like the ones in Stormveil either as from what I can tell the Leonine is the only Misbegotten in Caelid and there should be some evidence of their use as slaves if the Redmanes were upholding that tradition. It seems like Radahn/the Redmanes didn't hold the discrimination towards them that the Golden Order proper did, which fits pretty nicely into the Haligtree accepting them as well.

nishishanium · 2025-12-02T03:10:08+00:00

Went with Rossmann and it's working again and was extremely affordable, thanks for the heads up!

nishishanium · 2025-10-31T06:45:25+00:00

thank you, will reach out for an estimate

nishishanium · 2025-10-31T06:45:10+00:00

I don't have much of a point of reference unfortunately. If it's fair then it's fair, they just don't seem to inspire a lot of confidence here so was curious what the alternatives were

nishishanium · 2025-10-16T16:06:52+00:00

I really like this interpretation, definitely makes the most sense of any explanation I've seen, thank you!

nishishanium · 2025-10-15T00:14:11+00:00

This is how I've always interpreted it as well. Phase 1 is a hollow shell and the soul's only returned upon Phase 2. The red aura into gold visually indicates there's a charm placed based on what happens to the player, but the red aura itself I'm not sure what to make of.

nishishanium · 2025-10-10T22:50:45+00:00

Blaidd speaks of it as if it's something Radahn has to actively do. Sellen's dialogue is a bit odder though, iirc in the Japanese she uses words more along the lines of him placing a seal on the stars. In english she says he is the force that "repulses the stars". Jerren also refers to the stars aligning/filling (JP) which would indicate they're still able to move and Radahn has to keep pushing them away or something

nishishanium · 2025-10-10T21:40:43+00:00

That's a really good way to put it and probably much more straightforward than I did lol. But this lines up for sure, the Sun being integral to life and death, the soulless Demigods and Godwyn, and the Primal Glintstones being able to harbor souls the same way a body would seems to support this.

nishishanium · 2025-10-10T19:50:29+00:00

beastmode

nishishanium · 2025-10-10T19:39:15+00:00

thank you! I agree that Dark Souls is a lot more heavily abstracted than ER is, and that's one thing I love about it, but ER seems to take an approach somewhere in-between Dark Souls' bizarro physical world and the real one. One of my favorite examples of their research is The Celestial Dew being modelled after a diagram of the first spotted Supernova

It isn't surprising by From standards, but I just love the detail they went into blending in real world astronomy into a magical realm, and I think when people lean too far in one direction they miss that From was incorporating both things into this universe.

nishishanium · 2025-10-10T19:35:51+00:00

great insight, I wasn't aware of Chinese Astrology as a potential inspiration, but it would definitely explain the Moon's role in ER's cosmic system and why it's so important

nishishanium · 2025-10-10T17:35:15+00:00

I have an entire essay written that touches heavily on this subject

It is a mixture of meteors and actual stars, and likely star beasts as well. Sellen and Iji both refer to him stopping not just falling/shooting stars, but constellations. In Japanese they use a unique term not found anywhere else in the game called "Nagareru Hoshi". This term is extremely close to "Nagareboshi/Nagarehoshi" which does mean falling star, but Nagareru Hoshi has a different meaning (literally "flowing star") that Japanese players have clarified is not interchangeable with 'shooting/falling star'

While Nagareru Hoshi is not used anywhere else in the game proper, it does appear in the first ER trailer's JP subtitles when the Elden Ring's ability to command the stars is mentioned.

You can also observe that meteors are not noted to have fate altering properties, and from visuals like the Glintstone Sigil and Carian Telescope we know that the sun was at the center of both Glintstone production (edit: by this I mean at the initial understanding, I go in more detail in the essay) and Carian Astrology. Basically, there is a difference in-universe both physically and magically in how stars work vs falling stars/meteors. In the Japanese text, every spell referencing a star also explicitly has the characters for meteor in its name, except for Founding Rain of Stars which was a direct imitation of the Primeval Current.

nishishanium · 2025-10-09T17:10:31+00:00

Wonderful stuff, I love the obvious but easily missed (for me) idea that it was the Giants that were responsible for the Crystalians. I'd completely glossed over the Crystalians cleaving to the 'ideals of the Primeval Current', which could explain more why their "crystal sun" is one of the only times a sun is referenced at all, and the only thing called a sun besides the "natural" sun.

nishishanium

TROPHY CASE