Something no one’s brought up (that I’ve seen): It’s heavily implied that the spirit tuner at the round table hold, Rodericka, is a Shaman (even of Shaman nobility); she has pale skin and golden hair, and was called to the lands between for an unknown reason, peculiar as she is tarnished and wasn’t guided by grace. She has a natural aptitude for spirit tuning and communing with spirits too. Her men were all captured and used for Godrick’s grafting (if they’re all Shaman, then the Grafted Scions are possible due to their blood). She befriends Master Hewg, who is reluctant to help her at first but softens when he notes ‘her eyes remind him of a spirit tuner he was fond of long ago.’ Theory: Rodericka is a relative (Shaman-bloodline) of Marika. She was drawn to the Lands Between because of her connection to Marika’s soul (outside the golden order connection everyone else has). She reminds Master Hewg of Marika herself, someone he once know and entrusted him to make a sword to kill a god (herself); that Master Hewg is an original Hornsent and kept alive by Marika through her grace (which starts to crumble when we burn the Erdtree, thus is mind starts to fade and fail). It would be poetic too, that Master Hewg and Rodericka become friends / foster family, as the rift between the Hornsent and Queen Marika started this entire thing in the first place. Very similar to the Hoslow pot connection which I think is 100% accurate! Edit: Marika 💁‍♀️💫 - not Merika 🇺🇸 🦅 Also forgot to mention: rare ghost gloveworts (8, 9, and 10) are found on all of the Shaman ships on the Cerulean Coast and (I think) are the only gloveworts found not near a gravesite (which I think adds to the connection of Shaman being spirit tuners)

@draphil

12 күн бұрын

Thats super big brain! That make a lot of sense!

@ZarMationStudios18

12 күн бұрын

Dude. I think you’re on to something.

@joserosa5259

12 күн бұрын

Wow!

@TheChocoboWhisperer

12 күн бұрын

The Grafted Scions are most likely descendants of Marika (the golden lineage), so I suspect that's why they can be grafted. They have shaman blood; same as Godrick and Godefroy.

@m.h.lockesteppe9834

12 күн бұрын

@@TheChocoboWhisperer That actually supports this theory. Better ingredients, better pizza. Elden John's.

It was Jarika all along

@grapeape325

12 күн бұрын

Jorah loux

@rafsandomierz5313

12 күн бұрын

@@grapeape325 Jadagon of the Golden Order.

@gafflord2684

12 күн бұрын

Alexanjar?

@rafsandomierz5313

12 күн бұрын

Jorgit the fell.

@VictorIV0310

12 күн бұрын

@@grapeape325Jorah Mormont, Warrior!

"I turned myself into a jar Radagon!"

@oz968

11 күн бұрын

Funniest sh*t I've ever seen

@jeanmari-antoinebalder6593

11 күн бұрын

Jar MAAAAAAAARIKA 🤤

@multiverserift

11 күн бұрын

Jarika and Jardagon

Rykard fed himself to the serpent. Elden Ring has so many instances of many bodies fusing into one.

@mikeekim8567

4 күн бұрын

Holy shit that suddenly makes sense why he would be able to do that

_All vessels are destined to one day break, but the great Alexander lived like a warrior til his last!_

Marika being the one successful saint is such a crazy/twisted take on the already messed up Divine Child from Sekiro. Monks experimented on a ton of kids killing them all in the process until they finally created the Divine Child.

@manuelquerochang2275

5 күн бұрын

Yes, i was thinking the same xD

The fact that we are a tarnished of no renown. And that we just apparently rose out of the erdtree itself and we are noted as having a connection to the spirits one of fond admiration Is it possible we the Tarnished are to Marika, what Millicent is to Malenia? Maybe thats why we can use the rune of rebirth without flaws, why we see grace, why the spirits like us, and why Torrent chose us

@tylerd4884

8 күн бұрын

i saw a theory we are demigod that comes from a walking mausoleum, it makes the noises of the them right at the start of the game

@SilvaFox

6 күн бұрын

​@@tylerd4884yup and it might as well be fact as any other theories just don't have anywhere near enough proof. It makes too much sense for it not to be.

@icarusablaze1831

4 күн бұрын

After playing the DLC I've been pondering the idea that our Tarnished is the Lands Between equivalent of the Divine Beast Dancing Lion. Everything in the Shadow Realms seems to reflect that which exists in the Lands Between. Romina is the reflection of Malenia, but instead of rejecting her rotten offshoots she accepts them. Radahn and Miquella are reflections of Renalla/Marika/Godfrey/Radagon union through their bloodlines and symbolism. Messmer is a reflection of Radagon---red of hair, self-loathing, and fanatical. The Divine Beast is similar to Tarnished in that the Hornsent call upon its spirit from another world, which animates the keepers who act as the avatar of the Divine beast. Our Tarnished is imbued with grace, resurrected, and functions as an avatar for US the player. In the same way the lion dancer is being puppeted by the keepers, we puppet our Tarnished and use them to enact Divine retribution to the rebellious demigods, "the strumpets vile progeny". Dunno of I'm all in on this take but it was fun to think about. Empyrian Grandam also thinks we're the keepers which felt thematically resonant with how our Tarnished are viewed by the finger readers in The Lands Between.

One glaring issue: The Elden Ring existed before Marika.

@nuclearthrone2497

12 күн бұрын

Maybe they were trying to find a “human” host instead of a dragon, so they were experimenting on the shamans until they found one that could hold the Elden Ring

@MrCrownedClown

12 күн бұрын

It might also that they just wanted a host for some god (not the elden beast). And marika choose the elden ring because she wanted revenge on the hornsent.

@graphemelucid8407

12 күн бұрын

Places like Uhl Palace Ruins, Ancient Ruins of Rauh, lotta statues of elden john. They may suggest thoese "Outer Gods" like Rot and formless mother, maybe not so "Outer" at all. At least they would exist before that golden beast, possibility of being indigenous even. You just never know cuz they are long lost history.

@syedmuhammadibtehaj8794

12 күн бұрын

Being the vessel for the Elden ring being alike a jar is good observation. But her developing the Elden ring within herself is unrestricted speculation. We’ve been told what the Elden ring is, it was a golden star the greater will sent to the lands between that became the Elden ring and enacted the metaphysical laws of the lands. That’s why when you best radagon, your final battle is with the Elden beast, the manifestation of the ring itself. Prior Elden rings existed too, and we can infer they might be related to other outer gods.

@Hekk.

12 күн бұрын

Placidusax (old lord) barley surviving his ordeal with Bayle allowed new order to be established and that's when Marika seized her chance at "godhood".

this isnt a perspective I expected for who marika is, but it made a lot of sense while listening and is definitly something to consider in context for the greater picture in the lands between

@pumpa244

11 күн бұрын

there is a lot to consider yet. i mean lands of shadow are way more unedited historywise than rest of the map due to lack of golden propaganda , so i wonder how many interesting connections we gonna make on the timeline.

“Shaman souls melded into one” Marika is the emperor of mankind

@BrunoCunha-qp4fy

6 күн бұрын

😁

And as some other youtuber said: "Jars are like Crucible." As Marika's womb is a crucible of life.

@ripvanwinkle3432

12 күн бұрын

@@gilvanmessem5335 ill add to her crucible of life 😂

@curtisfarley6558

12 күн бұрын

@@gilvanmessem5335 I just realized, in the endgame cut scene, we see a rune that looks exactly like the death brand in the same spot her womb would be. Kinda interesting.

@Soluswithyou

12 күн бұрын

@@curtisfarley6558 I think that's the Rune used for the Duskborn ending. Really, any of the three repairing runes can be put there. I guess its metaphorical for that specific rune's age being "birthed" into existence.

@curtisfarley6558

12 күн бұрын

@@Soluswithyou ah so which ever mending rune you use, will show there? Still intriguing; I never knew

@whoisj

12 күн бұрын

don't forget about Erdtree births. the rebirth of souls through the Erdtree. I believe the tree was her "womb" until she shattered the Elden Ring and the seeds of the minor erdtrees flew. Once the minute trees started growing, the dead collecting jars stopped delivering souls to the Erdtree, delivering them to the minor trees instead. This has led to horrible stagnation as no new, or very few births happen in the Lands Between now. The Hornsent sent used jars to torture and kill innocent people in hopes of a miracle. Erdtree society used jars as automated collection of the dead for delivery to the trees,with the goal of eventual rebirth. This is why Godwyn was buried at the roots of the Erdtree, his "mother" wanted him resurrected. My thoughts on this have been that every time a soul is reborn, it's more and more Numan like. Slowly over time Merika is weeding out all non-Numen as revenge for what happened in Shaman Village. If true, then any of the demigods could be reborn powerful spirits/souls defeated by the Golden Order. A perfect example is Melena. She's clearly the Gloam-Eyed Queen reborn. She even asks what it's like to born of a mother because she born via Erdtree birth.

Marika being a fusion of beings would make sense with her Radagon counterpart. It would also explain how her and Radagon were able to have children despite being of one body. Maybe the Hornsent succeeded in creating a saint with Marika, but she "betrayed" them by using countless of their souls to fuel the gate of communion and ascend to godhood, in part because she hates them for what they did to her and her people.

@detdeet

11 күн бұрын

Doesn't explain how Miquella effectively does the same thing without turning himself into a jar.

@maybemablemaples2144

11 күн бұрын

​@detdeet he used Mohg's body, which by Hornsent standards is of saintly divinity and Rahdan's Lord soul. A holy vessel with a Lord's soul is pretty good trading. Both are also of Shaman heritage. The plot is plotting.

@skeletorgames8641

9 күн бұрын

@@maybemablemaples2144he didn’t use Mogh to create Trina though.

@paulogodinho3275

7 күн бұрын

@@skeletorgames8641marika is an amalgam of beings, her child all have traits of things that were chopped and put in the jar, that is what I think

If Marisa started out as the Shaman in a jar with bits of flesh from other beings, maybe that’s why so many of her kids are “cursed”. Mogh came from bits of Hornsent DNA/spirit melding with her, Messmer came about by a bit of snake in the stew, etc. Radagon came about as maybe another Shaman/Numen in her pot.

@L_Zant

12 күн бұрын

No radagon would be from the giants

@L_Zant

12 күн бұрын

This is it right here. You can find a massive dead snake with a chunk taken out of it in Bonny village. This is the answer

@L_Zant

11 күн бұрын

Just realized. Maybe Numen are what Shamen become once they use the gate of divinity, or what they become once they are in the pots? And this is why they are seldom born?

@L_Zant

11 күн бұрын

@peterdunlop7691 holy shit wait....the black knife assassin's come from the same stock....dude maybe they mean like stock as in soup? So the same jar?

@skeletorgames8641

9 күн бұрын

Another lore video I saw said a high ranking hornsent cursed all Marina’s children AFTER she “betrayed” them.

I thought something similar when I they accused her of betrayal along with the Numen lore. The Hornsent were creating a god.

yeah, i'll integrate this to my belief system

@kayhaich

12 күн бұрын

Very agnostic of you

So Marika is a philosopher stone like Hohenheim from Full Metal Alchemist

@Uchiha_Teivan

12 күн бұрын

Insane

@nuclearthrone2497

12 күн бұрын

Rebis yea

@irisachternaam

12 күн бұрын

Her and radagon are literally the Red King and White Queen, and the meat that goes into the jars is also red and white.

@brothersantodes1278

3 күн бұрын

@@irisachternaam 🤯

I think a lot of the jars were used by the hornsent along with their willing devotees to make the gateway

@curtisfarley6558

12 күн бұрын

@@emeraldpichu1 that's an interesting theory. Whatever they did to create the gateway, we see it replicated in the eternal cities and something similar in rykards arena.

@donovan4222

12 күн бұрын

If you look closely at the story trailer, you can see when Marika is holding up the rune strands at the divinity gate, they are all threads connected to the bodies around the divinity gate. Almost a lot like how the shaman flesh held together the flesh inside the living jars.

The jars, and to an extent how the crucible is described, seem very similar to the japanese/chinese sorcerous practice of kodoku, putting insects or spirits into a small container until one of them absorbs the strength of the others.

@rosecorcoran

12 күн бұрын

I thought the same thing!

@cardgameenjoyer7446

12 күн бұрын

:0

@Stephen-so9oi

12 күн бұрын

The elden beast may be the 'insect' spirit of the kodoku ritual and feasts on the souls Marika provides. Which is why it comes out to fight us

I believe Marika was doing everything to escape her original fate as a Shaman, which would've involved her being subjected to the horrors of being fused with external sources. She likely made a vow in Shaman Village involving revenge against the Hornsent for what they did to her people. The Fell God was feared by the Hornsent, so I believe Marika used her power to lead them into slaying the Fire Giants, earning their trust by committing genocide and initiating the Age of the Erdtree... becoming a God shortly before this, I assume. She killed 2 birds with 1 stone: 1) Gained the favor of the Hornsent/Crucible, and 2) Eliminated a power that could have destroyed her Erdtree. She would then use the Crucible/Hornsent and her Lord Godfrey to conquer the Lands Between, systematically eliminating any potential threats to her Order, but once none were left, she banished the Crucible and sent them away without grace so they could never return and simply spread the good word of God... lol. She clearly had no loyalties to Godfrey as a lover since she is referred to as a "Strumpet" by the hornsent and had many bastard children. I even believe she had an affair with Radagon, leading into the conception of Messmer and Melina before he ever went to fight Rennala and the Carians. That could easily explain how Messmer is seen as "Radahn's elder brother" alongside Gaius. Once Marika took Radagon as her Consort, I believe she began openly persecuting the Hornsent since this would've been the exact time the Crucible/Godfrey were long gone, and every last major player is taken off the board (Carians, Stormhawk King, Morne soldier and his allies, Fire Giants, and others). Also, I'm 90% certain when Marika sent Messmer into the Realm of Shadow with the rest of the lands she removed from TLB, she had him take all of the blame and made it seem he acted on his own, which is ultimately why the Serpent is seen as a "traitor" or "blasphemous". (This is huge speculation territory) Because of her crimes, I do believe the Law of Causality and Regression came into play. Her committing genocide and likely earning the ire of the Fell God led into the conception of Radagon as a curse upon her, which I believe is a twisted reflection of Marika because of the path he follows to eventually earn her favor... and forces her to succumb to her original fate. Radagon seems to have done everything in his life to usurp Marika and become a "complete" being. He likely knew what she was by the time he initiated his plans and became the Champion of the Golden Order. And think about it... All of her children with Radagon are cursed. Her children with Godfrey were either human or hornsent... which aren't cursed. The Black Knife Assassins who were supposedly "close" to Marika at some point were likely loyal to her until they realized she had become a monster, arguably even worse than the Hornsent, and chose to betray her by forming an alliance with Ranni and Rykard and murdering Godwyn on the condition that the Age of the Erdtree would come to an end, which we know Ranni's end goal involved. I do not believe Marika housed the Elden Ring, but instead wore it as a crown and necklace, similar to Miquella's Circlet of Light which is said to basically be another object that would've helped him establish his Age of Compassion. Therefore, it is likely the Elden Ring took the form of a crown as well. There's a lot of implications involving Radagon's connection with Alchemy, and it all leads to a solid theory that he wanted to become his own Magnum Opus. Radagon was NEVER part of Marika until he forced himself to become one with her and attempted to fuse the Elden Ring into their conjoined body to become "complete", which was his greatest desire that we know of. The time-frame of this event is confusing (as is the entire time-line in general), but it likely happened after the Night of the Black Knives, where Marika would've been vulnerable if Godwyn's death led to her despair. Radagon would've begun assimilating her, and Marika around this point would've tasked Hewg to create a weapon that could slay a God. Then before Radagon's plan could come to fruition, Marika would have shattered the Elden Ring. Boom, Marika and Radagon's arc (sloppily) explained.

"Kindness of gold without order" to me sounds like grace. One definition of grace by my understanding is forgiveness/kindness, without the expectation of recognition or reciprocation, (to me a form of Order). Radagon and Marika might be two different Shaman with the same goal of revenge, or simply the two main aspects of Marikas world view. Marika is the half that believes grace to be paramount, whereas Radagon believes Order, reciprocation, eye-for-eye is most important. The shattering was Marika becoming disillusioned by the Order that gave her power after repeatedly disappointing her and continuing to haunt her, thus returning to the core belief that grace (kindness without order) is paramount, seeing that Order is hypocritical by nature. She granted grace back to those she banished (tarnished, the people of her one true Lord) not in hopes of forgiveness, but inner peace. She was then killed/imprisoned by Radagon as he awaits his demise at the hands of Marikas faithful, those guided by her kindness and forgiveness, (grace). Idk where to go from here, or how our tarnished can be seen as kind or forgiving but the description of the Minor Erdtree spell clicked with me since I'd been looking into grace definitions. Feel free to poke holes.

@tyzombie89

2 күн бұрын

I think you’re on to something. I think this also explains why Marika participated in Ranni’s plot. They both want to take any outside influence away from the Lands Between so that it can flourish and evolve naturally, without order being imposed upon it.

Her bed chamber also resembles the half of a jar and the blanket is shaped in such a way that it looks almost as if it's spilling out of a jar. It's also interesting that this is where we get the dialog about Marika talking about "Mine other self" or her other half in Radagon. We're hearing about her other half in a place where we see half a jar with it's innards spilled out.

@liquidtensionable

12 күн бұрын

And the drapes above the bed look curiously (exactly) like the shroud over the the Land of Shadow

@barfrost007

12 күн бұрын

Just wanted to say that the couch-thing in the bedchamber is actually an ancient astronomical observation tool. Its why you see starlight shards whenever you find them in that wild. The Greater Will did, after all, come from the stars.

@Shotzeethegamer

12 күн бұрын

​@@barfrost007No, the Greater Will did not 'come from the stars.' The stars came from the Greater Will...

@barfrost007

12 күн бұрын

@@Shotzeethegamer From what I've seen, it was my understanding that the Greater Will and the other "outer gods" effectively "came from the stars" a la the Cthulu mythos.

@Shotzeethegamer

12 күн бұрын

@@barfrost007 The game verbatim states that is not the case. And the Greater Will is not an outer god. It is THEE God.

One thing I noticed today, on the black knife set it says "The assassins that carried out the deeds of the Night of the Black Knives were all women, and rumored to be Numen who had close ties with Marika herself. " Could some of the shamans have escaped or perhaps been reincarnated into the Erdtree realm?

@adamsirin7249

12 күн бұрын

Well they're bodiless....

@lucidsoliddale6877

12 күн бұрын

@@adamsirin7249 wym mean bruh is that stated or contextualized

@adamsirin7249

12 күн бұрын

@@lucidsoliddale6877 If you look closely, they've got no faces under the hood. And they don't bleed.

@MarlicJr

12 күн бұрын

​@@adamsirin7249they do have faces just not distinct and they do bleed wtf

@adamsirin7249

12 күн бұрын

@@MarlicJr no they don't. And you can't proc bleed on them

You continue to make Marika sympathetic and i love it. I like it more that she was in the just ritual but wasn’t aware and got the benefit of it. I never noticed the item description called Godfrey a demigod too. This opens things. Marika didn’t birth Godfrey.

This was a great video, It really *feels* like you're on to something here.

Interesting theory, but one thing I noticed is that it isn't the shamans who become gods or deities in the hornsent culture, the ascetics are noted to be failed gods and they are hornsent. We know godhood involves climbing the tower and using the divine gate. The divine gate is filled (and maybe formed) with corpses. I'm leaning more toward the idea that the shaman jars are human sacrifices for the divine gate.

@icarusablaze1831

4 күн бұрын

The Shamans are specifically being made into "saints", which seems to be subordinate to a god. The ascetics aspired to be "tutelary deities" , which just means they were trying to become protector deities or maybe local gods, as opposed to a completed divinity like what Marika and Miquella ascended to through the Divine gate. Maybe the ascetics and tutelary deities all failed to fully ascend. Maybe sainthood through jar-melding is a required step, and the Divine gate fully integrates the seperate spirits and bodies into a single god.

@paorousama

3 күн бұрын

@@icarusablaze1831 yeah that seems likely. My initial theory was marika usurped the order - that hornsent candidates were supposed to become gods with the saints being used as a sacrifice. But it is completely possible that the ideal was to merge the candidate and the jar saint rather than just sacrifice them. It makes me wonder about the ascetics though, did they not go for jar saints back then or did they use the aforementioned sacrificial method? Or was marika the first successful jar saint?

@icarusablaze1831

3 күн бұрын

@@paorousama Good question. Their clothing description says that "In order to ascend from their mortal flesh into tutelary deities of the land, they heighten their spirituality through severe ascetic training." So I'm thinking the curseblades and the tutelary deities we find around the place followed an alternate path to ascension that only results in becoming a tutelary deity of the land. I imagine they meditated, trained in extreme environments, deprived themselves of basic human needs, and sparred with each other. They seem to be Buddhist monks viewed through the lens of a warrior culture. Marika might've been the first successful attempt. Maybe the right mix of "ingredients" is needed to produce a saint capable of becoming a god. Maybe it's something like man (Radagon), woman (Marika), and a beast (serpent). There is that dead snake in Bonny village which could be a clue that animals are being added into the mix. It's also line up with the illustration of the Rebus which has a dragon/serpent beneath the two-headed figure. If this is correct, it could explain why some of the demigods are born with Beastial traits like Messmer, and why she'd want to keep him hidden away so as to not expose the truth about her "impure" blood. This is entirely speculation.

I had the same thoughts as soon as it was made clear that Marika's people were capable of melding things together. Great video! I didn't understand why it took like 3 weeks for someone to make a video on this when it is very obvious. Now it makes sense why Empyreans has to come from the lines of Marika/Radagon, and has to be female (Miquella's sex is always made ambiguous).

It fits so well with the theme of the hornsent trying to reach the heavens with their spirals. "The spiral is a normalized Crucible current that, one day, will form a column that stretches to the gods."When i read the spira incantation description I knew it had to be a reference to the tower of Babel which, as we know, is destined to fall for its hubris. The hornsent are a people obsessed with divinity, trying to become or make saints and gods, to such an extent that they will cultivate horns on their bodies, even if it leads to their twisting and consequently death. "Tangled horns are a symbol of spirituality, but most young born bearing the oversized horns meet a frightfully early demise. These fetishes are made to memorialize them." Those who survive and then fail the extremely strict standards become curseblades, doomed to self-flagilate for their failures. "These entities wield the Curseblade's Cirque in both hands, a backhand blade with wave-like cutting edges, sharpened into points that incite blood loss. Long ago, this was employed by the ascetics who strove to become tutelary deities as a ritualistic object in their self-flagellating dances".They commit atrocity and self destructive behaviour for this purpose; to make, become or reach the gods.The divine tower seems littered with corpses; who's to say the hornsent didn't reach the heavens, carrying with them their best "saints", and try to exalt one of them to godhood? It also adds up with how the hornsent consider Marika to have been a "betrayer". Also adds up with how marika has been consistently portrayed as a rebis. As far as I'm concerned, the symbolism of the hornsent finally getting what they want and it destroying them is too good for it not to be the case. I'm fairly certain marika became a goddess using hornsent methods/as a result of hornsent torture. Whether she was ever in a jar is a different story; after all, they were making saints with the jars, not necessarily gods. The images of her removing from the viscera golden threads to make the first runes definitely suggests to me she was removing runes from the bodies of these saints; after all runes are native to the shaman people (celebrant cycle and festive grease are both offshoots of the original shaman culture imo). She's probably a jar metaphorically, which is entirely in line with the base game (she's the vessel of the elden ring), but i dont think she was ever in one. The theory also needs to account for a) when she met with the fingers b) when she gave birth to Mesmer c) the fact that the crusade she sends him on, and consequently the genocide of the hornsent, is WAYYYY later in the timeline than a lot of us are used to thinking about d) when she cloaked the land of shadows (I like to think this was the original betrayal, and then the crusade was just salt on the wound/ a useful way of getting rid of mesmer) and other stuff but this is definitely very compelling

@mashedpotatoes_12

11 күн бұрын

What if every saint the hornsent “made” was a physical representation of the Elden Ring, each saint representing an element of it. And the betrayal of Marika was killing all of these saints and take the whole Elden Ring for herself, thus becoming a god instead of a saint.

If you look closely in the radagon fight intro cinematic, when he reaches for the hammer, his arm is literally a warrior jar arm. watch the forearm closely next time you fight him!

@estesdabestes340

12 күн бұрын

Disagree with that one chief, I just looked at a side by side comparison and while it's a teensy bit similar, it lacks the exact same coloration and shape of pieces that make it up. He's cracking like that because Marika was shattering the elden ring and Radagon was attempting to fix it and his body was breaking from it

@dlwf11111

12 күн бұрын

Yeah and if you look closely, his head is a jar! 🤡

One extra point, though. I haven't finished the video but wanted to say that, aren't the Black Knife Assassins also Numen/Shaman women? They were even employed by none other than Ranni in the assassination of Godwyn. In other words, some shaman women survived and actually made their way out of the Lands of Shadow, grouping together. Strange that they would end up killing one carrying their own blood, isn't it? This is one of the points I least understand from the story.

@curtisfarley6558

12 күн бұрын

@@GreyBandanna numen doesn't necessarily mean shaman tho. There could have been other numen to exist outside marikas village. Also, I've often associated the numen with the nox; the same people who made the finger slayer blade, and were banished underground by the greater will. This connection makes them likely enemies to the golden order.

@ghostly_number

5 күн бұрын

It could be just like us humans, there's blacks, white, Latino, Asian. We might be similar but there are still differences between our ethnicity. Numen are more associated with the nox so they don't necessarily have to be the same as shamans. Marika lived in the shadow land where death washed up. Numen and nox lived underground in the lands between.

I’ve been on a similar line of thinking, I mostly agree. Every faction has its own way of consolidating power, of ascending up the ranks as they grow more powerful, and it’s almost always through sacrifice or grafting. Radahn eats his fallen opponents, the erdtree is powered by the dead and buried being absorbed by the roots, the several jar ceremonies consolidate warriors into greater and greater vessels as they add worthy candidates (you can see Alexander consuming radahn after that battle), Ryker feeds himself to the snake and then feeds on the competing champions he lures to the volcano to consolidate their power with his, Godfrey grafts others to himself to power up, there’s all kinds of blood sacrifices with mohg, the dragons and the dragon cult have their own practice of eating the fallen, and even the tarnished starts from nothing and only climbs the ladder as fallen opponents drop runes, great runes, and get absorbed and level up the tarnished. No matter what, the crucible of life isn’t just survival of the fittest, it’s about adding the fallen onto the victors as well. “Make of thyselves that which ye desire. Be it a Lord. Be it a God. But should ye fail to become aught at all, ye will be forsaken. Amounting only to sacrifices.” Nobody is actually immortal in Eldon ring or even all powerful, they just get really really strong and really really hard to kill as you get further up the ladder. Especially with the rune of death being stolen and disrupting the balance of life and death. That’s my real takeaway from the whole world. Everybody bleeds, everybody can die, and attempting to cheat fate, cheat death, or cheat birth, all these things being done to “pursue order” instead of letting things happen naturally and by chance, that’s the cardinal sin in the game. There’s no infallible greater will, none of the gods actually know better than anybody else, and eternal life would be a prison if anybody did ever achieve it. The whole arms race of trying to become the most powerful or achieve godhood, it’s always a mistake. Nothing should be eternal or all powerful, there needs to be a life and death cycle or the wheels will fall off and doom the entire world. There’s literally piles of bodies reaching up to the heavens and piling up by the eternal cities. By the end of the game, the Eldon lord doesn’t just sit on the throne alone, there’s nobody left to rule over as well.

@curtisfarley6558

12 күн бұрын

@@JebtonLT yeah it's definitely a theme in this game. Even the ancestor spirit worshipers did something similar. I feel like it's a take on evolution and how the competition for power caused such practices to force evolution. Something like that anyway with the DNA spirals among other symbolism

@kayhaich

12 күн бұрын

Marika obviously killed A LOT of people to get her level of power.

@tyzombie89

2 күн бұрын

Bingo. This seems like a variation of the main theme of the Dark Souls games as well. Imposing Order (not accepting the natural laws of the universe) leads to stagnation leads to decay. I do think Elden Ring shows an evolution of the concept in Ranni’s ending tho. In DS, the best ending is to let the natural cycle take over again by embracing the dark. In ER, Ranni gives us the opportunity to banish outside influence and order from the Lands Between. Thus restoring the natural cycle of birth, death, and evolution.

@JebtonLT

Күн бұрын

@@tyzombie89 I still don’t feel great about ranni’s ending because I feel like she is only fighting for free will and to be free from influence. I don’t get the impression that she’s trying to undo any of the rot, death root, or any of the unbalance the golden order is leaving behind after maintaining their unnatural hold for so long. she’s just trying to get her independence and go on her own private vacation while the rest of the world fends for itself. Death is still disrupted in her ending, and she’s still cheating fate and death with her disembodied soul and several other soulless demigods spreading like a plague left behind. I don’t think there is a “good” ending, the frenzied flame apocalypse might actually reset the world but even that seems to replace the two fingers spiritual monopoly with the three fingers monopoly. So that would inevitably lead right back to a wildly out of balance world just favoring madness instead of the golden order. The dung eaters curse would eventually choke out the spiritual effects of the golden order by disrupting their traditional burial cycle, and we already know that the tarnished doesn’t see reality clearly because we see signs of grace and other golden order visions like the erdtree that aren’t visible to others, so I’m not convinced the dung eater is actually as disfigured as we perceive him. The golden order finds him appalling because they see him breaking their hold on common souls as mutilation, and his curse does seem to target the womb in a way that prevents further births from being steered to the golden order, but I don’t know if that would be as painful for natural born omen as it would be for his initial victims. But again, that’s trying to impose a new order based on cheating birth and death, and who knows what complications will come from that. Basically, I think everybody fails in some way and there’s not a perfect ending, just less awful endings made all the more complicated by trying to parse deep rooted golden order propaganda and unreliable narrators.

@tyzombie89

Күн бұрын

@@JebtonLT Ranni is definitely fighting for her own independence, but she also explicitly states: “As it is now, life, and souls, and order are bound tightly together, but I would have them at great remove.” I think this is evidence that she’s fighting for more than just herself and that she also wants the Lands Between to be free from an outside order imposed upon them. Yeah she’s not going to right every injustice, but she is going to let the chips fall where they may. I think there’s something respectable about that.

9:08 just remembered when you find alexander after rahdans fight and he tells you he was broken but could put himself back together so long as the innards are strong. Mmmmmmm

The roundness of the jar would surely explain rump but hole try pickle

It is interesting to note that Tarnished Eater Anastasia wields a blade exactly the same as the Greater Potentates of Bonny Village, and she eats Tarnished while dressed as a Finger Maiden. Is she trying to imbue herself with bodies similarly to how the jars are used so she may ascend? Maybe she eats "countless Tarnished" to become a Finger Maiden. If so, that might explain something about not only Finger Maidens and how they are made, but also why they are burned in the Giant's forge as kindling. Hyetta becomes a Finger Maiden for the Three Fingers after eating frenzied eyes, too, so cannibalism seems to be the prevailing rule of the day. Radahn eats friend and foe alike to stave off the Scarlet Rot. Rykard let himself be eaten, then eats his own champions as the Snake, and when we defeat him Tanith eats him to help him find "purchase within" her. We eat dragon hearts to gain their powers, then transform into magma wyrms. Eating Bayle's heart dooms the consumer to BECOME Bayle, and Bayle cannibalizes drake and dragon alike. The Lands Between are like the Hell's Kitchen of Darwinism.

Great video man, warrior blood must truly run in thy veins

I think there's a lot of merit to this line of thought. The beastmen of Farum Azula makes pots just to crack them and use the shards as shields - a micro version of a pot-god cracking itself causing great runes to be created. follow-up question: what does it mean to create a mending rune in this inerpretation? How does placidusax fit in? Are outer god just people who want their say on whats put in the jar?

Marika being akin to a jar fits a theory I’m working on that revolves around Radagon; the basis of the theory is that, as per the Secret Rite Scroll, Radagon was the Lord that ushered in Marika’s godhood but she killed him and took his soul to ascend to godhood (the opposite of what Miquella later did). The Lord requires a vessel and I think Marika became Radagon’s vessel in a very literal way. What you say about her becoming a jar fits with that theory; the only part I’m struggling with is how Radagon might relate to that period of time.

@ryanlozano9086

12 күн бұрын

He’s an aspect that marika discarded to become a god that was her faith

@curtisfarley6558

12 күн бұрын

@@ryanlozano9086 yeah kind of like miquella abandoning his love creating st Trina. I'm not sold on it because he didn't show up in the history until after they defeated the giants. It's one of the better working theories tho.

@barfrost007

12 күн бұрын

@@curtisfarley6558 Iunno, could work. One of the first tasks she has in the Lands Between as god is genocide a race of people with odd worshipping practices that seem to be otherwise unto themselves, and enslave their descendants (the trolls). Sound familiar? Seems to me it can be seen as Marika literally perpetrated the same cruelty upon the giants that the hornsent did upon her and the shamans. I doubt this would've escaped her notice, so its entirely possible that she would discard he faith (Radagon) because she found the Greater Will (which gave her godhood) to be unworthy of said faith. It'd also explain why Radagon was such a devoted adherent to the Golden Order. Also, for funsies, one of the hallmarks of the Crucible is a reddish tinged gold, likely in reference to Orichalcum, which was a copper-gold alloy in the ancient world said to have magical properties. In Elden Ring, the act of purifying things using gold removes this reddish "taint", resulting in the vibrant yellow we see. Marika's hair is golden, but Radagon's, her other half, is red.

@curtisfarley6558

12 күн бұрын

@@barfrost007 I'm aware of the alchemy connections as well. One of the theories I heard was that once marika became vessel to the elden ring, radagon was manifested at the same time. The dlc trailer seems to hint at this, as we see marika changing into radagon at the gate of divinity. Maybe the physical marika was already gone, and radagon was all that was left of her physical body?

@warpstorm1988

12 күн бұрын

@@curtisfarley6558 see this is the thing; St Trina existed already as Miquella’s “other half” and he discarded her, Marika and Radagon seem to be the other way around. If Marika had discarded Radagon then surely he’d be walking around on his own and we wouldn’t suddenly have him rock up with a cosmos defining secret of being Marika just out of nowhere? My gut tells me that the Hornsent Grandam is part of it somehow but I can’t work out how it all fits together yet. It’s early days as a theory lol

I think you are really onto something here! The melding of a great number of bodies and their spirits seems to be an essential element to the attempts of each civilization to create something divine. The divine gate itself is made up of bodies, fresh as seen in the story trailer, later burnt into ashen husks by the time we arrive, as though fired in a kiln - maybe their spirits were essentially baked into marika’s body as she became a god and gained her clay-like flesh? You can also see the twisted bodies making up the core of the spiral columns of the tower where the masonry has begun to crumble away. This trope exists elsewhere too: In Rykards cavern, twisted & spiraling bodies make up the pillars that surround the snake god; In Nokron, masses of burnt bodies are bursting out of the buildings and alleyways. I don’t think this is merely a stylistic choice, the models for all these masses of bodies are similar, burnt and frozen in the poses of their final moments, terrified and reaching out for something. In the volcano, these sacrifices were clearly in worship of the snake deity, devouring and conjoining their souls into itself like it did with rykard. In Nokron, an attempt was made to create a god or a lord of their own, maybe consuming the souls of all those writhing bodies in the process? A further point to that being the finger-slayer blade being formed of a spinal column & twisted flesh, similarly to how radagons body was formed into the blade of the elden beast. There is clearly a connection between mass sacrifice, the conjoining of souls, and godhood. A point i want to clarify from the video tho: The timeline of marika becoming a god & the proceeding genocide against the hornsent mentioned is a bit off. The crusade started long after the erdtree and scadutree were grown, as marikas army were the forces of the erdtree who agreed to journey there & were given grace by her as a reward, & the fire knights came from the elites & nobles of leyndell. This means that Marika maintained a peaceful connection with the hornsent long enough to found her civilization in leyndell and nurture it to rival that of the hornsent and the tower. That is a looooong revenge arc lol. I also think her return to the shaman village was after she ascended to godhood, as the wording of “all the wamrth of gold, without the order” implies she was already a vessel for the elden ring and her vision of the golden order. I also think, perhaps, she was never placed in a jar at all - The “seduction from which gold arose” mentioned in the story trailer, before we see the imagery of the blood-drenched divine gate, is I think hinting that she avoided her fate in a jar by seducing the hornsent nobility, eventually convincing them of her plan to become a god. In secret, of course, she did this for revenge, but I think it would be miyazaki-esque for her to have knowingly abandoned her people in the process. The fresh bodies of the story trailer also make me think this may have been an advancement on the jarring practice & not her using an ancient practice to become a god ~ like Nokron, I think the hornsent were maybe seeking to create their own replacement of placidusaxx & his unknown god. Also… she stole some golden soul-thread from a dead snakes eye before ascending…. Maybe the gloam eyed queen (placidusaxx’s god???) was a snake? & there is the giant snakeskin outside of bonny village… Ok that is all! Thanks for inspiring me to write down my own crazy thoughts… i really think the connection with the jars, souls, and marika’s literal clay vessel of a body is suuuuper important!!! 🫨🫨🫨

I think Marika was never subject to the jar ritual. She was angry what the hornsent did to her people and used her ability to meld people (their souls) in the cinematic trailer where she is pulling golden threads out of what appear to be corpses to active the divine gateway. The divine arena we fight in is littered with the corpses of her 'sin', they were all old and dusty when we get there but it's definitely the same place as in the trailer, not the 'other side' of the gateway. We see Marika pulling mass amounts of life together and forges it into the elden ring in the same place as the crucible energy, the point in the lands between closest to the divine outer realm. Also unrelated but I think st Trina saying miquela would be a 'caged divinity' makes me think that divinity comes with a very high, if not certainty, of being used by an outer God so Marika may have unwittingly become a caged divinity for her chance at revenge/justice to the hornsent, giving reason to shatter the elden ring. Great video though. I love speculation on the long story format from software gives us.

Plot twist: our Tarnished is an empty vessel possessed by Marika. We ARE Marika.

Anyone else notice as the tarnished we can do the main things shaken can meld with other beings talk to spirits I just think that’s interesting

@steelazuredragon

12 күн бұрын

there is also a theory floating around that the tarnished themselves is a demigod / child of marika. [ watch?v=Wmjo72GiLRk ] which would explain a lot of things.

@Ortorin

12 күн бұрын

We are gifted the powers from others. Specifically, we are gifted by Marika and some of her eldest offspring. Ranni gives us the spirit caller bell. Melina gives us the power to turn runes into strength. And Merika gives us the runes, fragments of her divine power spread to the eyes of her followers. We were given the power needed to kill Marika from Marika herself.

"Wearing your scars as a badge of honor." This kind of reminds me of how Marika's missing braid never grew back. She left that piece of herself in her village and that scar never healed and became a constant reminder of the tragedy in her past. Though it might also indicate that she is not physical anymore after her ascension, her body is not changing naturally, her hair doesn't grow. Her visual representation is a memory of her body, it's like a living statue, that cannot grow. Also, I think the Elden Ring itself is metaphysical in the sense that it refers to the cycle. A cycle of gods and lords, societies rising and falling, it's a metaphysical circle, an ouroboros (funny how the snake becomes the enemy of Marika since the snake also symbolises this neverending cycle). When Marika breaks the ring, she essentially breaks the cycle. Much like Ranni is trying to, explaining why they might have worked together on the NBK.

@zackdoom

2 күн бұрын

The elden lord dragon also never regrew his heads

Great video as always! I think that Marika as a jar represents the embodiment of human emotions i.e fear, joy, resistance, etc. Her children are therefore an extension of these emotions be it defective or otherwise. Her story basically paint the picture of how our emotions turn to dictate our actions in real life. I also think her story tells how we cannot cheat death no matter how much we try. For instance she shutters the Elden ring after the death of Godwyn, which in my opinion is because she thought she had sealed away death.

It was souls ALL ALONG. DARK SOULS 4 BABBYYYYY

Marika didn't just manifest the Elden Ring. She went and met Metyr and made a deal with the Greater Will and they made a plan. She then used the divine gateway, departed, then returned with an army once she'd acquired that power.

@miguelsalazar4895

12 күн бұрын

The only issue with this statement is that it's heavily implied that the entire time and before the golden order was established Metyr hadn't communed with the greater will in ages.

@Bbmag23

11 күн бұрын

I think the elden ring was in placidusax..and that is what Marika is stealing the ring from in ascension. My question is the rite thar Miquella used should have been the same as Marika..what Lord came back in a vessel to bring forth Marika as a God? I don't understand how Miquella would have this condition and not Marika.

@sk8legendz

11 күн бұрын

Metyr had the elden ring in its eyes. We see her grab it from metyr in the trailer I assumed she was seduced by Metyr to become the elden rings vessel but was betrayed when she found out it was a trap *the seduction and the betrayal* But Metyr has a wound that could be tied to the Fingerslayer blade and the Nox connection to Marika and how they earned the ire of the greater will

@Bbmag23

11 күн бұрын

@@sk8legendz hm. The head marika plunders looks like a snake like thing. I at least thought it was placidusax but they are a Lord and not a God, so I’m not sure if he even had the ring within him. Although they should be empyrean because they are both male and female with heads

@sk8legendz

11 күн бұрын

@@Bbmag23 look at Metyrs head it's a single finger and has a single pale eye. With wrinkled flesh around it. Compare it to the trailer Honestly. Did not even pay any mind to this theory. It came about after I beat. Metyr And was reading the item description of one of its remembrance items specifically the weapon made of its head which. Mentioned it having an eye. And both being connected to the greater will I. Assumed, perhaps this was where the elder ring came from in the trailer. Upon Further inspection and comparison the details and the lore connections matched up perfectly Metyr probably got sent to the lands between with the elden ring to establish the rules of the universe and Marikas original sin was taking the elden ring sort of like Eve taking the apple

Definitely one of the best lore videos I've seen, it all made a lot of sense. Keep it up

What if Marika was fused with that redheaded misbegotten? Theres a lot of connections between it and Radagon and it showed up again in the DLC. I also think they fused, had Messmer and Melina (both cursed) split up so Radagon could go make himself more perfect (youve yet to become me, trina/miquella split, radagon goes to study sorcery), they procreate separately, they decide to recombine, they have the twin prodigies but theyre still cursed Thats where I'm at. I think the red hair being tied back to fire giants in that one item description is a red herring. Radagon was originally a misbegotten. Havent fully thought about how the Night of BK and the Shattering fits in there yet but ive just been dyin to talk about it with somebody 😅💖

Absolute madness! You're a genius!

what if Radagon is one of the other Shamans she was merged with. Somehow shes able to split off into him. Same with all of her children.

You know it’s a good video when you address questions the audience is developing as they watch said video. Love this theory.

This is the only lore video I’ve seen that I felt truly mind blown over

A thing few people seem to talk about yet is that the putresence is something like a forerunner to the mimic tears. Mimic tears tries to imitate life, but putrescence is like an ooze left behind by dead bodies in the giant "coffins". I'd like to think these in sci-fi terms were seed ships and the putrescence is what was left after a long journey through space. It is basically a mass of dna, a thing that mixes all sorts of life like the crucible and the crucible and spirals are deeply connected. dna can be also seen as a double helix sort of like spirals. The Nox are connected to Marika's race so to say and thus with Shamans too. I think the Numen and Nox and Shaman came about and emerged from the big coffins/space ships that held genetic information. Maybe all life was or a lot of it. Shamans coming from this proto-dna ooze would explain why they can somehow merge together again into a big blob or how grafting can work too.

Finally someone caught on the clues; been talking about it for almost 2 weeks now on various videos and discords. "All vessels are destined to one day break" - Alexander

Thats pretty interesting, remember the similarities: Crucible where all life blended together, Shaman pots (life blending together), The gate of divinity (bunch of corpses blending together)...

It makes you wonder if all the life found in the Lands-Between, were beings that spilled out from this jar after Marika and Messmer burned many away.

I've also come to the conclusion that Marika was the only successful attempt of the sainthood ritual. And the betrayal was that the hornsent basically created Marika/Radagon. Yes I do think radagon was there from the start. He's the non shaman part of that particular jar combo. He is the human part and Marika is the divine. And for whatever reason their specific combo was successful

I've read many many posts about this theory, and while I think it has some gaps, it's the one I like the most. One of the things that bothers me a bit though is the use of the word SAINT. I believe words are not chosen lightly in from software games, and why would they choose the word saint specifically for that? Being that the most prominent uses of the word come from * Jarred people * Saint Trina * Saint of the Bud That's it. I have no clue about anything, just wanted to point that out!

It makes sense in some way, that Marica can give birth to Omens (hornsent?) if one of the creatures she was fussed with was a hornsent. The dna is there, but not hers.

@wojciechmazurk5468

8 күн бұрын

No. Marika children were cursed

alright, now this is something to really think about

Love your content! Keep it coming!!

The black that leaves Radagon at the end. Is the same kind that leaves the tower at the end of the DLC cutscene

could it be that radagon was one of the warriors stuffed into the jar with marika?

You get into some pretty heavy speculation but I enjoy the leap you take. I have always envisioned the Lands Between, or the world we play in, as something metaphysical. There's a lot more going on in the larger universe than is in the gameplay, I have always thought the Lands Between to be more of a planar container than an actual physical place (like how Arda (Middle Earth) was flat before the events of Numenor and the world was made curved), and now we see that the Land of Shadow has actual fingerprints of the surface of it, like it's been handled from the outside, a lot like a jar.

this may very well be The One. Hope this video blows up soon, youve got some great ideas my friend.

U ONTO SOMETHING BRO I'VE SUBSCRIBED

Why would marika allow the practice of jarring in her golden order if she hated it. Thats whats throwing me for a loop. Maybe over sight on lore detail

@rosecorcoran

12 күн бұрын

I theorize that she somehow betrayed her own people to get power, hence "her confession" mentioned in the braid item. To me, she seems power-hungry (she removed the rune of death so as not to die; and refused to put it back despite Godwyn's fate) so she would be fine with the base-game jars being made of strong warriors.

I'm more curious about the potential implication of Marika's relation to the dancers of Ranah found by the Cerulean Coast who presumably came to these lands in the stone coffins that house the Putrescence-- that I believe are the progenitors to the silver tears. Maybe it's THAT quality in particular that allows their flesh to congeal and meld so harmoniously with others. When you alter the Dancer's Dress through Boc, it turns the original Red version into a Black variant with ornate Golden jewelry eerily reminiscent of Marika's signature Black-Gold dress. Also the Dancing Blade of Ranah weapon that you get from defeating the Dancer in the Souther Nameless Mausoleum shares the same curved spiral helix motif seen with the Fingerslayer Blade found in Nokron, as well as the Sacred Relic Sword. Lastly.... if Marika's people arrived here in giant stone coffins.... are the Lands Between... the Spirit World? or something Between the land of the material and the land of the spirits? I would love to hear your thoughts on these potential connections in the future.

One thing to keep in mind bout the similarities - we can see from ranni & miquella that great runes are tied to the flesh. When ranni kills her flesh, she discards her great rune, and when miquella discards the last of his body, his great rune breaks. perhaps this is why marika says "let us be shattered, mine other half" because in order to shatter the elden ring, which consists of runes, she has to shatter her flesh. It would also then follow that the only ones who are able to brandish great runes are those who descend from shamans (the demigods & the tarnished)

I like this theory a lot but how do you reconcile the Elden Beast which is essentially the Elden Ring (and which also came way before Marika)? And what is "the seduction"? Also how would the Fingers factor in? (I hope I didn't miss anything if you already touched upon these points)

@curtisfarley6558

12 күн бұрын

If marika really is in a jar, then perhaps the fingers are the potentates putting more people goop in? Lol. I enjoy speculation, and he's on to something for sure, just needs alot of polishing

@AdamPW

12 күн бұрын

@@curtisfarley6558 I thought that the Fingers might have seduced Marila with the promise of power which could explain why she is the only shaman to ascend. But still not sure what the significance of all the snake stuff is (the snake skin in Bonny Village) and whether it had something to do with the seduction (it could fit with biblical symbolism and also why Messmer has the Base Serpent within him)

@curtisfarley6558

12 күн бұрын

@@AdamPW I'm not sure tbh. I think this world is loosely modeled of yigdrasill; it has two world serpents, and I believe that they are probably the oldest "deities" worshiped in the lands between. If placidusax is the elden lord of an ancient time, then it stands to reason that snakes evolved before the beastmen (God skins being referred to as primordial humans). One word serpent is the one that ate rykard, the other, I assume, is messmers other parent. I think marika betrayed a scale less snake in the dlc trailer. Idk just waiting for tarnished archeologists to give me that jaw dropping lore connection.

@Nemo12417

12 күн бұрын

There is a set of Finger Ruins right outside Marika's home village.

@AdamPW

12 күн бұрын

​@@curtisfarley6558 While that goes probably too far I wonder whether Marika or the other Shamans have any connection to the Rauh ruins? They also feature a statue of a Goddess who could look similar to them. Maybe they could be showing Romina but from the text the ruins seem to be much much older (Hornsent scholars were researching the ruins). I really wonder what is up with the Rauh ruins. They seem to somehow stretch through all of the Lands Between. I also wonder what exactly Marika's original sin is? Is it the Hornsent genocide? Is it the acceptance of Godhood through somehow impure means?

This could have interesting implications for the chaos flame (the one great, everything melding together)

@kayhaich

12 күн бұрын

Her dad was Midra ;) Thing was that there was an original sin, which fused everything together, which is why the Chaos flame is about melting everything all away again

Awesome content! Subbed and can’t wait for more awesome work

Elden Ring's premise is basically Lurianic Kaballah, and the Tarnished is the Kaballist. The shattering and the gathering of esoteric shards of the divine order is central to Kaballah

I will say it makes sense then why the primordial elden ring looks different! Great theory!

Something I would like to tack on here is that the reason that the horn sent did this to the Shaman people because they were trying to learn how to combine life forms to emulate the crucible- they noticed the shamans could merge and started stuffing them in jars. This is a small part of my theory on madness and frenzy in hornsent culture

Slaps lid of pot This baby can hold so many gods

Marika being something like a jar can also explain how she and Radagon are one. It could be that, when she ascended to godhood at the divine gate, chose a soul of a consort and a host body for the consort, she chose the strongest warrior she knew and picked her own body as a host.

Marika's story is quite jarring.

I kind of like your theory but there are a couple of holes in it, for starters the Elden Ring is the Elden Beast and it arrived in the lands between before Marika was even a god; We also know of a previous Elden Lord that wasn't Marika's consort. We also know that Marika became a god in the doors of divinity like Miquella does in the dlc. Also the translation of shaman isn't really proper, the Japanese word originally use in the game is the word for Shintoist priestess, the ones that are usually depicted in anime as taking care of a temple/holy site and the word that was translated into saint can also be translated into purifying or getting ride of impurities. In the Japanese fandom the current theory is that priestesses were put into the jars with criminals/bad people to cleanse their sins so they could become pure. Marika's treason is that she didn't want to be stuff into a jar, for the hornsent this is treason.

I think you're definitely onto something. Several people have made videos about the terrible secrets of the shaman village, but have avoided asking some pretty conspicuous questions. What would success "creating a saint' would look like? If everyone else from the shaman village was jar'd, why wasn't Marika put into one too? This feels like a pretty likely answer to both questions. The word Shaman is a fairly inexact translation, I forget which content creator mentioned this, but a more precise translation of the Japanese may be helpful in refining theory further.

damn good video dude

Did anyone else see a tear fall when marika's head was put back on or was that a piece falling off?

To add, your conclusion can answer why the Demigods in the Wandering Mausoleum’s are soulless - they are demigods who never received Great Runes or whatever it is that Marika divests of herself to the Demigods we do face

I've been cooking a pretty similar theory myself, and I would like to present one key piece of evidence that supports it: We never get a good definition of what being a "saint" entails, but we do have two characters in the game who bear that title: St. Trina, and Saint Romina. The thing these two characters both have in common is that both are vessels of Outer Gods. Romina being a vessel of the Goddess of Rot, and Miquella being an empyrean, a vessel of the Two Fingers (and maybe the Greater Will, depending on how you choose to interpret the Metyr revelations).

i think this is my new headcanon lol

Now this one right here is one of my favorite theories overall, including base game theories before we had dlc

Merikas jar was filled with dead gods.

To be fair Diallos even failed at protecting Jarburg. I mean the fact he dies doing it is for the best. I wouldn't trust his incompetence to guard a pantry let alone anymore lives to his care.

Of all the jar videos lately, you may be the first to lean into Marika being post-jar. Very nice!

Solid content here 👌

This is a great video! However, I don’t think Marika created the Elden ring as there is evidence that there was an Elden ring by the pictures from Farm Azula. Placidusax was the consort to the previous God presumably the vessel of an older version of the ring. My opinion is Merica copied a lot from what time had before and made it her own.

Great Video! It's so amazing to see what the DLC shaman lore implies for the pots, and Marika, in the base game. I also made a video connecting the pots and Marika together over a year ago, because the story of Alexander as a vessel just seemed WAY too fitting for Marika. As if Alexanders, the crucible, and the pots story was meant to explain Marikas. The fact there were Shamans of the Crucible and how they were... utilized by the Hornsent who thought themselves to be chosen to create a god, brings to light just how significant the potfriends were all this time. I used to think i was maybe crazy, cause i heard no one else draw this connection, but your video makes me feel like it may have very well been it all along; your reasoning is very sound! To add weight to your theory even more, in relation to the Elden ring, is to remember how Fia birthed Godwyns rune, essentially rebirthing his soul into a rune. When you look close at the Elden RIng, you can see it's all tiny amber runes, the life force of the stars like Sellen explained it. And since we are all children of the stars (according to Ymir), the runes birthed from others amber/fiery (Elden in old norse = fire) life force like the Dung Eater, Goldmask, Godwyn etc, all have a touch of their own life to them; its their specific life and will written as an abstract metaphysical concept, so that it can be put into the Elden Ring i believe. The Dung eater has these cursemarks, Godwyn the Undeathly Flame colors, Goldmask utter brilliance..etc. So what you said makes really a lot of sense and ties into the design of these runes! And one last thing i noticed, is that when you reassemble Marika, her braid is completely gone. I always thought that one to symbolize Radagon, who got literally cut off her by us it seems. She's no longer split, and is returned to her original (the law of Regression). Anyways, enough loring, amazing video and cant wait to see more!

The forehead symbol of those in the jars looks to me like both death's and Marika's rune overlsped, with maybe some barbs on the extremes to throw us off haha

Is it just me or the small falling particles after putting Marika head back implies she's crying?

In starting to think jarburg was another shaman settlement It seems like it has the same peace and all the jars seemed to converge there for some reason

timelines are important. we have to remember than Rellanna came to the Land of Shadows with Messmer, and that she's Carian Royalty. That means Messmer's invasion took place AFTER the Tarnished were cast out, after Radagon's marriage to Rennala. This is all Long after Merika had ascended to godhood. That means all of that blood and gore around the Pillars of Divinity was caused by the Hornsent, not Merika. Let's assume somehow that Merika was the first Jar to ascend. The Hornsent would have seen her as a miracle, and likely have aided her ascention to godhood by creating the pillars and potentially aiding her against the Gloam-Eyed Queen. That would mean the "betrayal" the story trailer mentioned was most likely that the Hornsent's "saint" was not beholden to them. Instead, she was actively hostile towards them. Ignoring them at first, before decimating their civilization and sealing it in the Land of Shadows.

3:56 In the related quest, Jar Bairn in Jarburg asks if we’re their Potentate, and afaik it’s the only other use of that word in the game apart from this, so it kinda checks out

I'd like to add another bit that just struck me when I was roaming listlessly. In the area under shadow keep you can find a unique "innard amalgam" that summons a very particular attack. The ground turns sticky with red goo and it applies _hemorrhage._ I think this whole "stuffing people into pots" thing also helped draw the attention of the Formless Mother to the Lands Between. When looking at the Roundrock item, I couldn't help but wonder if it was somehow analogous to the very world itself (being globe-like). My brain made a wild assumption that by becoming the "god" of a land you quite literally BECOME the world itself. Imagine that as Marika ascended to Godhood it wasn't what was anticipated. You just existed everywhere, in everything. When people breathe air, they're breathing you. When people walk on paths, they're stepping on you. When ritualists stab a trident or prong into the air, they're stabbing you.

Why do we start at the chapel? Why is the statue inside is different compared to the queen marika statue on the grafted scion fight?

Great video thank you 🙏

She didn't want to become a jar so she became a vessel instead 😢

take away the contrivance that is the tooth whip and the whole hypothesis falls like a house of cards. it's so damn frustrating the longer I think of it. Just imagine there would be no tooth whip item without the silly line of the flesh blending harmoniously... one fucking item that explains so much - shouldn't be that way