Dopplerdee
Accident Prone(Yes the caps are necessary)
- Location
- Happy Place
- Pronouns
- She/Her
It's nice to see Marika's development layed out like that.
(Un)Happy Family [Worm/Elden Ring]
- Thread starter WhoAmEye
- Start date
- Mature
I will second the comment on Marika's progression. An unexpected surprise to see Maliketh again, though I suppose it is logical that the appointed custodian and wielder of Destined Death wouldn't be permakilled easily. Thank you for the update @WhoAmEye and everyone, and take as much time between updates as needed. None of us want to see you go Hollow suffer extended burnout, after all. Yes, I couldn't resist. 
Cosmic Dream
dreaming of utopia
Maybe I didn't read it closely enough, but as someone unfamiliar with Elden Ring lore I took away little from that.
hellgodsrus
Actual Real Game Dev!
- Location
- Behind You
- Pronouns
- She/Her
That's fine - it's not super relevant per se. In summary though: Marika sad, Ranni sad and mad (there is no difference between a tyrant and a god and Marika was both), Rennala and Consort sad, Marika gives feeble apology Ranni gets mad about (what is the difference between the scars of abuse/oppression and dysphoria even in your ideal body), Marika's Ungreat views on their pre-Taylor kids, Ranni wonders why they keep Marika around and then Marika tries to fight her but doesn't deadname her, creepy wolf guy wielder of death shows up and Marika stops him from killing Ranni, Marika slowly acknowledges her wrongdoings and fuckups and that is the actual apology.
What I found interesting and heart wrenching about that is I got the feeling that she felt her name wasn't Marika's to say after the utter failure Marika was as a parent, and Ranni might be feeling like her name has been stolen from her hence her imploring her Consort to say her name over and over to, in essence, take it back to where it belongs. Ooof, lots of emotion there.
- Location
- United States
Ok.......fuck me. I'm heading to youtube to watch Elden Ring because I'm so damn lost in this story its tragic.
TBF, I assume there is a *lot* of AU/new lore being added by WhoAmEye.
... but, maybe I'm just also extremely ignorant of Eldenring lore.
WhoAmEye
Bunker-Dwelling Cryptid
- Location
- Vault Birb
- Pronouns
- She/Her
To be entirely fair - it's a fromsoft game. 90% of the lore is going to be implied events that you need a conspiracy board with red string and notes to tie together. It's like there's a coherent narrative, and everything reflects that, it's just... we as players arrived *after* that story, so we don't get to see it told, but have to pick it up through context clues. Of course, this can lead to different interpretations, but overall, the more you think about it, the more tragic the story is.
When the Player arrives in a From game, everything got blown up loooong before. It's the Player's job to determine "Yeah, there's still something of worth here to start building again" or "Fuck this place, ash and vaporize the ruins till nothing's left"
The one thing that always disappoints me about from games. Nothing is at it's peak. Take Elden Ring. Hourah Loux has lost his grace, Radahn is a mindless beast slowly rotting away, Malania is half rotten herself, Fire Giant is crippled, Placidusax is missing a couple heads, Rennala is just broken.
Imagine a from game that takes place during those epics, instead of having you swinging at the feeble shadows of legends. Imagine being one of Godwyn's warriors in the war against the Fire Giants, or one of Radagon's fighting the Carians.
Or perhaps rather than taking place during the rise to the top, have the player exist at the beginning of the fall. A soldier in one of the many armies of the demigods after the shattering, or maybe one of the Black Knives, or someone else that would be in the thick of things. Imagine being on either side of the battlefield as Malania and Radahn clash. Being there as Morgott holds Leyndell against all comers. Aiding Ranni as she plans the Night of Knives. Or any other roles you can think of.
Imagine a souls like where you can actually save the world rather than burn away the remnants and hope there are enough survivors to start fresh.
- Location
- United States
- Pronouns
- They/Them
While not a good reason, I think fromsoft games have a problem with making things too powerful in lore. Like I doubt anyone could challenge Gwyn in his prime, so they need to be shadows of themselves for you to even have that small of a chance.
They'd have to be more in the mold of the Old King Doran fight from Demons Souls: Manage to do a bit of damage and he's like "'aight, you're worthy, here's something good for not being a total scrub, run along now." Persisting to attack means "You dun goofed, prepare to get your everything turned inside out."
hellgodsrus
Actual Real Game Dev!
- Location
- Behind You
- Pronouns
- She/Her
I think the fact that everything's fallen apart is the point - ultimately the Dark Souls games (and then Sekiro more explicitly) are a meditation on particular elements of Buddhism and the idea of cycles and endings. And ultimately the message of ALL the main soulsborne games - especially Elden Ring - is that stagnancy, refusal to change, refusal to let things end: these things breed oppression. The only thing that you can do is try to make something new and better.
Being part of an army fighting to establish that stagnant world would be a complete thematic undercutting of the entire point of the game. Being someone fighting against it would feel like shit when you inevitably failed. So instead Fromsoft cleverly always places you at moments of paradigm shift, where the rot's grown too deep to be ignored and Something has to happen to either keep the system going or tip it over and start the foundations of a new one. That gives the player far more agency in exploring what the gormenghastian structure of the land they've arrived in was like, and what it could be in future.
To be fair, that last short story was entirely ER lore, so it's fine to be lost. Like I said, it's a side story - it's not crucial to know anything. What in particular has you confused? Feel free to PM me and I'll try and let you know.Ok.......fuck me. I'm heading to youtube to watch Elden Ring because I'm so damn lost in this story its tragic.
I don't think we are adding much new/AU lore. I dislike the whole 'it's all according innit' view of Fromsoft lore because - no, there are very clearly wrong interpretations, including a number of very silly ones around Elden Ring - but I will say that we aren't always using the 'accepted' or 'mainline' readings of particular things (partly because as mentioned, a lot of them are very fucking silly). I will say we do expand a lot on what's there - it's canon that Radahn admired Godfrey and went to war to become Elden Lord, which probably means he didn't know Marika was sort of his actual parent and not just his stepmom, otherwise he might have been less keen on marrying her; it's canon that the Black Knives have connections to both Ranni and Marika, so why not have them be an organisation they both worked on and then tried to use to counter betray each other before the other could betray them which then acted as the betrayal that set things going; it's canon that Godwyn dying caused a succession crisis, so he was probably the eldest son; and so on and so forth. I wouldn't say this is 'AU INTERPRETATIONS', but it is work building on the lore that's there rather than just 'the lore that's there', because the lore that's there approaches these characters like an archaeologist or historical text, and not always as characters in a text, which leaves a lot of room for building.
So, helgosdrus already told the lore reason I was going to point out on why this is the point, so let me cover the mechanical ones:
Simply put, fromsoft games are not made to be simple power fantasies, their difficulty is a well known fact.
The fact that everything is already long past its prime adds to that, if they were at their prime, you could think *I am more powerful than them*, but they aren't, so you keep feeling like the janitor arriving to clean up the mess.
Because that's what you are, the janitor cleaning up the mess.
The *chosen* undead is just a fool that got tricked by either one serpent or another into thinking he's important, the bearer of the curse's decision about the flame doesn't even matter, the unkindled is literally a guy who was judged unfit to lit the fire.
Edit:
Also, the assumption that a fight against any characters *at the height of their power* would be more epic is false in the first place.
From soft could have decided to have us fight a *full power* placidusax and all that would have resulted in would've been a different skin on the exact same fight.
The reason they did not is because the intended feeling of it is not *look how high I soared!* but *how the mighty have fallen.*
Every boss fight is constrained by the very nature of the game as a game, and making the bosses be at their apex or their nadir is cosmetic when it comes to that part.
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I'm aware of why the games have the settings they do. And if I wanted to play a Fromsoft power fantasy, I'd load up an Armored Core game. What I meant was I want to see one of these worlds at it's most vibrant. A lot of the places in these games are absolutely beautiful, even as decayed as they are. I want to see them full of people living their lives. I want to see soaring towers and grand castles, not crumbling ruins. I get both the thematic and the mechanical reasons for the setting, I'm just a little tired of retreading the same ground.
My earlier post never mentioned fighting any of the legends at their best, only being there when they were at their strongest. I'm not asking to be an all powerful figure who can go toe to toe with everyone. Being just one soldier during the Radahn vs. Malania fight, clashing with the opposing army while these two titans rampage all over the battlefield. Struggling against other mortals while trying to avoid getting under crushed underfoot by the demigods. Witnessing those two bring each other to the brink, only to come up short. And then having to carve out your own place in this world that's starting to crumble. I think that sort of scenario could manage the difficulty quite nicely, if not in the usual souls fashion. And I think fromsoft could manage to keep the theme of cycles without having the game take place at the transition. They might have to take a different angle than usual, but they can handle it. Having the player struggling to keep the game going, rather than clearing the board for the next round.
shepsquared
Erratic Aussie
- Location
- Melbourne, Australia
Killer story, but I need to check and see if my understanding of the family tree/lore is right.
The whole thing obviously starts with Marika, Empyrean of the Golden Order/Erdtree. She had a shadow-wolf half-brother called Maliketh who probably isn't actually related to her but is treated as family.
She meets the barbarian warlord Hoarah Loux, they presumably fight then eventually get married. Hoarah takes the name Godfrey and becomes the first Elden Lord and together the two spread the Golden Order across the Lands Between.
Morgott was super devoted to the Golden Order despite being hated by the god behind it and became a massive self hating bigot because of it. Mohg instead made a deal with a god of cursed blood and is apparently the worst member of the family? He kidnaps Miquella with the goal of marrying him/forcibly turning him into a demigod of blood?
After giving birth to the Omen Twins Marika banishes Godfrey and his soldiers from the Lands Between, Godfrey reverts back to being the barbarian Hoarah Loux and eventually he and his soldiers all wind up dead.
While all that is happening Marika is also being Radagon and tries to conquer Caria, only to marry Renala instead. Presumably they liked Rennala a lot more than Godfrey but that's neither here or there. Radagan and Renala have three kids:
He's probably stiull around in some form but that might be true for all the demigods.
Then the Greater Will noticed Radagan and called its Empyrean to heel, forcing him to ditch Renala and marry himself. After Godfrey was driven out too. This is probably when Marika started to plot the Shattering but Radagan wasn't on board with this somehow.
The last line might also be the Tarnished, probably one of the soldiers of Hoarah Loux returned to life by the Shattering and the Elden Ring PC.
The only other members of the family are Godrick the Grafted, son of Godfrey but not Marika, and Malenia's daughters (who might just be embodied fragments of her psyche: Millicent, Amy, Mary, Polyanna, and Maureen.
There's also at least 8 dead demigods in the Walking Mausoleums, which implies Radagan, Marika or Godfrey had other kids. I'm betting Godfrey in this story since we just saw Marika's opinions of her kids.
The whole thing obviously starts with Marika, Empyrean of the Golden Order/Erdtree. She had a shadow-wolf half-brother called Maliketh who probably isn't actually related to her but is treated as family.
She meets the barbarian warlord Hoarah Loux, they presumably fight then eventually get married. Hoarah takes the name Godfrey and becomes the first Elden Lord and together the two spread the Golden Order across the Lands Between.
This is Godwyn the Golden, first son of Marika and Godfrey. Super popular with the people, made friends with dragons but apparently bad with his family. He gets killed by Ranni and becomes a monstrous bloated undead thing because only his soul died? I'm not sure why he was the one who Ranni killed but I'm pretty sure a demigod had to die to shatter the Elden Ring.
Apparently Marika never much liked Godfrey. Makes sense since she was there to be his prize/enabling figure but sucks for their kids. These two are Morgott the Omen King and Mohg Lord of Blood. The twins were born with mutated horns and were considered cursed, getting trapped underground because of this.
Morgott was super devoted to the Golden Order despite being hated by the god behind it and became a massive self hating bigot because of it. Mohg instead made a deal with a god of cursed blood and is apparently the worst member of the family? He kidnaps Miquella with the goal of marrying him/forcibly turning him into a demigod of blood?
After giving birth to the Omen Twins Marika banishes Godfrey and his soldiers from the Lands Between, Godfrey reverts back to being the barbarian Hoarah Loux and eventually he and his soldiers all wind up dead.
While all that is happening Marika is also being Radagon and tries to conquer Caria, only to marry Renala instead. Presumably they liked Rennala a lot more than Godfrey but that's neither here or there. Radagan and Renala have three kids:
Starscourge Radahn, practically a giant in stature and a warrior who loved his horse tot he point of using Gravity magic to let him keep riding him into battle. At some point halted the passage of the stars in the skies before fighting Malenia and probably won, causing her to unleash the rot and robbing him of most of his mind.
Ranni, one of the main characters of the fic. Not much to say here - she got the shadow-wolf Blaidd much like Marika got Maliketh because she could someday take her father's place? I'm not sure what the Greater Will wanted here since apparently it didn't approve of being trans but was willing to put her in a female role? Her and Marika were responsible for the shattering and everythign that ensued and she seems to have gotten what she was aiming for.
Rykard Lord of Blasphemy. The guy who got eaten by a snake to fuse with it and someday eat the Erdtree? We'll never know what he thought he would get out of it because it just turned him into a gluttonous single-minded monster.
He's probably stiull around in some form but that might be true for all the demigods.
Then the Greater Will noticed Radagan and called its Empyrean to heel, forcing him to ditch Renala and marry himself. After Godfrey was driven out too. This is probably when Marika started to plot the Shattering but Radagan wasn't on board with this somehow.
They had two kids, the twins Malenia and Miquella. Probably doomed fromt he start due to their parents - Malenia got cursed by the Scarlet Rot and Miquella was doomed to be eternally youthful by some other god, idk which.
I think this is Melina? Apparently not a child by blood but was undoutedly Marika's servant when the Tarnished showed up. She's definitely dead, having sacrificed herself to destroy the Erdtree.
The last line might also be the Tarnished, probably one of the soldiers of Hoarah Loux returned to life by the Shattering and the Elden Ring PC.
The only other members of the family are Godrick the Grafted, son of Godfrey but not Marika, and Malenia's daughters (who might just be embodied fragments of her psyche: Millicent, Amy, Mary, Polyanna, and Maureen.
There's also at least 8 dead demigods in the Walking Mausoleums, which implies Radagan, Marika or Godfrey had other kids. I'm betting Godfrey in this story since we just saw Marika's opinions of her kids.
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WhoAmEye
Bunker-Dwelling Cryptid
- Location
- Vault Birb
- Pronouns
- She/Her
Almost - Ranni was the oldest, Rykard in the middle, and Radahn the youngest.
Rykard was killed by the Consort, and Radahn never knew Radagon was an alter ego of Marika.
Not quite, it's definitely about her kids. Marika's a terrible parent.
Godrik is a descendant of Godfrey, not his son, there are far more generations between the two than that.
Remember, according to canon, the game takes place 5000 years after the shattering (date given by G.R.R Martin), not right after it.
hellgodsrus
Actual Real Game Dev!
- Location
- Behind You
- Pronouns
- She/Her
The eldest kid with Rennala is very obviously Ranni; the whole point of this story is Ranni and Marika's similarities and differences and Ranni being the only child Marika had they remotely respected, ever. Marika thought Radahn was a over fighty moron, as was the general consensus outside his own army.
Also it was Ranni And Marika who targeted Godwyn, given in this they worked on the Black Knives together (as is also implied in canon).
Melina is Marika's Something - a gift from the Gloam-Eyed Queen before her defeat (hence 'is she actually one of my first children chronologically, huh') that Marika kept unwaking and in reserve until there was no other option, then made her into a very specific weapon to get themselves out and kill the Greater Will.
shepsquared
Erratic Aussie
- Location
- Melbourne, Australia
Oh damn, rereading the snips now that makes sense. Poor Radahn, he never deserved any of this. Arguably none of the kids did, but Marika just had to keep having kids.
I assumed half the list got killed by the Consort so I didn't mention it, but Rykard, Morgott and Malenia I think had to get killed for this fic's start to happen.
I also assumed the dying again and again line was the Tarnished because I thought Melina only died twice. I'll just be glad the Consort didn'tgo the route of the Frenzied Flame.
That still means Godfrey or one of his kids had kids that we know nothing about. I'm assuming it was Godfrey or maybe Godwyn, because the Omen twins wouldn't have had acknowledged kids for inheritance.
Speaking of Rykard, a possible retelling of the Consort's efforts to dispatch him. ...let's just say the Tarnished might've omitted some details when speaking of it to Ranni (yes, I greatly enjoy Carbot Animations):
View: https://youtu.be/UL1onZURWn0?si=-JeA4o8bdUrgfAgu
(yes, I greatly enjoy Carbot Animations):View: https://youtu.be/UL1onZURWn0?si=-JeA4o8bdUrgfAgu
Tenno Drifter
IT WAS ALREADY ON FIRE WHEN I GOT HERE
Well. This was an interesting read. Still have yet to find one with Tay being the one in the role of the Tarnished, but this was a good alternative