The Lore of Elden Ring's Bosses (that served the Golden Order)

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“History is written by the victors” could be an apt phrase to describe why Giants are spoken of so negatively in item descriptions and in the storyline of the game.

I love how the automatic subtitles convert "Queen Marika" to "Queen America", leading to sentences like "when Queen America waged war against the fire giants"

You know whats pretty ironic in the setting? The rise of rot once the fire giants are gone. The redmanes in caelid found out fire is useful in stopping the spread. Perhaps by defeating the giants they unknowingly invited the sealed rot back into the world, unchecked.

I'm really interested in the "ancient" civilizations of the underground regions, the eternal cities

The detail of the trolls having empty stomachs after losing the blessing of the Giants God is one of those incredible moments in Fromsoft games where things just click in the lore and you get a eureka rush. so cool

A cool detail about the Night's Cavalry. The one in the weeping peninsula drops AOW: Barricade shield which references someone named Sir Neidhardt. We never meet them, but we do find a shield that naturally has barricade shield on a dead body at the top of the tower next to where you fight the Cavalry. Kind of like how the one in Liurnia drops ice spear, "skill of the warriors who served Lunar Princess Ranni", the one in Altus drops shared order "of the Golden Order fundamentalist knights". It's almost as if your reward for killing them are the skills of champions they have defeated.

That part about the 16 crucible knights who served Godfrey wandering the lands between is just such a cool detail. I remember coming across my first crucible knight in the underground area. There is one standing on the edge of a broken bridge, and my first thought was how he seemed to be a knight without purpose, who is simply watching time go. Its so cool to know that my initial feelings seem to be correct. And how there is one who chose to betray the erdtree, storytelling like this really layers the lore of the world.

Beating that draconic tree sentinel at the entrance of Leyndell took me hours. They really had the defense of that place in the right hands.

6:25 it's suddenly clear to me with this angle that the Trolls' hammer is modeled after the Fell God's eye we see in the chest of the Fire Giant with the large center pupil surrounded by smaller pupils on 8 sides.

Just another fact I'd like to bring attention to: the "Troll Hammer" weapons head is shaped and designed after the Fell God's eye. The concentric line of circles and the centre iris design are identical to the Fell God represented on the Giants chest.

Doing my first Playthru just in the last two weeks and hearing Ranalla say “oath sworn giant” in her 2nd phase and relating that to this into on the trolls it’s pretty cool to hear.

11:40 I think Morgott may actually protect Stormveil because Godrick is at the end of the day one of Morgott's last remaining family members from Golden Lineage. And the way he called each of the Demigods in his intro is filled with different emotions and the only one he seems to truly hate is Rykard while when he says the names of other Demigods he seems more caring. With Radahn there is clear respect, with Ranni there is a mournful tone to his voice and there is a slight nostalgic and tragic feel to when he names Miquella and Malenia. He even uses Godrick's actual title unlike everyone else. It seems to me that he truly loved them, but calls them traitors out of being hurt over their betrayal. Even the Night Cavalry that we meet in Snowfield are PROTECTING the carriage containing sword of Malenia's master that rides towards the Haligtree.

The Stonedigger Trolls chapter is a truly fascinating example of analysis of architectural and environmental storytelling in both character design, text, and world design. Bravo!

Another point that seems to suggest the trolls are enslaved, is that the nox mirror helm (which Igi wears) is supposed to be, "Worn by those committed to high treason, it wards off the intervention of the Greater Will and its vassal Fingers." So like Blaidd, Iji was also a slave to the fingers, except he was able to break free.

My hope for the DLC is that we go back in time to the war with the giants and we see Hoarah Loux use his suplexes and powerbombs against those guys. That's absolutely canon.

More Vaati in a week?! You spoil us!

Oh man, I remember my first play through, I managed to go through blind fortunately, and I will never forget my experience with the secret path to Leyndell. I had learned that the black and orange drawing in the map indicated a mine was there, and I was looking for smithing stones and found the one at the base of the waterfall, I ventured up it, savouring the views as I ascended the mountain. After killing the magma wyrm with Tragoth, and going up the elevator, my jaw dropped when I saw the radiant erdtree, and the golden grass so close by, and the feeling of success and advancement I got when the Altus plateau name popped up on the screen. Probably my greatest gaming moment in my entire life.

I think it is really interesting that almost all of the Golden Order's enemies use some kind of fire, like Bloodflame, Giantsflame, Frenzied Flame, and even Black Flame. The symbolism of fire as the eternal enemy of a giant tree is pretty awesome world building if you ask me

Vaati! Something you should know that might be illuminating: pure gold (i.e., unalloyed gold) is reddish in color, not your stereotypical yellow-gold or white-gold. This seriously connects the Crucible Knights and their notably reddish gold armor (described as related to the crucible of life) to Miquella's later concept of Unalloyed Gold! Miquella's Haligtree might be Miquella's attempt at recreating the Primordial Crucible, or the primordial and uncorrupted version of the Erdtree!