So this post actually got me thinking about the possible uses for the numen innards the Hornsent may have had and looking back at the Gate of Divinity in the trailer made me realize
The Hornsent were probably using the flesh of those maidens to build the gate because of their flesh’s unique grafting capabilities. Similar to how cement mixture is used for building brick structures.
Grafting? What?? Narty are you good big dawg??
No, I’m not and I blame Michael Zaki for this but please stay with me for a second because I think I might be onto something.
Ok, so as we know by now grafting was a common feature in the Golden Lineage (Godfrey and Marika’s descendants). Grafting, as we know, is attaching something to a base or “trunk” and both it and the newly attached piece continuing to live and thrive under their new main consciousness . We have a few examples of this.
Now, I would use Godfrey as an example if not for two things; it’s never stated what Godfrey’s race is and Serosh- although grafted to him as a spectral Lion- seems to be of a separate mind. This means there’s something else at play beyond simply grafting a new limb to your body. Personally, I think Marika had something to do with this particular incident as it’s the only one of its kind.
However, we do have a better example of this anyhow with Godrick and Godefroy- both of whom come from Marika (Numen) and Godfrey (Requires more research.) Godrick the Grafted, despite being a sickly old man himself, he is capable of melding his own flesh with that of other creatures. All of those grafted limbs now work on his command, as opposed to them having a mind of their own (see: the dragon’s head).
My hypothesis is that this grafting technique didn’t start with Godfrey, but from Marika’s traumatic past.
“The Numen are said to be descendants of people from 異界 (Ikai), which can mean another world like the English localisation says, but can also mean the spirit world, underworld, or next world.” -Fextrawiki
“The Numen are called 稀人 (Marebito), literally meaning "Rare Person."” -Fextrawiki
[[ Note: Normally, I choose to rely on Lokey and LastProtagonist’s translations of item descriptions and then make my own assertions, but unfortunately dming them to compile a long list of item descriptions for me would take far too long and I didn’t feel like troubling either of them. Plus, this is common knowledge nowadays so no harm in it.]]
Anyways, so if the women from the Shaman or Maiden Village are Numen like Marika, and they (and possibly Marika before she managed to escape) are the ones being flayed alive and then stuffed into jars with “all manners of things”- then it’s more than likely that Numen flesh has an innate ability to meld to other things naturally.
If we go by the Hornsent spirit’s monologue at the Whipping Hut- these women were captured for something incredibly important- something that the already overzealous Hornsent saw as “nigh-Sainthood”.
When exploring the gaols to take notes of item locations, I noticed a few things;
Ghostflame is used as lighting, and is known to be infamously cold. Preserving meat for longer periods of time requires freezing temps, and the insides of the jars we see some of the innards slide out from are frosted on the inside as well.
The Gaols are freezing, which is drastically different than any other subterranean dungeon we've encountered. Enough so that the maggots that would've normally eaten at the exposed flesh of the maiden's innards have frozen solid.
Some of these innards have multiple faces grafted to them (ex: Lamenter's Gaol) and have a unique piercing cry attack that emanates from all of the faces at the same time- similar to the Grafted Scions.
That last note and the item description for the Innard Meat, which goes as follows
" Scraps of flesh for filling great jars. Rancorous spirits cling to the pinkish-red, twitching meat.
This is what becomes of the condemned, who get sliced up and stuffed into jars to become saints instead.”
Confirms that the meat itself, upon melding to the numen flesh, is capable of staying alive despite horrific mutilation. So what happens to these ladies after undergoing this horrific procedure? Do they remain in jars forever?
My hypothesis, as it stands right now, is that this new saintly flesh was then hauled to Belurat (considering that they have the biggest Gaol thus far and it’s full of more of these jars than the others) to be processed and used to build the Gate of Divinity.
Look, we’ve all seen that scene in the beginning of the trailer- the gates are made of pinkish-red, bloody flesh as Marika climbs the steps. Some of the corpses even resemble the bodies of those women.
The worst part about all of this isn’t even that-
It’s the fact that those women were probably still alive when she climbed those steps to the gate. The Gate of Divinity was a massive, living organism composed of the wriggling flesh of her kin.
Given that the flesh is now exposed to the elements and possibly even been torched by Messmer- the gate looks like stone and ash and the corpses themselves are more than likely dead.
The Numen (稀人, Marebito) are the descendants of denizens from another world. They are long lived but seldom born.[1] The Numen are said to h
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