[scorpionstew]

ohhhh are the perfume bottles based off the vessels used to hold gunpowder, sometimes called "apostles"?

if "perfuming" is analogous with various types of explosive powder production throughout the ages, that would make sense. although saltpeter production uses manure, and none of the perfume recipes use dung. instead perfuming generally uses herbaceous ingredients. maybe they thought players would use perfume bottles even less if they were made with literal shit?

[scorpionstew]

I guess I don't know if the Kindred of Rot as a group were founded at the Church of the Bud. I think Moore shows us the kindred did positively interact with other denizens of the Lands Between before rot became scarlet, but how long ago that was I cannot say. everything about the Shadowlands feels older than the base game's lands, which makes me lean towards the kindred of rot starting there. maybe when the outer god of rot was sealed away, the kindred mostly stopped being allies with humanity. unsure of the time difference between the crusades and the sealing of the rot god.

but then when and why did they flock under Malenia? was it during the Shattering, when they saw her blossom and they were like Woooooow cool, but Malenia didn't even give them the time of day. she's busy

[miquellah]

do wonder how much ranni is bullshitting about her involvement in the night of black knives, because its clear that shes at LEAST lying about forging the death rune on the blades, or that she was the only individual involved (motions again to iji)

i would say “wouldnt it be funny if she actually didnt have any at all, lol” buttt its true she had motivation, also the blasphemous claw namedrops her distinctly. nonetheless it is also clear that the black knives fucking hated her after the fact, so if there was an alliance, it definitely wasn’t a strong one at all. maybe they fully expected her to have died for real, and were trying to finish what they started?

and while the black knives are ofc most well-known for that plot, what was their purpose as a faction before then? an elite assassin squad for marika’s personal use otherwise? we hear all about the conquests of her armies, but not really anything of assassinations otherwise. they couldn’t have been that prevalent of a force then, right?

[faridounelasimanette]

oh I have THOUGHTS on this :3

About Ranni's involvement

we know two things. First, she was 100% involved in the plot, even she's probably lying about her role. Second, we do know what her ultimate goal is : to sacrifice everything and take down the divine rule of the GW/Elden RIng/Golden Order over mortals with her.

This self sacrificial attitude makes her very similar to Miquella, but they go about it in opposite ways. While Miquella' stance is one of Martyrdom,sacrificing himself to divine power in order to give its "blessing" to everyone, Ranni is sacrificing herself to make sure no one has ever to suffer from the divine power's blessings, that she consider, undderstandably, more of a curse than anything else.

This also manifest in their relationship to their follower. Miquella used his charm freely, and doing so amassed a devoted mass of (sometimes fanatical) followers. Ranni, as a narrative foil to Miquella, takes the opposite stance. Has she knows her road is one that lead only to misery, she do everything to walk it alone, only accepting the help of her most trusted followers. Most of her personnality is based on rejecting bonds with others, as she's constantly distancng herself from everyone and even define the relationship of her followers as "taking what's they need from the others". There's a big rejection of love as a concept here, because she know (maybe from observing Miquella) how much damage love for an empyrean can cause.

But, and this is extremely important, she do love others. It's one of her core traits, and I think the main reason behind why she acts so distant : she cars about those close to her so she doesn't want them to get involved in a goal of sacrifice. By bearing her pain alone she avoids spreading it to others.

This understanding of her character makes her attitude related to the Plot quite easy to understand. While she did take part in the plot, and we know she had a good reason to, she lies to you when asked, saying "I did it all" to take the entire blame for herself, despite the plot being a collective effort between at least 3 different factions. This is again her self sacrificial nature showing, bearing all the weight on herself to save others from it. (And remember, when she explains this to you you're pretty much a stranger. Why would she be sincere ?)

About the Black Knives Assassins

The situation here is extremely messy. But we do know a few things for sure about them : They were from the Eternal City (cities?), they were related to Marika, and Ranni gave them the murder weapon. This leads to a bunch of question, and a lot of speculation that I will try to answer.

Why did they do it ? We know the eternal city attempted to create their own lord of the night, and that it failed terribly, and the the greater will banished them underground. With this alone they'd have a pretty good reason to recent the golden order to orchestrate an assassination. But. We also know that Marika is related to them. So while they where banished by the Greater Will, at least one of them got on it's good side. And I won't say I know what Marika did, but I could definitely see the Black Knives wanting to take back what they consider rightfully theirs. murdering Godwyn in this case makes perfect sense, as he was the incarnation of the gift of Gold.

Why did they cooperate with Ranni ? they at least have some common ground : they both want to take down the golden order, they both want the coming of an "Age of Night", and they both want Godwyn dead. Ranni's desire for Godwyn's death is a bit complicated : either she just targetted him because he needed to die for a new age to happen, or she needed him to die because she refused an implied political marriage (remember that there is no official family tie between the carians and the golden lineage, so a mariage between the two heir of the royal families would be a perfect excuse to get back the Carian kid as ruling demigods in Leyndell. Also the ecclipse is the union between sun and moon). Either way, they both have everything to win by working with each others.

Why did the Black Knives turn against Ranni, then ? I guess because Ranni double-crossed them. I doubt the assassin ever knew about her desire to also kill half of herself, and I doubt the Black Knives "Age of Night" would have involved yeeting divine influence into space. And since Godwyn didn't fully die, the Golden lineage couldn't be erased for the new age to begin. So while the plot was a full success for Ranni, it was total failure for the knives. No wonder Ranni is hiding she has a lot of enemies.

Why are there so many Black Knives in Ordina ? I have no idea if Miquella was involved in the plot. But what is there in Ordina ? Albinaurics. And it's not just an average albinauric location because the hope of their entire race is nearby, as Latenna big sister who is expected to accept the drop of dew (or something like that) and allow a new generation of albinaurics to come. The presence of both albinaurics and Black knives helps us tie a lot of lose threads together.

The albinaurics are made of a silver metal, they are all born of a (same?) mother despite being artificial, and their creation is often represented as the ripples of a drop of dew. Silver metal, artificial life, prolific mother and drop of dew are all important themes related to the Eternal City (and the Carians). So, it is quite reasonable to guess that the albinaurics and the Black Knives had some common goal.

What's the deal with Marika in all this ? I have no idea. There's a common idea that she participated in the plot, but I really can't see a good reason for why she would want to murder her only non-cursed son, that she worked so hard to conceive.

And what's her relationship to the black knives ? I also have no idea what happened, or what she did to them for them to get so revengeful. But there's probably some juicy family drama here. We also know that Marika commited a "seduction, and a betrayal" to create a new Age so this may be related ? But it's impossible to formulate an hypothesis without getting into wild speculation here, there's just to much unknown.

[scorpionstew]

is it just me or does the rot sigil look a little bit like the top of the spiral tower sigil. see how the hands at the top of the spiral are represented as more insect-like feelers in the rot sigil? the branching horn motif becoming slightly inverted and disintegrating?

[mossymaidn]

[aowna]

A bottomless curse, a bottomless sea...

[scorpionstew]

also relatedly it's cool the Miquellan symbol is basically the spiral tower symbol flipped upside down. I feel like the Miquellan symbol is reminiscent of Radagon's crisscross briars, too.

[scorpionstew]

divine spiral = communication device to the gods (apparently functioning poorly in all iterations)

briars = blocking of communication, silence

[scorpionstew]

also relatedly it's cool the Miquellan symbol is basically the spiral tower symbol flipped upside down. I feel like the Miquellan symbol is reminiscent of Radagon's crisscross briars, too.

[scorpionstew]

it's so cool how you can knock a Nox swordstress off her ant steed and the ant will immediately start attacking her. the ant steeds have purple eyes when being compelled, similar to the purple eyes some Demi-Human Queens have (like Gilika). are the Queens also under a spell? apparently Gilika can spread the purple eyes to some of her followers to make them aggressive even after all the other demi-humans are cowering in fear. I'll also note that Gilika is one of the Queens that doesn't do any spell-casting, just pure physical attacks.

AND the bewitching branch gives a similar purple eyed effect…! which is connected to Miquella. who developed this magic first and why?

[scorpionstew]

since the Nox were exiled underground, it may have been necessary to try to tame the ants that live amongst the roots of the Erdtree. this could also be linked to their attempts at controlling life (such as through the silver tears), since there's quite a few irl ants that have a mutualistic or otherwise paired relationship with plants and trees. including things like gathering nectar...

but when did the Nox get the bewitching ability? did they learn it from Miquella, or did Miquella learn it from them? Miquella may have gathered some ants to take care of the Haligtree, he might have gotten them from the Eternal Cities. there are quite a few lilies down there.

[scorpionstew]

it's so cool how you can knock a Nox swordstress off her ant steed and the ant will immediately start attacking her. the ant steeds have purple eyes when being compelled, similar to the purple eyes some Demi-Human Queens have (like Gilika). are the Queens also under a spell? apparently Gilika can spread the purple eyes to some of her followers to make them aggressive even after all the other demi-humans are cowering in fear. I'll also note that Gilika is one of the Queens that doesn't do any spell-casting, just pure physical attacks.

AND the bewitching branch gives a similar purple eyed effect…! which is connected to Miquella. who developed this magic first and why?

[summonfish]

[moen-dues]

Leda

[sunstiana]

The Empyrean twins…

[scorpionstew]

wow I didn't know the Miquellan Knight Sword existed until today... "an ill-starred sword with no master"... forged based on Carian knight's swords, who were a small but mighty and loyal troupe... how Miquella just completely vanished on the whole of the Haligtree seemingly without notice, leaving his own dedicated Haligtree knights in the dark... the sword laying unused, "unoffered to any knight". also reminiscent of the cleanrot knights and kindred of rot, who were also abandoned by Malenia, who was in turn abandoned by Miquella. "ill-starred" already predicting the failure of Miquella to succeed in godhood. the sword being inlayed with amber (which houses the vitality of ancient life) versus the glintstone of the Carian knights. wow!

[scorpionstew]

so what if I used my man alter ego to woo you on the battlefield during a stalemate and then, while we have peace and you train me on sorcery, I introduce you to heretical magic like rebirth to instill a coup with your own people so that you end up fighting a war on two fronts. and then I leave and marry myself. and we were both girrrlsssss

[ode-on-a-grecian-butt]

art by @giganticbuddha

[a999ain]

Birth of a Goddess

Malenia as Eve by Solomon Joseph Solomon ↓