I've been curious for a while what kind of god(s) Rykard planned to devour, considering Japanese ambiguity when it comes to plural forms and Golden Order lore, where only Marika is recognized as one and only god 神 "kami".
共に神をも喰らおうぞ！This "kami" can be found in his iconic "Let's devour the god(s) together!" as well as the description of Taker's Cameo.
ライカードが背律の冒涜を誓ったとき あらゆる略奪は肯定された 神自身がそうであるように
But here is the problem - Japanese language lacks plurals in the English sense. Plural words are usually either preceded with a number and a counter, or simply made understood through context. For example, knowing context behind the description of "Burn, O Flame!" we can figure out that it was... mistranslated.
火の巨人は、悪神の力を借りてなお敗れた それは、永遠の火守りとして生き続ける 孤独な呪いの終わりでもあった
The Fire Giants borrowed from the power of a fell god, and still they were defeated. Yet their failure released them from their solitary curse: to serve as keepers of the Flame for eternity
Fire Giants would be 火の巨人たち, where たち is pluralizing suffix, we can find plural form in a few descriptions such as 大古、山嶺の主であった氷竜は 火の巨人たちに敗れ、頂を追われたとい (Borealis's Mist). English description of "Burn, O Flame!" never made any sense, considering Fire Giant's lore: he was the last survivor of Marika's genocide, who was cursed with 孤独な呪 "lonely curse" to roam forever among the corpses of his dead comrades and watch the fell flame. Finally, we are fighting single Fire Giant, who is posessed by the Fell God in the second phase, not a couple of them.
Common plurizing form of "gods" is 神々 "kamigami" (sometimes 神神), it's used in ER only two times: in the description of the Amber Starlight and Miquella's needle; description of Godskin Swaddling Cloth mentions "kami" 産まれたばかりの使徒は これに包まれ、宵眼の女王に抱かれる そして神の死となるのだ, but I'm pretty sure it's about god-beings as a whole rather than a single god (I might be wrong because Gloam-Eyed Queen's business is unclear).
In all likelihood, it's possible that Rykard was influenced by GEQ legacy, or unintentionally followed similar path, considering their shared hatred for god(s).
But I wouldn't deny the possibility that there is one particular god that Rykard wants to demolish.
When Rykard turned to heresy, taking by force became the rule. The gods themselves were no different, after all (Taker's Cameo).
This description gives a context for Rykard's grudge against god(s), in his eyes they are nothing but glorified scavengers. What caused this dramatic shift from the high ranked member of the Golden Order to heretic, or rather, who?
As I said in the beginning of this post, unless 神 "kami" in Rykard's lines is plural and refers all god-beings (his demigod pals), there is no other option but Marika, which is quite fitting, giving Rykard's family story and his own role in the Night of Black Knives.
This makes me think again about "curse of the Giants" 巨人の呪 mentioned in the text of Fire Giant's Braid and a theory that it isn't a curse of the Fire Giants bloodline or a curse given by the Last Fire Giant, but rather a curse of the same kind.
P.S. Whether you think that the Greater Will is the outer god or not, it's important to remember that characters in universe are never calling it as any kind of deity be it "kami" or "sotonaru kami". To top it off, Bernahl, Volcano Manor long-time resident and Rykard's friend, simply calls it "the Greater Will", even when he curses it.
Crucible is one of the most important part of the Elden Ring lore, but the game never explains the exact nature or the form of it. Or does it?
From description of Siluria’s Tree (the primordial form of the Erdtree is close in nature to life itself, and this spear, modeled on its crucible, is imbued with ancient holy essence) we can learn that it is supposed to portray Crucible. I’ve been bothered why the spear is called a tree and turns out translators missed “spear” 槍 in シルリアの樹槍, so it’s Siluria’s tree spear or Siluria’s wooden spear if I go with 樹 archaic form. Interesting that 樹 originated from Old Chinese 尌 which means “a hand planting a tree”.
Knowing that Siluria’s spear isn’t exactly a tree, I decided to rotate it and you can see the result on the picture above.
Here comes my theory - Crucible isn’t a tree, a literal crucible or something else, the last known form of the Crucible is a root system, currently known as Great Roots.
Why do I call it the last known form?
Description of Siluria's tree spear says that Crucible is a part of the Erdtree, but usually game refers Crucible as the primordial form of the Erdtree:
Holds the power of the crucible of life, the primordial form of the Erdtree (Crucible Axe Set)
Description of the Guilded Shield also provides some interesting info:
The red tinge in the gold coat mirrors the primordial matter that became the Erdtree.
As I speculate in my Color Theory post, the life on the Lands Between most likely originated from the golden star, which was sent by the Greater Will (it's also supported by Hyetta's dialogue about births and souls).
My interpretation is that the golden star is basically is a seed of life is this Evangelion reference? Notably, there is a theme of organic and inorganic matter being not so different (for example: Marika/Radagon's stone flesh), which can be interpreted in a way that golden star primordial matter contained golden ore and fantasy DNA.
In general, my main idea about golden star-the Erdtree evolution looks like this:
Golden star (golden seed) - primordial matter/rudiments of the root system - fully formed Crucible root system/Erdtree's sprout (primordial form) - the Erdtree and remnants of the Crucible (Great Roots)
A quite common motif in architecture from pre-Erdtree period is an imagery of various animals coming from a plant. Divine Tower murals are showing birds, ancient beasts and reptiles intertwined with something floral, similar scenes are depicted in Farum Azula too.
More over, the lead motif is also present in Farum Azula and Nox architecture. I believe Nox and ancient dragons coexisted together for some time, as we know from description of dragonkins items Nox tried to imitate the immortality of the ancient dragons, but failed.
I'd like to thing that this leaf represents Erdtree's sprout.
The roots imagery is a popular theme in Elden Ring too. The tail of the Elden Beast resembles roots, Elden Ring itself used to have root-like rune before Marika's age, roots are shown on the ancient Erdtree's sigil and the giant mural on the Erdtree's entrance.
Roots being assotiated both with life, the Crucible - a place where all life blended together and originated from, but also a death, a place where a souls of dead are supposed to return, follows the theme of duality of life and death. It mirrors the same theme of the red color, a symbol of primordial life and Rune of Death.
Ashes to ashes, what was born from the Great Roots must return to them.
However, both root imagery and red color aren't favored in the modern times, the Erdtree lost its root both on th sigil, but also disconnected from the Great Roots system for the reason unknown (I speculate that it was result of aging of Godwyn's infection). And the red color is commonly viewed as something undesirable and shameful.
[there is a theory of mine that Golden Order not only lacked death, but a life, fertility too, but it's a theme for another post]
And the last, but not the least, cut content:
花の坩堝の乙女、ミランダが この花の最初の一輪であったという
Miranda, the maiden of floral Crucible, is said to be the first of those flowers.
Description of Miranda's Prayer outright says that the Crucible was something floral or plant/flower-alike. For the better or worse, I can't use cut content as a real avidence for my theories, but I wonder if Miranda's flowers used to have a more important role in the story.
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