#unique rings | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

yournextflame · 2 years

Text

Elden Ring Sigils and Color Theory

Elden Ring magic sigils sorted by color. Long post about their lore, meanings of certain colors and what it can reveal about the story of Elden Ring under the cut.

In this post, I will be going over why it is important to have a good understanding of color and meanings associated with color in the context of lore. In a game, color is used by developers for more than just drawing the world, it’s about creating visual language, a bridge between writers and players. There are countless articles about usage of colors in videogames, but in this post I will try to reverse-engineer the process and find out the meaning behind visual symbolism and combine it with game’s equivalent of heraldic symbols - magic sigils.

In Elden Ring magic sigils have been used to represent origin of sorceries and power sources of incantations, usually they give us hints what kind of deity is worshipped by people or who created the spell. They are an invaluable source of information on history on the Lands Between. I’ve been already playing with idea of color sorting when I did the same thing with remembrances, but sigils revealed even more secrets about story and lore. How about origin of life on the Lands Between? Origin of the outer gods? But let’s not rush.

The first category, Blue Sorcery as I called it, already shows how color sorting method is supported by the game itself. With a help of descriptions we can place the sigils in the chronological order and track the change in design over the course of story such as replacement of flowing weapon in the sigil of Eternal Cities to Carian sword. Their sigils are incredibly similar to each other, solidifying connection between Nox and Carian royal family; both factions are associated with silver, sorcery, artifical life, moons and stars.

This talisman represents the lost black moon. The moon of Nokstella was the guide of countless stars (Memory Stone)

The young astrologer gazed at the night sky as she walked. She had always chased the stars every step of her journey. Then she met the full moon—and, in time, the astrologer became a queen (Stargaizer Heirloom)

Moons played a central role in Nox and Carian culture, the circle is a base shape for both crests, however, while Raya Lucaria sigil shares similar elements with Eternal Cities and Carian emblems (glintstone sorcerers are the descendants of astrologers, a fact that the Carians remain aware of, - Preceptor's Long Gown), this part was drastically redused in size and moved on top; the central place is taken by the star and framed by a pair of cuckoos. The hue of sigil is also significantly different from cold blue tones of Nox and Carians emblems, the warm greenish tint is close to the color of primeval current spells, which were banished once Rennala became rector of the Academy.

These scholars, who sought to master Carian sorcery, instead learned to see the moon as equal to the stars. This robe, in the hue of the full moon, signifies their heresy (Lazuli Robe)

(Cuckoo Greatshield) Boasting high magic damage negation, this shield is used to hunt down mages. "Our enemy is none other than Caria itself."

So far I’m not going to delve deeper in the roots of the conflict between Carian royal family and Academy of Raya Lucaria, it’s a mere demonstration of a method and how it works. But in next paragraphs I will use it as evidence for a few theories about worldbuilding.

(thanks for clarification about Malenia’s Crest, I rewatched fight on youtube and, yes, it’s a normal Raya Lucaria sigil)

Golden incantations is the biggest group on the list, in a way I can say that history of the Lands Between is a history of gold. Here we can see a symbolical depiction of the Erdtree, the central piece of the game both in a metaphorical and literal sense; we can track how portrayl of the Erdtree changed during Marika’s age until it was replaced altogether by the abstract emblem of the Golden Order Fundamentalism. I have a lot of to say about this group and currently working on post with a more detailed investigation, so far I will touch only basics: such as origin of life gold.

Gold in Elden Ring is more than than shine metal or a color, it’s prima materia of the Greater Will, a force of unknown origin (it’s never called 神 god or an 外なる神 outer god anywhere in EN or JP script and before jumping to conclusion wait until I’m going to observe confirmed outer gods) which is responsible for the creation of Elden Ring. From the description of Elden Stars, the most ancient incantation in this category, and Elden Remembrance we can figure out keywords associated with the Greater Will:

It is said that long ago, the Greater Will sent a golden star bearing a beast into the Lands Between, which would later become the Elden Ring/It was the vassal beast of the Greater Will and living incarnation of the concept of Order (I’d like to point that it’s “Order”, not “The Golden Order”).

(I believe we still can see remnants of the golden star in a form of meteorite ore in Divine Towers and Sealed Tunnel near Erdtree)

In other words, the Greater Will is about gold, Order and everything Elden. However, a common mistake is to tie the Greater Will to the Golden Order, despite the name the latter is not representative of it, even more so... original gold from the golden star wasn’t yellow.

From dialogue with Sellen we can learn that stars are containing amber, but golden stars are kind of special:

Golden amber contains the remnants of ancient life, and houses its vitality (Sellen)

And Hyetta’s speech supports futher that the Greater Will is responsible for creation of life in one way or another:

…すべては、大きなひとつから、分かたれた分かたれ、産まれ、心を持った

けれどそれは、大いなる意志の過ちだっただから、戻さなくてはならない

All that there was divided from the One Great. Divided, born and given heart. But it was a mistake of the Greater Will (Hyetta)

So, Miyazaki pretty much unitied theories about meteorites being consensually considered to be involved in the origin of life and primordial soup:

Meteorites could have been responsible for delivering the basis of life's genetic code. Analyses of three meteorites suggest that nucleobases, the crucial components of DNA, could have formed in space and then fallen to Earth to provide the raw material for the origin of life itself

For nearly nine decades, science's favorite explanation for the origin of life has been the “primordial soup”. This is the idea that life began from a series of chemical reactions in a warm pond on Earth's surface, triggered by an external energy source such as lightning strike or ultraviolet (UV) ligh

Now if we check descriptions of Crucible Aspects and Crucible Knights items we can find out that original gold had rent tint.

Holds the power of the crucible of life, the primordial form of the Erdtree. Strengthens Aspects of the Crucible incantations (Crucible aspects incantations)

This sword is imbued with an ancient holy essence. Its red tint exemplifies the nature of primordial gold, said to be close in nature to life itself (Ordovis Greatsword, the name itself is a reference to Ordovician Period, part of the Paleozoic era, a rich variety of marine life flourished in the vast seas and the first primitive plants began to appear on land)

Ancient Erdtree/Crucible emblem is slightly reddish too, however, the modern gold is more pure and yellow, the gold of the Golden Order. The sigil changed the color too and lost the root part just like the Elden Ring itself if we compare modern depiction with Farum Azula mural:

The Golden Order was created by confining Destined Death. Thus, this new Order will be one of Death restored

But a gold is a gold, even though it’s different, but as Turtle Pope said heresy is not native to this world and everything can be cojoined:

The worship of the ancient dragons does not conflict with belief in the Erdtree. After all, this seal, and lighting itself, are both imbued with gold

Yes, the Greater Will governs everything what is golden.

And yet, the young Miquella abandoned fundamentalism, for it could do nothing to treat Malenia's accursed rot. This was the beginning of unalloyed gold

I can already hear the raise of pitchforks from certain kind of Miquella fans, so let’s talk about outer gods and what exactly they are.

With a surprising exception of emblem from the Scepter of the All-Knowing (Gideon, I have a few questions for you) all sigils in Red Group are assigned to the deities: outer/ancient god of Rot, outer god Formless Mother, Rykard’s immortal serpent and Fell God, who is bit tricky, it’s ambitious if 古い火の悪神 “ancient” is applied to the god or fire. The only confirmed outer gods, who didn’t made it here is an outer god of Deathbirds and Frienzied Flame. Considering theory that removal of the Destined Death from Elden Ring drained color from the god-slaying Black Flame and eclipsed sun of outer god of Deathbirds, I can suggest that original color of their sigils was red too.

Long story short: sigil of the outer gods and other unwelcomed deities are represented by red color and they are all related to the death, Formless Mother is about bleed, fell flame is burning, rot is decay, etc.

However, as stated in the description of Ordovis Greatsword, primordial gold of the Crucible had a red tint that was lost when Marika estabilished Golden Order by sealing away red Rune of Death; and this knowledge eventually leads to conclusion that...

Outer gods aren’t aliens. What a surprise.

They are natural powers that were screwed by the removal of Destined Death, when they got outed from the Golden Order. They are red tint of the primordial gold.

Once the concept of Death was banished from the Lands Between the elements and effects linked to it - death, decay, combustion, bleed became outer to the newly estabilished Order. There is a clear thematic difference between celestial Greater Will, who isn’t even presented on the Lands Between, and actual outer gods, who can be sealed or banished, more over there are no outer god of water, sunshine or happiness, they are all linked to the side-effects of death. When death was excluded from the Order, they were affected as well.

The thing is that gold in Elden Ring is a magical substance and changes the tint depends on the currently running Order, which is shown in the endings when Golden Tree (黄金樹 that’s how Erdtree is called in JP) acquires different hue. It’s another overlooked element of visual storytelling.

This Golden Order is something that the Elden Ring may have once represented, but not directly. It’s more about how you apply those rules and how you enforce them on the physical world and what effects they have on it, - Miyazaki in interview to gamesradar

(Golden Order isn’t direct representation of the Greater Will/Elden Ring as it was said by Miyazaki himself, it’s only one temporary set of rules)

Elden Ring consists of runes and even newly discovered mending runes (concepts) can be added to the system (regression is the pull of meaning; that all things yearn eternally to converge) ot removed and the gold will respond to it by changing the color and reshaping reality according to the Order (causality is the pull between meanings; it is the connections that form the relationships of all things). Elden Ring - Rune of Death = yellow gold and banishment of ancient gods, who were associated with death, Elden Ring+mending rune of a choice=see example aboive.

For futher evidence that gold changes metaphysical properties and in the current state (Golden Order) preserves things from not only from dying, but decomposing too, I want to bring a few descriptions:

Fresh beast blood, glinting with gold. Material used for crafting items. Found by hunting carnivorous beasts.This glimmering blood never rots or decays ( Beast Blood)

Someone's excrement. It has a golden tinge. Material used for crafting items. Gold-tinged excrement is a highly stable substance; it doesn't dry out, nor does it lose its customary warmth or scent. For better or for worse, it remains as it is (Golden Dung; I can’t believe I’m using description of literal sh/t to prove my point)

However, from what we know only Rune of Death was sealed, and while outer gods’ influence was seriously weakened, it still existed. This is why Miquella abandoned Golden Order and was working on development of his own gold, even more pure and untainted, before he got mohgged:

Unalloyed Gold Needle: An intricately crafted needle of unalloyed gold. A ritual implement crafted to ward away the meddling of outer gods, it is thought capable of forestalling the incurable rotting sickness.

Now let me clarify: community’s favorite boogieman “influence of the evil alien outer gods/the Greater Will” isn’t a thing in a sense that there is a group of invaders from the outer space trying to enslave the Lands Between. Even thought 外なる神 is used in Japanese media culture for lovecraftian beings, we should remember that history is fabricated by the Golden Order in Marika’s favor; "outer gods” are alien to the current Order”. Same goes for the influence of the Greater Will, it was never about mind-control or whatever was projected onto it, the influence of the Greater Will is simply how Order and gold are changing course of the nature.

Last thing I want to add is that influence of the outer gods isn’t always about destructive powers (Order of Rot is about decay and rebirth), but I’ll leave it for a dedicated post.

In Mixed Group I put sigils with unique or unknown colors.

In my first draft Dragon Communion was placed in the Red Group for the intense hue of sigil, but upon futher research I decided to move it here. The power of Dragon Communion incantations doesn’t stem from any patron god or the assigned star (unless I missed something); they are scaling from arcane, an inner force of the caster.

Violet is an interesting choice for Gravity sigil because this color, albeit with the less intence hue, is used for sleep status and associated items.

I like how yellow color of Frenzied Flame is similar to the gold of the Greater Will, carrying the theme of duality, yet the shape of the sigil is distorted and assymetrical. In fact, designs of the ancient sigils usually is far less complex than intricate shapes of newer ones (with a few exceptions). Just to be clear, even though influence of the Flame of Frenzy can be cleared by Miquella’s needle, the game never calls it an outer god. It’s a matter of semantics, but I guess that unlike crew from the Red Group it was never booted from the Order since Chaos and Order can’t naturally coexist, but there are a lot ot of to speculate about, considering drastic changes in Frenzied Flame quest and lore.

Golden star in the centre of Bestial sigil reminds of Cinquedea dagger (Short sword given to high ranking clergymen of Farum Azula. The design celebrates a beast's five fingers, symbolic of the intelligence once granted upon their kind), which shows beast’s arm holding golden slab.

So, Death spells. I believe that both Black Flame incantations and Death Sorcery of Deathbird outer god were affected by confining of Destined Death.

The black flame could once slay gods. But when Maliketh sealed Destined Death, the true power of the black flame was lost

Storied sword and treasure of Castle Sol that depicts an eclipsed sun drained of color.The eclipsed sun, drained of color, is the protective star of soulless demigods. It aids the mausoleum knights by keeping Destined Death at bay. Mausoleum Knight Armor: The wing-shaped ornaments on its back evoke the Deathbird

And, as I’ve been already pointing in a different post, death of Godwyn brought back forgotten death sorcery that almost ceased from existance during age of immortality, but was rediscovered

Death in the Lands Between is incredibly complex subject and deserves a series of posts, even though I believe there should be DLC because so far all lore related to it seems to be incomprehensible.

Unmarkered sorceries don’t have background sigil, but they all share something in common. They originated from the Mountaintops of Giants:

Zamor Ice Storm: Ice sorcery of the Town of Zamor.Strike the ground with the staff to create a freezing tornado. Charging enhances potency. Cloaked in icy tempests, the knights of Zamor have challenged the Fire Giants since ancient times.

Briars of Sin : An aberrant sorcery, discovered along with red glintstone by those exiled to the north for their crimes.The Academy reviles this sorcery, which draws its power from faith

Founding Rain of Stars: The eldest primeval sorcery, said to have been discovered by an ancient astrologer. A sorcery of legendary status.The glimpse of the primeval current that the astrologer saw became real, and the stars' amber rained down on this land. Sword of Night and Flame: Astrologers, who preceded the sorcerers, established themselves in mountaintops that nearly touched the sky, and considered the Fire Giants their neighbors.

Another interesting details to consider is that they are all in some ways are unwelcomed or straight up heretical. It reminds me of relationships between Golden Order and remnanats of the Crucible. Aberrant sorcery is a mark of sin, primeval current was banished and cold sorcery is veiled in occult mystery:

The snowy crone taught the young Ranni to fear the dark moon as she imparted her cold sorcery.

I guess Ranni’s secret mentor is called snowy crone for a reason.

That’s being said, everything I wrote is a subject to change as DLC may reveal more details or I will reconsider some parts under futher research. But overall I think it was an interesting experiment.

読んでくれてありがと

5K notes · View notes

torgawl · 26 days

Text

instead of just cross eyes and star eyes distinguishing dynasties in khaenri'ah, why do some khaenri'ahns cover one eye specifically? there’s many things that seem interconnected regarding the lore:

crimson moon turning around to look like an eye; irmin the one-eyed king; the unknown god’s cubes containing eyes in their design (same ones present in the cataclysm as well as the crimson moon), her glitching looking like arlecchino’s, and the four pointed star pattern that appeared when she showed up to the twins; forbidden knowledge and nibelung’s influence; fischl's auge der verurteilung aka eye of condemnation (crimson eye) and her skin's description "o holiest of sovereigns, high princess of immernachtreich (kingdom of evernight)!".

kaeya's note about the alberich saying "i saved this one memento from the fire 'father' made while he wasn’t paying attention. this was in violation of our principles. our clan's affairs should never be recorded" and "though we could not restore khaenri'ah to life, we of the alberich clan should lead lives as those who blaze like fire, rather than those who wallow in the embers [small piece of burning or glowing coal or wood in a dying fire]", father being in quotation marks and references to fire and ashes; the orphanage in khaenri'ah that wanted to house children from destroyed worlds and non-threats that leaked into the kingdom, in hopes of finding beings from beyond the sky who could transcend the gods; perinheri's first memory being transversing something like a chimney, filled with ash and being asked if he wasn't dead just for him to see the eye (crimson moon) and being told he was reborn; dust and the blood of of dragons (or dragon-like beings like durin and elynas) being connected to rhinedottir and the art of khemia; fire as rebirth and life but also, the balemoon blood specifically being connected to loss of memories and loss of memory being equivalent to death (not physical); despite the orphanage never being able to find that transcendal person, it had many unusual individuals who became knights of the kingdom.

irmin as the first divine halberd (that once pierced the axis mundi [cosmic/world axis, world pillar, center of the world, world tree, etc.] and connected the nine worlds), the prinzessin der verurteilungas (fischl) as the last one; fischl and kaeya comparing themselves to one another and their parallels to irmin and odin; der ring des nibelungen, in which the dwarf (or nibelung) alberich creates a ring capable of controlling the world, using gold he stole from the rhinemaidens (or rheintöchter "rhine-daughters"). the conflict that arises over the ownership of this ring eventually leads to the destruction of the gods and their home, valhalla.

irminsul (irmin + sul) meaning great pillar and being a reference to the yggdrasil, the tree that supports the universe; the description of the item silver twig – collected in the center of the world - talking about a sage that hanged himself upside down in the irminsul tree to gain knowledge of the runes and the cosmos, then going into a secret kingdom down its roots [also a reference to hanged man in tarot that symbolizes wisdom, divination, sacrifice, prophecy, etc.]; odin who hung himself upside down from the sacred world tree, yggdrasil, for nine days and nights sacrificing his eye and throwing himself on his spear (gungir) as a ritual sacrifice in order to obtain secret wisdom; memories, fire and crimson moon hand in hand with the irminsul, king irmin and the concept of fate; the fake sky, the stars and being able to see fate but also fate being a means of the heavenly principles to control the world (neuvillette calling it puppet strings); khaenri'ah, a supposed godless nation but the crimson moon dynasty revering the moon (and hilichurls worshiping istaroth); the crimson moon having an eye on humanity and always being present associated with punishment and destruction (fall of gurabad, remuria and the catclysm).

crimson moon's semblance (arlecchino’s weapon) implying the crimson moon sought vengeance (“few survived the utter destruction of their kind, hiding in the shadows where the sun did not shine, longing for the crimson moon to decree their desire for vengeance be repaid”); the design of the weapon and arlecchino’s boss attacks resembling the double helix present in deathly statuette material dropped by abyss heralds, abyss lectors and shadowy husks, which has a single red eye. it apparently whispers "see, my child. all that lies under the throne of heaven shall be destroyed by upheaval. the eternal peace of the pitch-dark void shall embrace us all.” as you gaze at it.

the abyss order being founded by chlothar alberich and pierro being the first harbinger; the "sinner" – the crystal in chains from the chasm, protected by an abyss herald - not being a god but still worshipped by the abyss order. the voice stating to chlothar and the traveler’s twin that he "[knows their] fate well" and urged them to become a "transcendent one" saying he would "shed a tear at the end of time... as i gaze back upon your life". he also imbued chlothar with the power of the abyss, which alleviated his worsening conditions. the “sinner” refered to chlothar as “dear creature”; dainsleif, pierro and kaeya being examples of khaenriahns who hide their right eye; dainsleif being called “bough keeper”, bough is a branch of a tree, but also his constellation being a snake ring like ouroboros – representing the eternal renewal cycle of life, death and rebirth; the loom of fate being an operation of the abyss order first encountered during "a herald without adherents" quest.

“the threads of your fate lie in my hands” a quote by fischl connecting to the weaves of fate; fischl stating that if she does not obtain the divine halberd “...this world and everything in it is going to burn in hellfire” (legend of the shattered halberd vol. ii). some other excerpts of the book also include: “but unbeknownst to him, this was the greatest cursed sword of all, that had once burned the entire world to cinders: laevatain [in norse mythology, a weapon crafted by loki and the only capable of defeating the cockerel viðofnir, inhabiting the top of yggdrasil], the sword had extinguished after the world was burned, but... it burned bright once more. ‘the whole world... destroyed again...’ weiyang [fischl] fell unconscious as she spoke” (vol. iv), and, "the world is beyond repair. it shall be born anew from the ashes of the last” (vol. vi); dainsleif saying “none will escape the flames. see for yourself” but also neuvillette’s character story including “the puppet strings glossed as "divine rules" would one day be burned away by the fires of judgment” when talking about constellations; burning away the old world, project stuzha by the fatui and the image of dottore burning the irminsul; nahida saying fontaine's prophecy was engraved in the irminsul, implying the tree also contains the history of the future; sibylla, a prophetess who guarded the irminsul in an ancient city located in what later became the high seas (referred to as abyssal depths). she sacrificed her life for the sake of creating phobos, remus' grand symphony, but her lack of a will ultimately caused the project to fail, as her vague desire to "grant happiness to all in the world who are called humans" caused phobos to attempt to satisfy everyone's desires — including destructive and selfish ones — and set remuria towards the course of its self-destruction (possibly tying concepts of will and fate together); thinking of dottore's plan, it would make sense to burn the tree that holds memories with a fire able to erase them (arlecchino's balemoon powers) so that the world can be born anew breaking away from the shackles of fate.

there’s also the improvisation kaeya does during the play in his hangouts. "do you believe in fate? if fate decreed your life was to end in tragedy, what would you do?". he then throws a prop and we interact, choosing if we would face our fate bravely or challenge it and rise above it. kaeya then goes on saying "then so must it be! yes, so must it be! i shall discard this intaglio and rid myself of the shackles of fate", "fate means to send the machinations of war to every corner of the land to fan the flames of conflict till they ungulf the entire world… fate would see my sword tainted with the blood of innocents, that the bright banner of my homeland might fly in every nation known to mankind. but i shall not bow to the will of fate i am no pawn in heaven’s plan. i, qubad, will spend the rest of my days in a foreign land, 'till i breathe my last in a place far from home" and finishes the play with "but i must walk this path, or freedom dies by my hand. goodbye, my tribe and kin. farewell, sweet land of my birth". the prop we get from kaeya, the intaglio, symbolizes the noble origins of prince qubad in the play and the blood-red jewel (blood, red... funny, uh?) is said to be a crystallization of the question kaeya asked us about destiny. furthermore, an intaglio can be a type of engraved gem or metal signet ring.

#random post with thoughts and connections because my brain is all over the place and my brains is about to explode gsdfasjg #but yeah idk something about fischl's eye of condemation an eye that can see all threads of fate and all truth. considering the parallels i #don't think it's crazy that it could be the reason they all hide their right eye. the red eye in the statuette dropped by abyss heralds is #also the right one. also the alberich's not being noble family... idk. this game loves implying kaeya is a prince lol but i'm also keen on #the art of khemia the orphanage and the whole thing with rebirth!!! i forgot to talk about alchemy maybe another day.#guess it kind of depends what being noble blooded also means because arlecchino's noble blood gives her some pretty unique powers #(also forgot to say arlecchino's afterimages are like sinshades in enkanomiya which are ley line anomalies!!! remnants thoughts leaving #shades of the past. nether realms. it could also connect to istaroth but anyways irminsul again!!!)#the ring of nibelung also seems important and kaeya's prop from the hangouts despite not being a ring directly can very much symbolise one #there's also the khaneri'ah ruin machines power source!!! i forgot but whatever this goes deeeeeep #i'm tired so i'll end here with the yapping bye #genshin thoughts #< just to save it somewhere because i will forget points i want to research better some other time

23 notes · View notes