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val-of-the-north · 6 days

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A small detail of the Kindred of Rot

At some point I was made aware of a very easy-to-miss detail on one of the enemies of Elden Ring. I must thank Zlofsky from Twitter for this. The detail in question is this [x]

(Here's the version for those who don't want to use the link)

As you can see, the Kindred of Rot can have this peculiar red "spike" protruding from the back of their heads. I had not heard many people actually talk about this detail in length, but I heard it posited that it was actually found only on the Pests that Gowry takes over, and that it was some sort of parasitic mushroom, like the one that infests ants in the real world. The idea was very compelling and fit the theme of the Scarlet Rot neatly, so I eventually decided to verify it. Sure enough, the spike was there after his borrowed Pest body died.

So yeah, that's it then! It was all Gowry and he was actually some sort of parasitic mushroom all along! To consolidate the discovery, I decided to kill another Kindred of Rot in Caelid. That proved to make things more complicated than I first thought, as after the fight I realized it ALSO had the weird red spike on the back of its head!

So I thought maybe it's all the ones in Caelid, because Gowry can choose from all of them as the next host. Sounds reasonable right? So I went to check in Elphael instead, to see if this theory was true, only to be met with other corpses sporting the red spike. I started thinking that maybe the variant MISSING the red thing was actually the uncommon one, until I found a gentlebug who did not aggro even as I stood pretty close. There I could finally see that he did not have one! And later on, I found another one that I could avoid aggroing, and sure enough, it also didn't have the red spike.

And when killed, both sprouted that red thing too!

So what is their deal? It's clearly not tied to Gowry at this rate, but it's also such an insignificant detail that I could not help but wonder about... so I decided to do some final testing. I went back to Caelid and found a chilling Kindred of Rot. It would be my test subject. Here's its neck states in order:

Idle - No Spike

Getting Up - No Spike

Start of Aggro - Spike

During Aggro - Spike (this was hellish to get)

Dead - Spike

So in conclusion, the red spike seems to only appear when the Kindred of Rot initiates a fight. This still doesn't tell us anything concrete, BUT it does leave some room for speculation. Maybe it's just some kind of organ or antenna that pops up when they are distressed or aggravated (though it's noticeably absent in the young ones). Maybe it truly is a parasitic mushroom, using the Pests as soldiers and making them attack us against their will.

Whatever the case may be, I had never seen anyone really talk about this design element before, so I thought it was worth putting it out there. Maybe it can help someone with their theories.

#elden ring #kindred of rot #scarlet rot #this sent me down a path that I was frankly not expecting lol #I never thought I'd get to stare at these guys as much as I had to for this lmao #these games have such incredibly small details #but ye what are your thoughts on this? what could the red thing be?#val-post

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val-of-the-north · 8 days

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I am pretty sure the DLC and by extension Messmer and his involvement in the story has been specified to have already been part of the original mythos that GRRM wrote for them. No new material was made up for the DLC.

So yeah, no, he didn't pull him out of his ass, people are just too quick to bitch about him lol. I'd say the dudebros should wait before they make assessments about the dude since the DLC isn't out yet.

Marika has many bastards children 🤯 better tell that to the dudebros who're coping and seething about Messmer's existence saying that is something Miyazaki pulled out straight from his ass.

WHAT they're saying, now?

(Also shut UP @heraldofcrow, memes do NOT have an age and you KNOW it!!!!!!!!!!!) I would argue that even IF he did come up with this character on the fly, that'd not be a big problem either though? Like, for example, what if they did not have the DLC planned in advance or even know whether they'll want to make it or not? Not even the matter of 'we should see how well received ER will be first', but simply a matter of how process of writing the story is unpredictable! But when they decided to do it, they would need to figure how to add new lore in a way that doesn't damage or retcon pre-established information. And they did: having a secret family member erased from the collective memory for a good reason is a fair way to develop the backstory more!

But back to the actual point, yeah, I guess it IS kind of funny in this context that even the already established lore leaves the room for Messmer AND much more demigods! Marika had SO many bitches/boytoys....

#elden ring #messmer the impaler #but yeah no he was part of the mythos #and honestly.....#even if he had been made up for the DLC: who cares?#it's a pretty cool addition #val-reblogs

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val-of-the-north · 9 days

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You say stop, I say LET'S-A GO

on a whim I made a palette game dedicated to…. UNUSUAL color palettes. feel free to participate in any way you’d like

anyways send me some requests and a palette combo and i’ll try to draw stuff for my own challenge lmao (though i might just draw stuff on my own idk)

#val-post #val-art #you know what sure I'll tag it as art #you know what they say...#if mario then only bros!!!#it's literally his palette but more saturated lmao #the brown is literally almost identical #this is stupid why did I do it

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val-of-the-north · 10 days

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Marika wanted to kill Godwyn?🤔 wouldn't be weird for her to tear her legacy apart idk but this is a popular theory and I want to know what do you think of it?

Okay, it might come as a surprise since you mention that this theory is "popular", but.. your ask is literally the first time I've ever heard about this take existing! I guess it goes to show I've gotten TOO comfortable getting all theories and headcanons from my dashboard formed by the same like 10 mutuals fjhhfddd

So, I asked my friend @val-of-the-north to give me the context on justifications for this idea 🤔 To condense it, it is held on Marika being a Nox herself and closely associated with the Nox still (can see the influence in Melina fighting like the Black Knives and Radagon using their Celestial Dew for example), how in the end both Marika and the Nox are against the Greater Will, quote by Finger Reader in Deeproot Depths saying that Godwyn was supposed to be a "martyr of Destined Death" differently and how she is said to have betrayed Maliketh! From myself, I've also remembered that the soulless demigods who were murdered during Night of the Black Knives are also referred to as her 'unwanted' children, that could explain her willingness to rid of some offspring, but I double-checked and this is even more layered:

(Taking Japanese script from here ( x ))

So yeah, I can sorta see the potential in the idea of her having reasons to get rid of some of her bastard children (maybe they were a threat to her reign for all we know?), and things did not go as planned as Godwyn, who is definitely not a bastard, got involved! She did not want that, as we heard that what motivated her to scatter the Elden Ring was her grief from the promo trailer, and she would likely not want the existence of 'Prince of Death' figure that violated her order that is against living in Death!

youtube

(at 1:03)

So yeah, the theory could go in a way of Marika trying to do her own stuff, maybe for a good reason for all we know, but being betrayed by the Black Knives and Ranni once they were given the opportunity and losing it! As a ruler, she had to take a hell lot of morally reprehensible decisions to preserve it and herself - a very common concept! And yet, that unexpectedly cost her the child she actually loved and wanted around. It is the "Godwyn's death driven her to the brink" part why I am not convinced his death was her calculated sacrifice, personally.

It still can be, of course! Maybe she expected him to 'just' die, but he became Prince of Death (a figure of similar importance as Goddess of Rot!), so her being driven to the brink refers to fear for her legacy and control, and being tired of wrestling to keep her status since everyone, even Greater Will itself, want her gone THAT much. Or maybe she expected to take it cool but forgot she had feelings too and lost it in regrets! I am just more on the side of reading her grief more directly! And, again:

So far it seems like it were the Black Knives / Nox and Ranni who had the plan to work against the Greater Will initially, rather than Marika having her rebellion against it in mind from the start and placing Godwyn on the altar of the goal!

There are further stretching 'clues' such as Sellia descending from Nox themselves and initially opposing Golden Order by housing bunch of glintstone sorcerers who hail from Astrologers, since them and Raya Lucaria were "hostile" magic to all that Golden Grace stuff before marriage of Rennala and Radagon! Carians were themselves initially in opposition + Puppets rituals of their Preceptors being invented by Nox, but you get the point! Unification of two (three??) opposing factions through their leaders doesn't necessarily sit well with everyone else involved, even if they are simply descendants that just want to reclaim their lost heritage! It is not just Sellen being like that, although she is the 'spokespeople' for the sentiment: the hostile moods probably have been lingering and boiling up in general! This trope is old as civilisation itself, moreover, happened in real history all the time!

Yeah, Marika as Radagon "erased" all the warcrimes from the general memory, but, again: the methods themselves were invention of Nox!

Clearly, some witness yet remained, and seems to be linked to the people that were aligned with the 'stars'! That is to say, that betrayal by Black Knives falls into place more naturally in my opinion: be it full on murder spree of her family by their own volition, or she wanted them to do one thing but her trust cost her dearly!

As for Maliketh, I do also think that the Rune of Death was stolen from him without Marika plotting anything about this! I asked someone else and seems like the last sentence, '後にそれを裏切ったのだ' more closely translates to 'Later, he was betrayed [by whoever is the previous person mentioned in the context]'. Correct us if we're wrong but it seems that there is no 'even then' link (so, no ties between betrayal and him holding the Death for her), which kinda is simpler and makes more sense anyhow!

Since Shadowbeasts are product of the Greater Will, and supposedly will rebel if their Empyrean fails or betrays it (source: Iji's paranoia about Blaidd and Blaidd actually being an odd one out), Marika should have been concerned about him! I think that her betrayal was giving him false hope to redeem himself by reclaiming Destined Death through consuming the Deathroots, but turned out she never planned so and simply needed an excuse to keep him far away when she'd shatter the Elden Ring! He thought that even if losing the Destined Death cost her Godwyn (and other children, we don't know her relationship with the 'bastards'), she was still willing to forgive it as long as he fixes what can be fixed and becomes "useful" again..

Another reason why I lean more towards Black Knives simply turning on Marika's bloodline due to variety of historical and ideological reasons rather than given a task and betraying, is that they started with Godwyn! Had it been something plotted and gone wrong, murder of Godwyn would've been dramatic plot twist rather than the first priority! I think words of that Finger Reader have no different meaning than Miquella's prayer; that Godwyn should have died in peace as a victim, instead of becoming the all-corrupting abomination he is now.

The point she is also making more specifically, is that it is, again, a bad thing for someone of the Golden Lineage to represent what is against the Golden Order! The different reading of this line is that she'd make an "example" of Godwyn to fear and hate any folks that 'oppose' Golden Order, or opposed it in the past, as well as remove the "competition" for her reign in the face of her superstar child. I had to take Val's words on what pointers are used in this theory, so I am only addressing this bit based on the fact that he brought it up too!

_________________________

So yeah, to conclude the post, this theory could work with some assumptions and headcanons, but I am good with the take that leaves Marika betrayed and clueless! The theory at times makes Marika even more of an evil mastermind, and other times makes her a very drastic rebel against GW from the get go! As for me, she has done enough of far-fetched plotting and warcrimes in her life, but I think everyone has limits on how much they can predict. Just treacherous fate of any ruler of this kind, really.

#elden ring #marika the eternal #maliketh the black blade #ahhhh good food good food #I've always been of the mind that the theory wasn't smooth enough #and both overcomplicated the event and simplified what motivated it at the same time #her acting out from grief actually humanizes her. which is rare for Marika who is literally seen as flawless divinity #something something gods no better than men #val-reblogs

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val-of-the-north · 11 days

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Having sex with Alberich is the easiest thing ever even because his clit became red glintstone too, even inexperienced men can easily find it

BROOO?????????????

... I mean kinda based ngl, but this was outta pocket lmao

Even if you are right, I think having sex with him would still be an endurance test, I can tell you that much. No way in hell he wants things this clean, your ass is not coming out of there unscathed!!! He strikes me as someone who likes it when blood is dripping from freshly inflicted wounds... if you can resist the pain though, sure, it's probably the easiest thing in the world ahahahah

#val-responds #val-post #mad tongue alberich #elden ring #whoever you are why are... why are you making me answer these things ahahah #this was a jumpscare lol

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val-of-the-north · 11 days

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Ho scoperto che in italiano bakugou e laurence hanno lo stesso doppiatore e mi fa spaccare dalle risate.

Se avessi un centesimo per ogni volta che federico viola ha doppiato un personaggio proveniente da un prodotto giapponese che si è macchiato di infanticidio avrei due centesimi, che non è molto ma è strano che sia accaduto due volte

LOL???? Ti giuro a volte dimentico che Bloodborne è doppiato in Italiano ahahah. Non potrebbero essere personaggi più diametralmente opposti, almeno per quanto riguarda la personalià (però uno potrebbe dire che tramite la sua boss fight non siano poi troppo distanti lol). Orripilante scoperta, grazie per averla condivisa.

Ma come succedono coincidenze del genere... poi se non ricordo male non erano entrambi bebè sovrumani? Oddio, i parallelismi peggiorano sempre di più! Chi credi che sia il Deku di Laurence? Annalise? (Ovviamente non in fatto di personalià, non la insulterei mai così ahahah)

#val-post #val-responds #prima volta che scrivo un post italiano. ce ne ho messo!!!#grazie ancora per l'informazione. non so cosa farmene #però è davvero esilarante lol

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val-of-the-north · 12 days

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Uhhh... treat yourself to what exactly???

#elden ring #messmer the impaler #wtf lmaooooo #what an unfortunate choice of words #did they do this on purpose??? they had to know right???#val-post

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val-of-the-north · 12 days

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Happy birthday @katyspersonal!!! Hope you like my Henriett!

Thank you for being big brain lore digger - lumenflower smoker, awesome artist, for being supportive and for encouraging me to draw! <3

(I experimented a bit here because I finally managed to install and use the new brushes)

#bloodborne #old hunter henriett #this is such stylish art #it's feels so dynamic!!!!#loved it the moment I saw it #she is sooo cool!#val-reblogs

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val-of-the-north · 12 days

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Happy birthday one more time, @katyspersonal ! 🎉 I am so happy that fate made me and my husband buy PS4, so I got into the fandom and met you!

You inspire me to think, search, imagine, improve. Thank you

Here's little bradorence for you! Hope to celebrate much more birthdays with you 🥺 You are absolute little sunshine!! *hugs you thousand times*

#bloodborne #laurence the first vicar #brador church assassin #bradorence #it was basically my birthday too when I saw this lmao #really fantastic ship art #val-reblogs

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val-of-the-north · 12 days

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I wish a very good happy birthday to my dear friend @katyspersonal 🎉🥳🎊 I know it’s not quite the 11th yet where i am but it is for you!

So have a drawing for Rom and a couple of spiders! 🕷️🕸️

Alongside with a drawing of your Laurence and Brador! ❤️

I hope you will like it, you deserve the best and i wish you a wonderful day!

#bloodborne #rom the vacuous spider #laurence the first vicar #brador church assassin #bradorence #about time I reblogged this one lol #rom and company eheheh #very warm and fuzzy #also that cute lil sketch.....#val-reblogs

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val-of-the-north · 12 days

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It’s the 11th in Russia, so happy birthday to my best friend @katyspersonal <33

I drew your version of Adeline in a spring theme since you have an April birthday and of course, I had to draw Henriett and Gratia with the CORRECT height difference this time! Heh! Hope you like it!

You are absolutely wild in the best possible way and I love you. Thank you for being such a loyal and invigorating friend, one that actually challenges me to think and put effort into even light-hearted interactions in the most exciting fashion. You deserve the world and a good future for all that you’ve gone through.

Have a good day, girl ☺️🖤

#bloodborne #saint adeline #old hunter henriett #simple gratia #it was so good to get a sneakpeak of the adeline drawing ahah #I am glad you took my suggestion #aaaaa they all look great!#val-reblogs

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val-of-the-north · 12 days

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Damn, Edgar's ascension looks very unusual compared to the regular cosmic Kin! We should document such a unique (and certainly more successful) result!

#bloodborne #micolash host of the nightmare #mensis scholar damian #edgar choir intelligencer #saint adeline #rom the vacuous spider #and speaking of.......#lmaooooooo this one is freaking golden #Micolash looks so genuinely pissed off it's great #val-reblogs

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val-of-the-north · 12 days

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Once you get this, you have to say five things you like about yourself, publicly. Then you have to send this to ten of your favorite followers ❤️

Hi Val, we don't interact but I feel very honored every time you like my posts! xd

Heyyyyyyyy Fareeha! I already responded to this one here [x] BUT I still wanted to respond to this one separately!

Your drawings are great, for real. You have a pretty recognizable style and the expressions are always really good! It's only reasonable I'd appreciate your posts!!! Also, it goes without saying that they are often pretty freaking funny lmao.

Also, from what I was able to gather, you are a Final Fantasy 9 fan. And I looooooove FF9, so I can tell you have taste when it comes to that!

#val-post #val-responds #I need to be more reactive to asks for sure #thank you again Fareeha!!#I'll say it again you make great stuff #I am flattered you feel honored though ahahahah #I'm not THAT big a deal!

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val-of-the-north · 12 days

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Once you get this, you have to say five things you like about yourself, publicly. Then you have to send this to ten of your favorite followers 🖤

Ahhhhhh thank you for sending these asks!!! But now I have to talk about myself, what do I like, what do I like.........

I like how attentive I can be, remembering small things, noticing small patterns, all that stuff. Of course as a tradeoff I sometimes I miss the obvious of all things, but for the most part, I'd say I'm pretty good!

I think I am relatively funny, and I like making people laugh with my jokes, even if they are stupid or cringe OR both lol. Making people groan in agony is also good enough for me!

I've become much more patient than I was when I was younger, and I appreciate this growth very much.

Acting!!! I love that I can get in character very easily, I am so glad I've always had this passion and that it never went away!!! I take it for granted a lot but many people do not do this when they are bored lmao.

I'm a pretty loyal friend all things considered and I wouldn't have it any other way. I'd like to improve on my social skills but I stick to my friends rather tightly no matter how small they are in the grand scheme of things.

Soooo yes, that should be it. I am honestly surprised I've had this much to say. At first I didn't really know what I'd write, genuinely... doing this kind of thing is very underrated...

#val-post #val-responds #finding likable traits is harder than it looks.........#but it does make one feel better #thank you again!!!

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val-of-the-north · 12 days

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OKAY IMPORTANT UPDATE SO Crow convinced me that the more appropriate Type Of A Guy group is Allant, Gwyn, Aldia, Aldrich, Micolash and Shabriri, and it was actually Laurence who I unofficial 7th member because his portrayal and being pair item with Micolash is very speculative even if reasonable. As we in Russia say, пока запишем карандашом. I'd now ask you to write something funny and cringey for new super cool updated cast thanks to that CHICKEN, but this will just come across as me barely concealing my simping -_-" So I'll just ask for YOU to rate The Guys. You need to speak your opinions more, it is always good shit

Noooooo now I have to ramble about characters I hate that, fuck you. I hate rating people lol. But fineeeee:

Number 6 - Micolash lmaoripbozo

Ok ok, that's not actually true... I think my actual number 6 for the time being might be Shabriri. That doesn't mean I hate the guy, but he is simply a fucking dick. Like, so far he's the only one with not a droplet of cohesive motivation, and ending the suffering of everyone seems like a front for his true desire of seeing chaos consume reality. I like myself a seemingly pure evil baddie, but if I have to rate him with all the other dudes, he sorta pales in comparison. Maybe the DLC will expand on his philosophy and what he did before he had the Nomads entombed and decided to set the world ablaze with chaos. He IS very fun though, I will give him that lmao.

At number 5 I'd probably put Allant, though he might be subject to change whenever I get to play Demon's Souls. As was stated a bunch, he is a more depressed Shabriri, which makes him more genuine. His desire to end the suffering of mankind is true, unlike the previous prick, even if his methods of attaining that are fucked beyond compare. And that's the problem with him lol.

He only increased the world's suffering exponentially, because that's arguably what benefits the soul-hungry demons in the long run. He failed the one thing he wanted to do and probably doesn't even see it because he is too blinded by his own suffering and hatred of life. He is the reason his kingdom is run by corrupt officials, that his son gives up on life, and that most of his people have become food for unfeeling abominations. He is a weak leader. There's nothing wrong with being weak, but you are not supposed to drag the world down with you the way he decided to do...

Number 4 was hard to place since I am still not sure what I am rating them for... so far it seems to be the complexity of their motivations/actions and the way they went about them. I guess this spot could go to Micolash in this case. Most of his motivations (if they even are his, and not just those of the School of Mensis as a whole) are context-heavy, which isn't really good in terms of building a compelling case as to why he should be above someone like Allant... still, the amount of cut content centered around him points to him having had a much richer role than what meets the eye, which I believe boost the likelihood that his character is well-defined even in the full game.

(To be honest, even if we know very little of that version of him, I suspect I would have liked him more like that lmao.)

His pursuit of knowledge probably had a concrete goal before it spiraled into what we see in-game. Despite its horrible fuckups, the Healing Church did start out genuinely seeking ways to better humanity, but it distanced from it the more it continued. The Choir, where he and most of Mensis probably originates, already sought to abandon their human roots, and the school he was part of likely did so even more. But they wouldn't seek guidance from the Great Ones, they'd become on par with them.

And to rise above humanity they did unspeakable things... some of them didn't even make any sense. Why stitch together those horrible corpse beasts? Why switch the heads of two animals? Why cram all those human remains into one casket? Not to mention all the people that were kidnapped: half of them were strapped to chairs and the other half turned to stone and merged into the walls. Everything just to try and proceed with a deranged ritual that was only made possible by desecrating an infant and its mother.

And when you finally meet him he is just rambling to himself, all alone and surrounded only by corpse puppets, Edgar and the occasional attendant. He has been stuck between those halls for long enough that his body has been mummified, and doesn't seem to have made any significant progress. He has likely lost his mind, rendering whatever it was that he was seeking worthless. But hey, at least he was closer than anyone to finding out about Kos from outside the Hunter's Nightmare, so I guess we can give him that.

Also his cut dialogue is pretty emotional, and makes me wonder just how different he was before he lost his mind... I ultimately think I have a soft spot for him ahahah

Number 3 is Gwyn, but it was really close with Aldrich on this one, lol. I decided his goals were assuredly less complex/noble, even though his means weren't as grotesque. To be honest, I think he's a pretty maligned character, for good reasons mind you. He effectively screwed over everyone in an attempt to keep the status quo intact, and before that, he took several preventive measures that just made life miserable for people in the long run. All of this paints a rather unflattering picture of Gwyn, and I do not deny this. What I argue against is the reason why he did what he did... to me, Gwyn was genuinely afraid.

Kaathe says Gwyn "trembled at the Dark", he was surely afraid of what darkness and an age of men entailed, especially for his people and family. What he did feels less like something a power-hungry lord who seeks to keep his power intact would do and more like one desperate attempt to delay a force much greater than you. His was a sacrifice in the end, and while his legacy is and will inevitably be cinders in an empty world, what prompted him to do what he did was something understandable, and very human of him ironically enough...

As an aside, I'm actually not super convinced that Gwyn fits neatly into this group of guys either. Honestly, Dark Souls 1 might lack a character that embodies this vibe. Instead, it has several with only bits and pieces of it. I find it more fitting to group him with the likes of Marika and Laurence rather than these other dudes.

Number 2 is Aldrich as you could have probably guessed. He is an awful awful man, but his course of action is probably the most anyone had been doing before the Unkindled woke up to make DS3 happen lol. The world had reached a point of stagnation when nothing new was happening. The dark threatens the light, but then the flame is kindled again, rinse and repeat again and again and again... he was doing SOMETHING different and prompting change, even if it was in a way that could be considered disgusting, unpleasant and evil. The once beautiful Deep had been turned into a seedbed of filth because of the stagnant nature of reality and this seemingly endless cycle, and he alone saw salvation through a different kind of age. The start of a brand new, different thing.

The path was arduous, the means deranged, but he DID want something more than chaos for chaos' sake, unlike Shabriri. He wanted to change things, but not passively like Allant. He did not lose track of his goal the more he accomplished like Micolash did, and he did not wish to uphold the status quo but rather challenge it, unlike Gwyn. But I really, REALLY understand why everyone sees him and recoils in horror or thinks there's nothing more complex behind his actions than a simple hunger for power and flesh.

But you know Miyazaki, he likes to write characters who do some really awful things but still portrays them as courageous and heroic in their madness and skewed ways. I get the same vibe from Aldrich, but that doesn't mean he wasn't intentionally portrayed the way he was to inspire discomfort or hatred in most players ahahah. Both things can be true at the same time, and they are!

Lol number 1's Aldia. He's got everything Aldrich has except for his abhorrent mannerisms and vices. He is someone wholly dedicated to the pursuit of answers, and from what I can tell most of his test subjects were people who accepted his invitations to the keep, which was mostly other madmen with a similar desire to break the boundaries of reality. Of course, it wouldn't be a Soulsborne game without a good dose of war crimes, so he did do things to the giants who ended up as prisoners of war during the two conflicts his brother took part in, but he wasn't making chimeras out of them or wasting them in useless experiments at the very least. Heck, he pretty much turned one into a superior being who seems to be all chill.

All horrors he committed in his mansion were for a singular goal: breaking the curse and finding a way out of a played-out cycle, even by the time of DS2. And while the depths of this obsession show some pretty horrible results, he isn't at all the same as Aldrich, who relished in the suffering of his victims. One can find his experiments horrid, but the man himself not so much. He was simply devoted. So devoted in fact that he destroyed himself to the point he was left with nothing but an endlessly-smouldering body. And despite achieving a form that's arguably outside of the cycle, he still saw it as a failure, because it wasn't what he wanted for humanity.

I've heard him get called a fence-sitter because he promotes inaction, but to arrive at such a conclusion you have to ignore everything that led him to his current state, AND his words to the Bearer of the Curse. If anything, this dude probably did everything one could do in the hopes of changing things, I think he is allowed to feel disillusioned at the end of it all without being described as a fence-sitter. In what way is he one anyhow? Both potential ages suck. Any witless fool can just waltz in and burn themselves or let the flame die. Someone like him would literally have zero reasons to care about either outcome because all his work was meant to lead to something beyond it... but he failed and awaited someone else who would challenge the order of the world and succeed where he couldn't.

At the end of the day, I'm not saying he didn't do anything wrong lol, he still did some pretty weird shit... but I don't think it's insane to say that he is more respectable than basically everyone else on this list by virtue of actually being pretty selflessly motivated and for never losing the plot of why he was doing all those things in the first place.

I still don't know if I did good lmao, but yeah, this is what I think. If you noticed I get more verbose the deeper we go, that was intentional. It's not as if I don't have anything to say about Shabriri (you should know), it's just for the purposes of this "rating". Ultimately they are all prime characters.

#dark souls #dark souls 3 #elden ring #bloodborne #dark souls 2 #gwyn lord of cinder #micolash host of the nightmare #shabriri #aldrich devourer of gods #old king allant #aldia scholar of the first sin #I had to think a lot about it and I am still not satisfied #but I best not overthink it and just post it lol #never ask me anything ever again!!!!#(I am joshin' ily)#val-responds #val-post

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