The Lore of Elden Ring's Bosses (feat. Death's Kindred)

Where do you go after death? What is the right way to die? Can death be overcome?

And if it can, what are the consequences of such a thing? These questions are at the very heart of Elden Ring's story. And in order to answer them, I want to go over a set of bosses that are defined by their relationship to death.

Those being the Death Birds, the Ancestral Spirits, the Tibia Mariners the Godskins, the Burial Watchdogs and the Black Knife Assassins. Understanding these bosses will teach you so much. In Elden ring, one's self is separated into two distinct entities.

There's the body, which is one's physical self or corporeal flesh. And then there's the spirit, which is essentially the soul. That commonly persists after death.

In the age of the Erdtree, the bodies of the dead and their spirits are returned to the Erdtree. This is done via a process called a Erdtree burial, where great tree roots in catacomb dungeons absorb the dead so that they might be immortalized with the Erdtree. But it was not always this way.

In fact, the entire culture of death had a different shape in the earlier days of the Lands Between. Back then instead of Erdtree burial, Death commonly burned in Ghost Flame. Ghost Flame, also known as Spirit flame, is a cold white flame that is created when bones are burned to ash.

We learned this from the fallen hawks who prowl the underground rivers When the last embers of their torches were used up, they were forced to burn the bones of their fellows instead, and aquired the cold Ghost Flame. This process appears to help separate the spirit from the body. And while a lot of these spirits appear to be vengeful based on the ghost flame spells, I think in general, having the body separated from the spirit in this way would have been a desired outcome.

I speculate that we see proof of this even in the current age, with the wandering dead at Agheel Lake gazed at the sky, praying that the dragon Agheel might burn them to ash. Perhaps this was simply the acceptable way to put a tired body to rest. The keepers of Ghost Flame were the Death Birds who tended to the flame in their graveyards, raking out the ashen remains of the dead from their kilns.

So I like to think of the Death Birds as serving the old process of death and delivering death by reducing bodies to ash so that spirits might be better able to move on. Now, admittedly, a lot of these spirits are vengeful and that's how Ghost Flame is sort of weaponised by the Death Birds and sorcerers. But I do think that at its core, Ghost Flame was important just because it separated the body and the spirit.

After all, the explosive Ghost Flame sorcery compares this process of death to the Erdtree's process of death, which was pretty all encompassing. So I think it's safe to assume that Ghost Flame was just really important to the process of death. And it was more than just, you know, vengeful spirits and a weapon to be used.

And next, we should talk about the Twin Bird, which was the mother of the Death Birds. We don't find this creature in game, but we can find its likeness painted vividly upon a kite shield that one of the Death Birds drops. The design might remind you of a phoenix, which is traditionally drawn with bright colors and a crest of feathers and a longish neck.

Of course, the phoenix is a creature that rises from the ash when it dies, which is obviously extremely fitting for this story. So the Kite Shield tells us that the Twin Bird or this phoenix creature is said to be the mother of the Death Birds. But not only that, it's also called the envoy of an outer god.

So we can kind of compare the Twin Bird to the Two Fingers then who are also envoys to an outer god. They are envoys to the Greater Will. And similarly, I assume the Twin Bird probably communes with some outer God of death.

And while we're definitely left wondering what greater purpose this outer god might have, the mere fact that it exists lends a lot of significance to the twin bird and its death Birds as well. A variation on the death bird is the death-rite Bird, which is an ultimate boss, and it's a far more threatening foe as it actually seems to use power that it's gained from certain spirits, and Ghost Flame. And if you look really closely at its ethereal wings, you might even spy little spirits lurking within.

And when I saw these, I was really excited because I recognized the weapon they're using, and the weapon explains who they are. They're holding a little death ritual spear. And that item reads, The priests became the guardians of the birds through the Rite of Death, which is a part of their contract for a far off resurrection.

So Death Birds have a lot to do with sacrificial rites. You know, they don't just tend to the Ghost Flame. They also deliver death and they also perform rites of death.

So we can assume that these priests were sacrificed in a rite of death so that they could lend a sort of spiritual strength to the Death Birds. But we're still left wondering about the nature of their contract with the Death Birds, which promises a far off resurrection for them. You know, what agreement did these priests come to with the Death Birds, I wonder.

what has to happen for the contract to be fulfilled, and how will they even be resurrected? in terms of where the Death Birds appear, They kind of appear everywhere, and I think that might be a hint that their influence was once present, far and wide. And while their importance in the current age is likely quite diminished, they still definitely are relevant in the Lands Between, in fact, many other enemies actually make reference to them, and some even successfully channeled their powers.

Even Ghost Flame lights the way in catacomb dungeons to this day. But in general, there is a lot of power that can be gained from death in the Lands Between. Which brings us to the Ancestral Spirit.

in the flourishing landscapes underneath the Lands Between you would have found the bodies of three large stags enshrined by the ancestral followers. These warriors, hunters and shamans believe heavily in the principle that life sprouts from birth, but also from death. I think this principle is sort of represented by horns, because in real life, horns continue to grow throughout the life spans of animals with their primary function, usually being to convey a social hierarchy.

And here, the largest and most influential creature is a giant stag. And in the world of Elden Ring, since life continues after death, it makes sense then, that this creature's antlers continue to bud and grow even after its death. We learn this from defeating the regal ancestor spirit and looking at the horn of this fallen king.

New growths bud glowing with light. Thus does new life grow from death and from death, one obtains power. Long lived beasts like this are worshiped by the ancestral followers, a race of beings who keep their distance from Erdtree and are just content to await new buds and new growth.

If a being does not show signs of budding horns or new growth, then they are sacrificed with an ax called the Winged Great Horn. Interestingly, the twin blades of this sacrificial ax are called envoys wings, which might be a reference to the Twin Bird we mentioned earlier, which was also a winged envoy. According to the horn charm talismans, the ancestral spirits specifically arise from long lived beasts.

And I think this touches on another commonly repeated theme in Elden Ring, which is that there are benefits to living life to its fullest potential. To quote some more Death Bird items, the most glorious end awaits those who cling tenaciously to life. And it is important to render up a death worth offering.

Those who lived a heroic life were even able to go on and see a unique version of grace in the afterlife. We currently think that this grace is red and that these are the same red rays of grace that you might have noticed when you first explored the forbidden lands. So this might be the most intriguing part of the video.

Let me explain. Past the forbidden lands and deep within the consecrated snowfields is a Tibia Mariner and this one drops Helphen's Steeple, a greatsword that reveals just a mindblowing amount of lore for one item. First it reads Great sword patterned after the black steeple of the Helphen, the lampwood, which guides the dead of the spirit world.

So the word steeple is commonly used to describe the tall spire found on churches. And indeed, the design of Helphen's steeple echoes that of the Morion Blade from Dark Souls, which also reference the spire of the church. However, while I think Helphan is likely to be a sort of church, I don't think it's a building.

Instead, this item seems to be describing the shape of a black tree in the spirit world, a so-called Lampwood, or lamplight tree that serves as a guidepost for the heroic dead. The item goes on to say that lamp light is similar to grace in appearance, and it is said that it can only be seen by heroic spirits or those who met their death in battle. So the black tree of Helphen is almost like this dark mirror of the Erdtree.

But in the spirit world, it's so interesting that it even gives off its own guidance of grace. And there's a few reasons we speculate that this grace might be red. First, a red gem can be found at the very tip of Helphen's Steeple and a gem on the Rold Medallion as well.

Plus, there's a red glow visible from the swords gem and a red glow from the Rold Medallion. When you hold it up at the grand lift, where it takes you to the forbidden lands, where we speculate that you can briefly glimpse this lamplight or red grace filtering between the trees. So you might be asking why can we see the grace when we're not dead, but technically tarnished are defined as the dead who yet live.

So it might make some sense that we can see it. The next question is where does the lamp light lead? And I think there's two options.

One is that the lamp light might lead back to Helphen itself. That is the source of the light, after all. And Helphen's Steeple can be enwreathed in Ghost Flame So maybe the dead are sort of put to rest here.

Alternatively, though, I guess it's also possible that the Lamplight has plans for the heroic dead, just like Grace has plans for the Tarnished. It might lead them somewhere else as well. We just don't know.

In my discussions with Quelaag, who helped with these theories, she pointed out the similarities that Helphen has with Valhalla of Nordic folklore. If you don't know Valhalla is a place where brave spirits would be invited to dine with the gods. And it seems that Helphen is inspired by that same sort of folklore, since only heroic spirits can see the light.

Not to mention hel with one L is actually the name of the world of the dead in Nordic folklore. And speaking of folklore, this finally brings us back to the Tibia Mariner, the boss that dropped Helphen's Steeple in the first place. The Tibia Mariners themselves actually have no written lore to speak of, which is kind of a shame.

But what they do have is an incredible visual design and it kind of carries them from a lore perspective because this visual design is steeped very heavily in appropriate folklore. So in Greek mythology, there is a stretch of water called the River Styx, which marks the boundary between Earth and the underworld, and to help souls of the deceased cross this river, you have to find the river boatman and pay him to safely take you across. Just so, I kind of imagine the dead in Elden ring are being drawn to the Tibia Mariner in a similar fashion.

You know, he has a purple lantern and a loud horn, and he might offer a similar sort of guidance to the underworld. There is one spell that references this boss briefly. It's Tibia's Summons, and it says, For time immemorial, the dead have been those who are lost and require guidance and leadership.

Suffice to say, death was a very important facet of life in the lines between even for the gods, At one point. Which brings us to the godskins, an order of apostles that were born to deliver Destined Deaths to the gods long ago. I kind of like to think of them as a counterbalancing force to the influence of gods.

Wielding sharp tools for boring and slicing through flesh and incanting spells that mocked the wrath of the gods. It seems these godskins actually succeeded in hunting many gods, If their name is to be believed. The robes were made by sewing together patches of smooth skin, and the nobles robes include subcutaneous fat, which makes them plump and soft.

Known for their seven faced aprons, these nobles are the most ancient apostles, and they're deeply inhuman. The weapon is not a slicer, but a stitcher. And they wield it with a skill that is unmatched by any low-born.

These beings were elevated to a social class above the low-born because they served a queen, a Gloam-Eyed Queen. The black flames they wield are actually channeled from that queen's greatsword. And it was this queen who raised them from birth in the first place, Cradling her newborn apostles in god skin cloth so that they might grow to become the death of the gods.

This Gloam-Eyed Queen was powerful. But what makes her character so important is that she was also an empyrean chosen by the fingers. Now, remember, an empyrean is a candidate chosen by the Two Fingers to become a god.

So despite being such a dark character, the Gloam-Eyed Queen was still a valid choice for godhood. And all of this, of course, was before the Rune of Death had been removed from the Elden Ring and it was from this Rune of Death that the black flame originally got its power. We only know of one other empyrean alive at this time, and that would have been Queen Marika.

Naturally, at some point, Marika and the Gloam-Eyed Queen Queen clashed, though according to the Godslayer Greatsword description We know that the Gloam-Eyed Queen was defeated by Maliketh, who was the shadow of Queen Marika. He is credited with defeating the Gloam- Eyed Queen and the Apostles, and sealing off the Rune of Death, which again was the source of their power. What's not clear to me about all of this, though, is whether Marika and the Gloam-Eyed Queen were rival empyreans competing for godhood, or if Marika was already a God and decided to take out the Gloam- Eyed Queen because the Gloam-Eyed Queen was an empyrean threat to her age.

But at any rate, it seems like Marika and the Gloam-Eyed Queen opposites. You know, the Gloam-Eyed Queen ends ages. But Marika wished for an age eternal.

So it makes sense that they'd clash. But there's still so much we don't know about them. But after all of this, Marika's age of the Erdtree began.

And during this Age, you were supposed to wait for the roots of the Erdtree to call to you so that your spirits could return to the Erdtree after death to be immortalized with it. Specifically, these roots were found in Catacomb dungeons, and there's even a statue found across the Lands Between That was designed to help people find these catacomb dungeons. This is the statue of Rosus, the usher of death.

And he shows the dead the path towards Catacomb dungeons. The catacombs themselves were built in the age of the Erdtree. This is proven by root resin, which states that the roots here were once linked to the Erdtree, And it was for this reason that catacombs were constructed around these great tree roots.

So at this point in history, Queen Marika had implemented her new concept for death in the lands between and in her eyes, a proper death meant returning to the Erdtree. Thus, in the days where catacomb roots were connected to the Erdtree, these catacombs were valid sites of Erdtree burial. And I think we literally see this taking place as corpses can be seen being absorbed by the roots at the end of every catacomb dungeon.

The process of Erdtree burial, though, is described as an honor reserved for heroes. And this process of Erdtree burial is presided over by Erdtree Burial Watchdogs who protect the catacombs with their impish servants. These creatures are golems, and I think that they might have been created specifically during the period of history where Liurnia had an allegiance with Leyndell.

Since they serve the process of Erdtree burial, but their weapons actually have glint- stone embedded in them. Furthermore, when hit by impure crystal darts, they malfunction, which I think is further proof of their glintstone origins. In some catacombs and graveyards The physical bodies of the dead have begun to rise.

These beings are defined as "Those Who Live in Death," and they are a relatively recent phenomenon in the Lands Between, instead of having their body and spirits returned to the Erdtree. They rise in an act that is completely at odds with Marika's concept of death, Erdtree burial and the Golden Order. I'll go into more detail on this later when we talk about Godwyn, But basically, this all began when Ranni stole a fragment of the Rune of Death from Maliketh, and then she imparted its power onto the knives of the black- knife assassins.

You can tell the assassins have quite a lot of secrets in their lore. We do know a few things, though. We know that they're all women, They're all Numen, And they have links to Queen Marika and the Eternal City as well.

We'll have to go into more detail on them later, though. But with their knives imbued with the Rune of Death, they carved a curse mark into two demigods. Ranni and Godwyn The curse mark itself is an obtainable item, and it reads.

This cursemark was carved at the moment of death of the first demigod and should have taken the shape of a circle. However, two demigods perished at the same time, breaking the curse- mark into two half wheels. Ranni was the first of the demigods whose flesh perished while the Prince of Death perished in soul alone.

So interestingly, these assassins and the knives imbued with the Rune of Death had the power to cleave life from the physical body and from the spirit as well. Specifically, Ranni was the one whose flesh perished and she became a disembodied spirit, free from her corporeal flesh, which is what she wanted. And she now occupies a doll.

But Godwyn became the Prince of Death, living without a soul and spreading the Rune of Death across the Lands Between through deathroot. Now, according to item descriptions, death- root is the Rune of Death itself, and it acts as a source that gives rise to Those Who Live in Death. Now, what I find really interesting is the fact that this Rune of Death that is embodied by deathroot and Those Who Live in Death, it clearly has aspects of both death and life as well, which makes sense based on what you should have learned from this episode, Right?

Because death isn't just the end, it's life as well. So it makes sense that those who live in death would have aspects of death and life all contained in these beings that were brought to life in a sense, by the Rune of Death. And while Those Who Live in Death are a bit unnatural because they do come from this fragmented Rune of Death, this half of a cursemark, they still have life in death.

And so you can argue that they still have a right to life. And in fact, that's entirely what one of the endings is about. At least how I understand it.

And I'll try to explore it more thoroughly later on. These beings are persecuted and hunted down by fundamentalists of the Golden Order. And whether these fundamentalists are truly serving the fundamentals of order in the first place is just a topic that is very interesting to explore.

So in conclusion, maybe it shouldn't be a sin to live in death. After all, To quote Fia in death, there is only peace, for in death there can be no sensation. Thank you for watching.

Special thanks to Quelaag for looking over this script. She has an awesome channel that you really should go and check out. And it's been great to have someone to just discuss my ideas with.

But I'd also like to thank Eve, the sponsor of this video who'd like me to talk about Spectrum, which is their high end gaming monitor. Now I ignore 99% of the sponsorship emails that come my way, but this one caught my eye because I follow a lot of tech YouTubers and I already knew that they had a lot of good things to say about this product. So I'll leave links to those more detailed reviews in the description.

But let me just explain a little bit about the Eve Spectrum first. So the spectrum is a high-end product and it has a high but fair price tag to match. It's a 27 inch panel with tiny bezels and at 4K resolution games like Elden Ring look absolutely gorgeous.

I've also been blown away by the color accuracy and clarity of this monitor while editing. Furthermore, if you're into any competitive FBS games, you'll especially love that it also has a 144 hertz refresh rate and a one millisecond response time, which is very impressive considering it also does 4K resolution. The thing I like most though, is that even with all of these gamer specs, it presents as a clean, professional monitor without any RGB or overt branding.

If you're in the market for a high end monitor, then you can click the links in the description to pick one up yourself. But thank you for watching and I'll see you next time.