Elden John Nearly Drove Me Insane After the DLC | Elden Ring Lore
For a very long time Elden John and his
ancient dynasty has been a mystery. his statues are scattered all over the lands
between and even in the lands of shadow. an ever present figure yet an absent one.
his statues feature 2 tablets. discarded at his feet is a replica of the
imago mundi, the Babylonian world map. and in his hand a tablet
featuring a world tree.
this visually communicated the shift to tree
worship that happened in the lands between. but there is something missing, a missing link.
Mesopotamia and tree worship are on the opposite side of the spectrum.
so how did that shift happen?.
I believe we have been given the
missing link, the link that connects between Babylon and tree worship.
Enir-Elim, the tower of Babylon. you probably already know that Enir-Elim
is inspired by the tower of Babel. the tower that was built to
try and reach divinity.
and we literally see that
happening in Elden Ring. the birth of a god at Enir-Elim.
but there is so much more happening at Enir-Elim.
all over the city we see tablets featuring a tree, a spiral tree.
at first you may think that it’s showing an illustration of the scadutree.
but no, the truth goes deeper than that. the tablets doesn’t show the
true color of the spiral tree.
you have to take your camera out of
bounds to take a really good look. on the walls of the city we find the
true illustration of the tree.
a golden spiral tree.
a tree we never saw but it shaped the future of the lands between as we know it.
but who planted that tree?. beneath that tree we find a familiar figure.
a hooded man holding a tablet. it doesn’t look exactly the same as the
statues of Elden John we see underground. but you have to consider that.
first this is an artistic representation.
and second is that it’s showing different
stages of the life of the same man. the tablet is the giveaway though.
and this illustration of a man holding the exact same tablet can be found else where.
if we take a close look at the stone arks scattered alongside the cerulean coast.
we can see another statue of Elden John with the same exact tablet in hand.
of course the relation between the stone arks and the ancient dynasty is well known.
we literally see them illustrated on their obelisks deep underground.
the arks are very important to the story not just because of Elden John.
but because there is someone else incredibly important to the story that
came with him on those ships.
we will come back to it later though.
for now let’s look at the 4 different illustrations we have for Elden John.
one on the arks, one in Enir-Elim, one on the teleporters both in
the land of shadow and luirnia.
and the most famous illustration
is found underground of course. I believe they tell the story of his growth,
every stage is characterized with something. the arks and Enir-Elim carvings are
portraying Elden John as a leader. a pioneer, someone with vision
portrayed through the tablets. people must follow him.
while the one on the teleporters are clearly portraying him
emerging from the roots of a tree. this is connected to the
tree worship cult he made.
another subtle yet important observation
is that he isn’t hooded here. a hood adds a bit of mystery and a halo
that would make him look more divine. portraying him without a hood communicates
that this isn’t his final form. finally the most famous
illustration, the one underground.
this is his final form, he
reached his full potential. fully discarding the Mesopotamian
tablet and embracing his spiral tree. his beard is very large and
looks like the crucible.
specifically the lower part of the
Elden Ring we see in Farum Azula. all of those illustration
are stages in his life.
starting from his arrival to the lands
between with his people and stretching very far into the timeline with his demise.
we can see his demise in the story trailer. yes, I believe this mysterious object is actually
the dead body of Elden John wrapped in cloth. and a ritual should’ve taken place at the
gate of divinity between him and Marika. but Marika betrayed Elden John
and sabotaged the ritual.
before I explain this, I need to explain a
ton of events that lead to this moment. we need to understand what is truly happening at
Enir-Elim and Marika’s relation to Elden John. let’s start with explaining the
missing link, Enir-Elim.
it all started 6 month ago when I was in
Enir-Elim trying to understand why Euporia is so important to the tower.
Euporia is said to be the secret treasure of Enir-Elim.
but why is that. actually this weapon holds so
much lore that it’s crazy.
the weapon doesn’t just confirm the spiral tree of Elden John but it also tells
the story of Enir-Elim.
while trying to take a good look at the weapon
using camera mods I noticed something. I noticed that Euporia is actually
a miniature of Enir-Elim.
the blade design is composed
of dark/golden parts. the darkened part is said to have lost it’s luster
but it can be restored through attacking. now when you look at the city of Enir-Elim
you usually see the golden parts of it. but at certain positions you can
see the outer walls of the city.
and as you see those walls are darkened.
if we close in, we can really see how dark it became.
we can even see traces of gold still present. those traces are a testament to the once
fully golden city that lost it’s luster. this isn’t unintentional, this is very
important as the theme of tarnishing is central to the story of Elden Ring.
but in order to understand the functionality of Enir-Elim we need
to understand how Euporia works. as we know the weapon lost it’s
luster but it can be restored.
attacking enemies restores it’s
luster and charges it up. but why does attacking enemies do that?.
the answer can be found in it’s description. the description states that it doesn’t
work against those who live in death. we can conclude that the weapon gain power
through sucking the life force out of enemies. that’s why it doesn’t work against
those who live in death.
because they don’t have a life force to suck.
this mechanic of taking the life force of people and using it started way before
the Erdtree or even Euporia. deep underground where Elden John once lived
we can find the ancestral followers. they utilize a similar effect when
using their greathorn hammers.
of course they learned of this technique
through the ancestral spirits. during our fight we can see how the spirit
utilizes this power to regain hp. the spirit sucks the life out of the
small enemies to restore it’s own hp. now I believe Elden John noticed this
during his stay underground and decided to utilize a similar technique.
to use the life force of people to harness more power.
this video almost drove me mad, I connected Elden John, Marika, the fell god, Placidusax, Enir-Elim and the spiral world tree before the Erdtree, enjoy.
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