Shadowing Practice: Elden Ring's Lore ► Explained! - Learn English Speaking with Video

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Our story doesn't begin in the Lands Between.

It begins in the cosmos, far away, with an outer god called the Greater Will.

There are a lot of outer gods mentioned in Elden Ring.

You can think of these kind of like the Great Ones of Bloodborne.

They're distant beings, they're all -powerful, and they're quite unknowable by design.

But many of these outer gods want to make their presence felt in the world.

The Greater Will, maybe most of all.

To this end, it sent a Golden Star hurtling towards the Lands Between.

The Elden Star's incantation tells us that this

Golden Star was bearing a beast, an Elden Beast.

The Elden Remembrance calls it a Vassal Beast of the Greater Will.

If you didn't know, a vassal is someone who holds land on behalf of their overlord.

Obviously, this is fitting in this case, because the Elden Beast occupied the Lands Between on behalf of the Greater Will,

and was a living incarnation of the concept of order.

As such, this beast would later become the Elden Ring.

The Elden Ring itself is made up of runes of power,

some great, some small, that together represent a sort of logic for the world to follow.

Thus, the Elden Ring represents order.

The true nature of this order is a subject of constant debate and research undergone by fundamentalists.

But two of the key fundamentals are the laws of causality and regression.

You can think of the law of causality as cause and effect,

where actions have consequences, and those consequences are new causes that branch out into infinity.

These are the relationships between things.

Then there's the law of regression that states that all things eternally yearn to converge and return to their roots.

Fittingly, the Elden Ring is housed within the Erdtree, which towers over the Lands Between.

But it's very important to stress that life in the Lands Between did not begin with the Erdtree, the Elden Ring, or the Elden Beast.

No, the Lands Between were occupied well before the Greater Will came.

There were other beings here.

There were other factions here.

There were other another great tree here, before the Erd Tree.

And this is where a huge twist regarding the Erd Tree comes in.

So there are incantations in the game called Aspects of the Crucible.

According to their descriptions, these are manifestations of the Erd Tree's primal vital energies.

And I quote, they are an aspect of the primordial crucible where all life was once blended together.

But how could all life be blended together in the Erd Tree if the Erd Tree appeared after life existed?

There can only be one answer, right?

That the Erd Tree is a parasite, and it took over a tree that existed here before.

This ancient tree was called the Great Tree.

So the Great Tree was almost certainly the location of this primordial crucible,

and it must have been a very powerful primordial force for the Greater Will to have commandeered.

It might even be the reason

The Lands Between is important to the Greater Will in the first place.

It also explains why spells and enemies related to the Great Tree's Crucible would eventually be looked down upon.

For example, the Knot Talisman is fashioned from a knotted vestige of the Crucible, and it was considered a signifier of the Divine in ancient times,

but is now increasingly disdained as an impurity as civilization has advanced.

Enemies related to the Crucible are the Omen, the Misbegotten, and the Crucible Knights, and all three of them would be shunned, enslaved, or imprisoned.

Those who speak for the Erdtree don't want you to know its roots, so to speak.

According to the spell, protection of the Erdtree, in the beginning everything was in opposition to the Erdtree, but through countless victories in war,

it became the embodiment of order.

In Marika's own words, the earth tree governs all.

The choice is thine.

Become one with the order, or divest thyself of it.

To wallow at the fringes, a powerless upstart.

But the greater will needed more than a big tree, it needed loyal agents in the lands between.

To this end, it has the Two Fingers, who are its envoys.

The Two Fingers' heirloom has a weird picture of them, but it reads, Of course, fingers cannot speak, yet these are eloquent.

Persistently they wriggle, spelling out mysteries in the air.

Thus did we gain the words, the words of our faith.

These words are interpreted by the finger readers.

These are the undying old crones that you would have found throughout the Lands Between.

They pass down the wisdom of the two fingers.

Or at least, they used to.

Your fingers.

Please, your fingers.

I can't read them.

Most of them appear to have lost their purpose, and they're desperate to read your fingers and tell you annoying riddles,

since their two fingers are likely dead.

And yes, of course, there are multiple sets of two fingers.

You would have found their corpses on the tops of the Divine Towers.

Atop these towers, you loot the fingers in order to activate the true power of a great rune.

Specifically, you are giving benediction back to your great rune.

You're taking a blessing back from the two dead fingers.

This is just one of many blessings that the two fingers can bestow.

And my point is that the two fingers clearly have more than just influence.

They have real power on some level.

The Greater Will needs these powerful envoys and agents because while it's obviously incredibly powerful, it does seem limited by a few things.

First is space.

The Greater Will didn't come to the lands between itself.

It sent an Elden Beast to do its bidding instead.

Second is time.

There is a moment later in the game where your pair of two fingers go still

because they're forced to commune with the Greater Will for guidance.

When they are finished, the fingers will again offer their guidance.

But thousands, if not tens of thousands of moons must first pass, no matter for me.

But you, how will you ever manage the weight?

So the greater will needs a physical manifestation of order.

It needs envoys to convey its will, but what it also needs is a god.

Introducing Marika the Eternal.

I have this utterly enormous mind map of Elden Ring's lore, and there's a reason she's at the center.

She's essentially the equivalent of Gwyn from Dark Souls.

Except unlike Gwyn, Marika didn't just crawl out of the dark and find power.

To an extent, it seems like she earned it.

But we don't know much about her origins, except that she is of the Numen race,

which is actually an origin that you can choose in the character selection screen.

Numen come from outside the lands between, and are supposed descendants of denizens of another world.

Long lived, but seldom born.

At some point, Marika was chosen as an Empyrean.

What is an Empyrean?

An Empyrean is a being chosen by the fingers, as a candidate for godhood.

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As an Empyrean, Marika received the aid of a shadow to do her bidding.

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So what is a shadow?

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Well, it's a wolf, shadowbound to its Empyrean by the two fingers.

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Lunar Princess Rani is another example of an Empyrean with a shadowbound beast.

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You would have met Blythe.

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These creatures are the Empyrean's very own shadow.

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They are completely loyal to their needs and, by definition, incapable of treachery.

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Marika's shadow was a beast called Malaketh.

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Every Empyrean uses their shadow in different ways, but Marika's sole need of her shadow was as a vessel to lock away destined death.

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So what is destined death?

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Well, according to Enya, it's the rune of death.

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The rune of death goes by two names.

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The other is destined death.

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We mentioned earlier that the Elden Ring is made up of runes, and at some point, maybe when she was chosen as a god,

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Marika plucked the Rune of Death from the Elden Ring.

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She gave the Rune of Death to Malekith, her totally loyal shadow, who bore a black blade imbued with this rune.

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It's kind of genius, really.

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In a single act, she removed the concept of death from the Lands Between, while also commanding total control of death through her shadow,

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who could deliver it at her whim.

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Now, some of you might be asking, if death is removed from the Lands Between, how come I can kill this dog?

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First off, shame on you.

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Second, from a lore point of view, that dog isn't really dead.

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It's simply in the process of its spirit or soul returning to the Erd Tree.

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Catacomb dungeons, for example, are specifically constructed near the roots of the Great Tree for this reason,

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so that the Erd Tree can reabsorb their ashes back into it.

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This process replaced the concept of a death that you were destined to have.

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But this random spirit outside of a catacomb dungeon says it best.

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As another example of this theory, when you kill a major boss, you receive a remembrance of them.

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These are spirits, and they are hewn into the Erdtree.

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In this way, thanks to the Erdtree's grace, their spirits are immortalized, in a sense.

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This new form of death also explains what's happening when you summon spirits from ash and return to the Erd Tree.

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However, some spirits never return to the Erd Tree and they rise within death as corpses or skeletons instead.

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So this was the new order.

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And it's important to stress that it was in this moment, when the Rune of Death was removed, When Destin Death was taken,

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this is when Order became the Golden Order.

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The forbidden shadow plucked from the Golden Order upon its creation.

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Specifically, this was Marika's Golden Order.

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So not only did she become a god and a vessel for the Elden Ring,

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she became renowned as Marika the Eternal for her removal of Destin Death.

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It was a huge part of her character and her reign as well.

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However, Marika had more than just death to conquer, she had wars to fight,

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as the world was occupied by many forces that could threaten her golden order.

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There was war with the Stormlord, who likely ruled over Stormvale, and there was a war with the Giants,

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who were masters of a flame that could burn the Erdtree, there was war with the ancient dragons,

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who incidentally had stones that could twist time and thus slay a god, and finally there was war brewing with the Carrion royalty,

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who had previously obeyed laws which contravened the Golden Order.

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Thus, similar to how the Greater Will needed an Empyrean to enforce its will, Marika needed someone to wage war.

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So, there was to be a husband, a consort, an Elden Lord.

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The man chosen was Hora Lu, a ferocious warrior who became known as the Lord of the Battlefield.

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His crown was warranted with strength, and while it was for this strength that Marika married him,

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he was also required to take a vow to conduct himself as a lord.

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To suppress the ceaseless lust for battle that raged within, Horolu took the Beast Regent Sorosh upon his back.

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You'll notice this is another example of a beast being given for the purpose of serving order.

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Thus, in this moment, he went from being Horolu, warrior, to Godfrey, the first Elden Lord,

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consort to Queen Marika, and a certified demigod.

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Godfrey and Marika had three demigod children together.

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There was Godwin the Golden, who you saw being killed in the opening trailer, and there were also the reviled Omen twins.

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Morgoth, who guards the Erdtree, and Moog, who became

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Lord of Blood.

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You might think that Godric was another demigod child, but he actually wasn't.

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Instead, he was probably descended from Godwin.

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Anyway, we'll talk about the demigods more in detail in another video, so subscribe for that.

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But for now, just know that Godfrey and his offspring were the first demigods, henceforth known as the Golden Lineage.

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In his wars, Godfrey led his 16 Crucible Knights into battle, who were named so for they fought with the primordial powers of the Erdtree.

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Their incantations were aspects of the Crucible itself, and they likely fought giants,

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dragons, the Stormlord, and more to usher in their age, the age of the Erdtree.

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In Marica's own words, Hark, brave warriors.

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Hark, my lord Godfrey.

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We commend your deeds.

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Guidance hath delivered ye through each ordeal to the place ye stand.

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Put the giants to the sword and confine the flame atop the mount.

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Let a new epoch begin, an epoch glistening with life.

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Brandish the Elden Ring for the age of the Erdtree.

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The Erdtree would go on to be largely seen as a blessing for all of those in the lands between,

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especially those close to it in Lainedell, the capital city of the Erdtree.

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The tree bestowed blessings.

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For example, the dew that dropped from its branches were like jewels.

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It loomed overhead as a constant reminder of order and its roots reached far and wide, relieving many of the burden of death.

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In fact, Erdtree burial was one of the highest honors a hero could receive.

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One by one, the previous factions of the world fell.

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The giants were put to the sword and their Fel God was killed by Marika herself.

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The ancient dragons broke down the walls of Laendell but met fierce retaliation.

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However, I think the House of the Erdtree encountered the most trouble against the land to their southwest, Lyonia.

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Here the House of the Moon repelled their offensives time and time again.

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And I mean that literally, because there was not just one

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But two wars fought here, and in both of these, there was no victory for the Golden nor for the Moon.

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And I suspect it was probably because of these lobsters.

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These damn things can snipe you from like a mile away, and it's bullsh - Actually, it was probably because of the Carrion Knights,

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who, according to their weapons, were able to wield sorceress battle skills, and despite numbering fewer than 20,

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this power made them a match for even the champions of gold in battle.

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These enchanted knights were anointed by the Lunar Queen, a young astrologer who went on to establish the House of Caria as royalty in this land.

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With her bewitching lunar magic, she won over the Academy of Raya Lucaria, where glintstone sorcery was studied, and united.

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The Carian royal family and the learned scholars of Raya Lucaria defended their home from the Golden Aggressors.

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At the head of this great golden army was Radagon.

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Lord Radagon was a great champion, possessed of flowing red locks.

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He came to these lands at the head of a great golden host, when he met

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Lady Rinala in battle.

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These two champions clashed, fell in love, and joined their houses.

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Radagon once cleansed himself with Celestial Dew, repented his territorial aggressions, and swore his love to Rinala.

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The order of the Erdry and the fate of the moon were conjoined, and all the wounds of war forgiven.

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You might think it's strange that the greater will would permit this union, but it's not too odd, all things considered.

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As with most

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From Software games, sorcery and faith are just two sides of the same coin, and both of these powers stem from the cosmos.

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Radagon and Rinala were known to have three children together.

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Lunar Princess Rani, who inherited her mother's propensity for lunar magic.

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Radan, who took after his father Radagon and would go on to master gravitational magic.

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And Rikard, who pioneered new hex sorceries and would go on to feed himself to a great serpent.

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It follows that at some point after this, Marika began to harbor doubts.

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Doubts about the Golden Order that she had had a hand in creating.

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In Marika's own words, I declare mine intent to search the depths of the Golden Order through understanding of the proper way.

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Our faith, our grace is increased.

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Those blissful early days of blind belief are long past.

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My comrades, why must ye falter?

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And it's at this point that we should talk about Marika's motivations, her character.

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This is surely going to be one of those huge points of debate in the coming years.

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But for now, my working theory is that she wanted to discover the truth behind order

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and the truth behind the greater will and she believed

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that bonds had to be broken so that they could be better understood.

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She believed that there was great meaning to be found in hardship.

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Queen Marquez, high hopes for us that we continue to struggle.

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Unto eternity.

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For Lord Godfrey, his struggle ended at the end of his campaigns.

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According to his armor, he led the war against the Giants, faced the Storm Lord alone and then there came a moment

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when his last worthy enemy fell and it was then as the story is told

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that the hue of lord godfrey's eyes faded in truth

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he was robbed of his grace then marica sent him away my lord

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and thy warriors i divest each of thee of thy grace with thine eyes dimmed

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Ye will be driven from the lands between.

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Ye will wage war in a land afar,

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where ye will live and die." This became known as the Long March of the Tarnished,

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as Godfrey and his tarnished descendants walked away from the lands between.

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But Queen Marica absolutely had a plan here,

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that Lord godfrey and his descendants would one day return stronger having struggled outside of grace then

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after thy death i will give back what i once claimed return to the lands between wage war

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and brandish the elden ring grow strong in the face of death warriors of my lord lord godfrey

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Soon after, she found a new husband.

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Either that, or a new husband was found for her.

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When Godfrey, First Elden Lord, was hounded from the lands between, Radigan left Rinala to return to the Erdtree capital,

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becoming Queen Marika's second husband and king consort, taking the title of Second Elden Lord.

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The mystery endures to this day as to why

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Lord Radagon would cast

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Lady Rinala aside, and moreover, why a mere champion would be chosen for the seat of Elden Lord.

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Whatever the case, as a part of this union, Radagon's prior three children with Rinala became demigod stepchildren,

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granted grace thanks to their new family tree.

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Rinala was broken by this, and so was her country, Leornia.

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The queen's set reads, When Rinala, head of both the Academy of Raya Lucaria and the Carrion royal family,

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lost her husband Radagon, her heart went along with him.

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And then those at the academy realized that Rinala was no champion after all.

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In the wake of Radagon's betrayal and Rinala's poor judgment, Leonia struggled with civil war,

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with the Academy of Raya Lucaria on one side and the Carrion Royals on the other.

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And it's here, during the Age of the Erd Tree, that Lunar Princess Rani, daughter of Rinala and Radagon,

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stole a fragment of the Rune of Death.

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It happened during the Golden Age of the Erd Tree, long before the shattering of the Elden Ring.

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Someone stole a fragment of the rune of death from Maleketh, the Black Blade.

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As mentioned previously, Maleketh was Marika's shadow, and he had sealed

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Destined Death in a black blade.

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Then a fragment, only a fragment, of this rune of death was stolen.

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And once this happened, Maleketh went a step further in protecting Destined Death.

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He bound the blade within his own flesh such that none might rob death ever again.

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It was too late, however.

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This fragment of the Rune of Death was used immediately that night to kill a demigod, Marika's own son, Godwin the God.

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That was the first recorded death of a demigod in all history, and it became the catalyst.

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Soon, the Elden Ring was smashed and thus sprang forth the war known as the Shattering.

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Now, there is a lot of really credible evidence

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that Marika was behind this plot to have a fragment of the Rune of Death stolen.

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There's also a ton of evidence that Marika is behind the entirety of your tarnished quest, but we'll talk about that in another video for now.

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All you really need to know, in terms of the timeline at least, is this.

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After the marriage of Marika and Radagon, and after a fragment of the Rune of Death was stolen, Marika went on to shatter the Elden Ring,

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and Radagon attempted to repair it.

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To no avail.

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The Elden Ring had been broken into ruins, some great and some small.

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You know, it's said that

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Lord Radagon harbored a secret.

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A famed sculptor of the Erdtree capital was once summoned to render

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Lord Radagon's likeness in giant statue, when he glimpsed the skeleton in Radagon's closet.

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And as such, it's said, the great statue harbors his secret too." Of course,

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the huge twist in Elden Ring is that Radagon is Marika.

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Or, depending on what you believe, he became her.

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For she knew it was going to happen.

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In Marika's own words, O Radigan, Leal Hound of the Golden Order, Thou art yet to become me,

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Thou art yet to become a god.

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Let us be shattered, both mine other self.

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You can tell when From Software is keeping something a little bit open -ended, and of everything in Elden Ring's lore,

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this will also go on to be one of the biggest unknowns as we move forward.

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For example, the wording, Thou art yet to become me, reinforces that Marika and Radagon were two separate entities before the Shattering.

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However, in contrast, there is also evidence that Radagon was always part of Marika.

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For example, Enya says that, The demigods are each and all the direct offspring of Queen Marika.

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But how can this be if Radagon married Rinala and had those demigod children?

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The only way that makes sense is if Radagon was always Marika

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and he just went over there to seduce Renala long ago.

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I'll present more concrete theories in the future, but on this matter, the most important thing is, what do you think?

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While you can figure out a ton of Elden Ring's story, not all of it is open to interpretation.

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Certain things are, and this is one of them.

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And your interpretation is a big part of what makes this story special.

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At any rate, the union of Radagon and Marica seems to be a union of two fundamental opposing laws of the Golden Order.

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We mentioned these laws earlier, actually.

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There's the law of causality, and Marica is an agent of cause and effect.

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And there's the law of regression, as Radagon is a character who aspires to be complete and regress together.

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So I have a theory that forcing these two beings that represent these concepts together would have corrected Marika's deviance.

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But even so, she was imprisoned in the Erdtree for the crime of the shattering.

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Marika's trespass demanded a heavy sentence, but even in shackles, she remains a god and the

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The conjoined Radagon and Marika even had two demigod children of their own, Mickela and Melenia.

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These two children were born afflicted.

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Mickela was cursed with eternal childhood, and Melenia harbored a horrific rot within.

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Even so, these two children were both chosen as Empyreans.

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They were immensely sacred beings, and eligible to inherit godhood from the Greater Will.

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Perhaps the Greater Will was just desperate to find a worthy successor, and indeed in the shattering war to come,

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many would try to claim the Shards of the Elden Ring, and they would try to take the throne, including of course the Tarnished,

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who returned from their long march at long last, which we'll talk about in the next main lore video.

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I should probably also mention here that if you become a patron, you'll see upcoming lore videos early,

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as that's of the rewards you get if you pledge to the $3 tier. And

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if you think my channel really adds a lot of value

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to the Souls games for you to the point where you pledge $20, then in this new tier you'll receive a new mug every three months

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that has a unique design on it to do with the games by FromSoftware.

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There are four to collect.

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The first one you'll get is inspired by Dark Souls, then Elden Ring, then Sekiro, and finally Bloodborne.

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And they all have fantastic art that I worked on with an amazing artist named Chu.

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But anyway, I figured this is the right place to end this video, because the information here is going to be overwhelming.

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I bet it probably was too overwhelming, you know?

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It took me ages to commit these names and the relationships they had with other characters to memory, so I hope you guys are doing alright.

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One thing that helped me a lot was

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that we designed an enormous mind map with pretty much all of Elden Ring's lore.

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All of its item descriptions, all of its dialogues, all of the relationships between characters that we can think of.

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We added all of this together and it helped a ton in learning about the story and visualizing it all.

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And one day I will make this asset available to you all because I think after doing it,

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I think this is the quintessential way to piece together the story.

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And I think giving you guys this asset eventually will make that accessible for people.

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So I'm really excited about that.

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I want to thank Absa

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and Zard for accepting the paid task of helping me put all the raw data into this mind map

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so that I could better understand everything.

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I want to thank Parigod for fulfilling all of my footage requests

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and creating so many cinematic scenes for this video and for you all to enjoy.

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And I last of all want to thank John Devlin for the incredible thumbnail.

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And of course, thank you for watching.

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There are some really exciting things ahead

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and I actually believe this might be the best story that FromSoftware have ever put together.

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I just think not only are there so many amazing item descriptions, but so many of them are impactful.

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There are so many moments where you piece together the story

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and have like a Eureka moment and I'm enjoying it so much.

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But now I'm gonna go and play the game a little bit because I've been editing this video for too long.

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So, see you next time.

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164 sentences

Vocabulary and speaking notes for this lesson

This speaking lesson is built on the video “Elden Ring's Lore ► Explained!”. The speaker keeps coming back to these words: elden, Erdtree, Marika, land, ring. This video has 281 sentences and 4504 words to shadow. The speech runs for 29:01. The speaker talks at a natural 155 words per minute, close to everyday conversation. Only 77% of the words are among the 3,000 most common in English, so the vocabulary is demanding.

Key vocabulary in this video

15 words from the video worth learning, with pronunciation and meaning:

Word	Pronunciation	Meaning
shadow noun	/ˈʃædəʊ̯/	A dark image projected onto a surface where light (or other radiation) is blocked by the shade of an object.
beast noun	/biːst/	Any four-footed land mammal.
destined adjective	/ˈdɛstɪnd/	Confined to a predetermined fate or destiny; certain.
fragment noun	/ˈfɹæɡmənt/	A part broken off; a small, detached portion; an imperfect part, either physically or not.
lore noun	/loɹ/	All the facts and traditions about a particular subject that have been accumulated over time through education or experience.
steal verb	/stiːl/	To take illegally, or without the owner's permission, something owned by someone else without intending to return it.
warrior noun	/ˈwɔɹi.ɚ/	A person who is actively engaged in battle, conflict or warfare; a soldier or combatant.
knight noun	/ˈnaɪ̯t/	An armored and mounted warrior of the Middle Ages.
blade noun	/bleɪd/	The (typically sharp-edged) part of a knife, sword, razor, or other tool with which it cuts.
blessing noun	/ˈblɛs.ɪŋ/	Some kind of divine or supernatural aid, or reward.
lunar adjective	/ˈlunɚ/	Of, pertaining to, or resembling the Moon (that is, Luna, the Earth's moon).
wage noun	/weɪd͡ʒ/	An amount of money paid to a worker for a specified quantity of work, usually calculated on an hourly basis and expressed in an amount of money per hour.
dragon noun	/ˈdɹæɡən/	In European mythologies, a gigantic beast, typically reptilian with leathery bat-like wings, lion-like claws, scaly skin and a lizard-like body, often a…
guidance noun	/ˈɡaɪdəns/	The act or process of guiding.
vessel noun	/ˈvɛsəl/	Any craft designed for transportation on or in water, such as a ship, boat, or submarine.

Phrasal verbs you will hear

Word	Meaning
break down verb	To stop functioning.
figure out verb	To come to understand; to discover or find a solution; to deduce.
give back verb	To return, restore (a thing to its original owner or location etc.).
go along with verb	To acquiesce to or comply with a proposal, despite lacking a desire or value for it.
go over verb	To look at carefully; to scrutinize; to analyze.
lock away verb	To lock up; to lock in a safe place, out of view.
move forward verb	To cause to make progress.
pass down verb	To hand over, pass through or transfer to a lower level, next generation, etc.

Grammar in this video

The structures the speaker uses most, with the exact words from the video:

Structure	In the video
Passive voice be + past participle — the focus is on what happens, not who does it	is made · is housed · were occupied
Present perfect have/has + past participle — a past action that still matters now	has advanced · have ever put
Relative clauses who / which + clause — extra information about a person or thing	someone who holds · Those who speak

Pronunciation to watch

The speaker uses 27 contractions and reduced forms, such as they're, you'll, didn't. Say them the short way, as you hear them.

The “th” sounds: worthy /ˈwɝ.ði/, throne /θɹəʊ̯n/, southwest /saʊθˈwɛst/
The “sh” and “zh” sounds: shadow /ˈʃædəʊ̯/, essentially /ɪˈsɛnʃəli/, interpretation /ɪnˌtɜːpɹəˈteɪʃən/, faction /ˈfæk.ʃən/, contrast /kənˈt(ʃ)ɹæst/
Long words — get the stress right: essentially /ɪˈsɛnʃəli/, interpretation /ɪnˌtɜːpɹəˈteɪʃən/, incredibly /ɪŋˈkɹɛdɪbli/, fundamental /ˌfʌn.dəˈmɛn.təl/, eligible /ˈɛl.ɪ.d͡ʒɪ.bəl/

How to practise with this video

Listen to the whole video once without speaking and note the words you do not know.
Start at 0.75× speed, shadow it sentence by sentence, then go back to normal speed once it feels easy.
Record yourself and compare with the original, paying attention to words like shadow, beast, destined.

What is the Shadowing Technique?

Shadowing is a science-backed language learning technique originally developed for professional interpreter training and popularized by polyglot Dr. Alexander Arguelles. The method is simple but powerful: you listen to native English audio and immediately repeat it out loud — like a shadow following the speaker with just a 1–2 second delay. Unlike passive listening or grammar drills, shadowing forces your brain and mouth muscles to simultaneously process and reproduce real speech patterns. Research shows it significantly improves pronunciation accuracy, intonation, rhythm, connected speech, listening comprehension, and speaking fluency — making it one of the most effective methods for IELTS Speaking preparation and real-world English communication.

Shadowing technique: read the full step-by-step guide →

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