Fridge examples for Elden Ring.
Fridge Brilliance:
- The doors to several dungeons, including the door you have to open to exit the tutorial cave, are giant slabs of iron/steel without hinges
and seemingly no mechanical assistance. With dimensions of 200 x 410 x ~40 cm, they would mass multiple metric tons even if they were 90% hollow - and well over 20 if they were solid. Why the hell would anyone build doors like that? Well, considering the setting, it's likely that the doors themselves are a test of strength - if you can't open them, then you're not strong enough to survive what's right behind them, so why would they bother making doors regular people could open? Indeed, this is exactly the explanation Road to the Erdtree (admittedly of dubious canonicity) uses in its first chapter. Or at least that's the only logical explanation Aseo can think of. - A concept that is introduced very early is the concept of the 'Grace of Gold', and its meaning remains quite ambiguous to an inattentive reader - is Grace the golden blessing of the Erdtree? Is it the vision the Tarnished receive to guide them? The truth is, it's both: The concept of Grace as most commonly known is from Christianity as a blessing from God - specifically a blessing God gives out to display mercy. In the lore of the game, the Grace of Gold is a blessing from Marika (and by extension the Greater Will) towards all her believers that comes in the form of immortality, golden eyes and - in the case of the Tarnished - literal guidance.
- Naming this blessing 'Grace' also gives another bit of stealth characterization to Marika herself: notably, Grace is a type of blessing that is thought to be unconditional and unearned from the one who receives it - however, the decidedly unmerciful Marika is a lot more fickle with her blessings, removing the Grace from her own husband and his entire army due to (at least allegedly) losing her favor. This also explains why a lot of Tarnished lose the guidance of grace: it's not just another type of Hollowing, but a case of divine You Have Outlived Your Usefulness.
- Might be a bit more in YMMV, but the fact that beings like Omens, Misbegotten, and the Crucible Knights are persecuted for being blasphemous against the Erdtree, and by extension, the Greater Will, in spite of the fact they bear the mark of the Erdtree's original form, the primordial crucible, can be linked back to how many religions start out as more tolerant, but end up gaining more discriminatory aspects as time goes on, and of religious leaders twisting the words of their faith to incite hatred in order to grow or maintain their power.
- Every Tarnished mentioned in the opening scene has a huge influence on the ending of the game:
- Hoarax Loux is none other than Godfrey, who serves as the final challenge before the player can enter the Erdtree.
- Goldmask is a sage pondering on the true nature of the Golden Order and its perfect state, and his efforts can lead to the Age of Order.
- Fia, Deathbed Companion is a devotee of the Prince of Death, and following her questline allows the Tarnished to usher in the Age of the Duskborn.
- Dung Eater is a maniac trying to spread the Seedbed Curse as far as possible, and he can sacrifice his own life to bring about the Blessing of Despair.
- Gideon Ofnir wants nothing more than to restore order to the Lands Between without bothering to mend the Elden Ring or trying to bring in new ideas, being content with the Age of Fracture. He goes mad after learning that it's impossible for a Tarnished to become an Elden Lord, facing off against the player near the end of the game.
- Although somewhat obvious, weapon upgrade resources are found more in mines than anywhere else. Given that most of the people have gone insane, it makes sense you can find weapon upgrades so plentiful in them, as almost anyone who would use it is either insane, dead, or wouldn't use it, and the demand for them isn't enough to have them above ground. The various factions have fallen apart to the point where the infrastructure to get these resources to their forges is simply gone.
- Speaking of weapons, unlike the previous games where you had to be mindful of your weapons crumbling and needing repaired, you don't need to worry about that here. Anti-Frustration Feature? Definitely, but makes sense from a narrative standpoint. Dark Souls involved a crumbling, dying world where everything around the player is falling apart while Elden Ring's Lands Between, though far from ideal due to the chaos permeating every country within, is still vibrant and full of life, needing order and stability rather than a fading life extended. As a result, it would make sense that the gear you find doesn't require constant repairs to function quite as much.
- It may not just be thematic, but lore accurate too: there's a lot that indicates that the Lands Between are in a state of 'stasis' due to the Elden Ring shattering; blood that doesn't coagulate, feces that never dry, owl eggs that don't hatch, etc. Who's to say that weapons are literally unable to rust and dull? After all, there is no broken straight sword or equivalent unlike previous games - all weapons are fully intact and immaculate despite the state of the world.
- In the Story Trailer published before the game, Ranni narrated the rough backstory of Elden Ring. Nothing too unusual for a promotional material, right? But her final sentence, "...awaiting the arrival of the Elden Lord. Unless, of course... thou shouldst take the crown?" can also be interpreted as her personal Engagement Challenge, especially after you finished her questline in-game. It's equivalent to her also declaring, "Are you the one worthy enough to take my hand as my consort?", complete with a Meaningful Stare to the camera with all three of her eyes.
- In the game, it comes off as quite a revelation in the final battle when Marika's body morphs into Radagon's, suggesting that they are both the same entity. However, if one looks back at the original 2019 announcement trailer, you can see that every time the camera focuses on the person shattering the Elden Ring, the character shown alternates between who we now know as Marika and Radagon. One of the biggest reveals in the lore was blatantly foreshadowed in the very first piece of media released for the game.
- Every Great Rune's power also represents something about the Shardbearer that possesses it, be it their ambitions, personality or power:
- Godrick was a case of Small Name, Big Ego that wanted to feel more powerful and influential to the world than he actually was. His Great Rune boosts all stats by 5, therefore making you 40 levels more powerful than you actually are; this sounds impressive on paper, but doesn't actually amount to much in practice. Another way to look at it: Godrick's rune is really only impressive to a weak character. At low levels, +5 to any stat is a major boost, but at higher levels when your primary stats are hitting their soft-caps, a +5 is a fairly negligible bonus, and the flat percentage bonuses given by Morgott and Radahn's runes are worth far more. Godrick had little genuine power compared to the other demigods, and his attempts to artificially gain more did not even that gap.
- Radahn was a powerful warrior and the most powerful gravity magic user in the setting, and despite the Scarlet Rot decimating his body, he remained powerful and durable to the point that he uses the spears stuck to his back as arrows. His Great Rune increases HP, FP, and Stamina.
- Rykard wanted to achieve immortality through consuming other beings. His Great Rune grants HP after defeating an enemy, a trait shared by both his Blasphemous Blade and the Taker's Cameo talisman which bears his image.
- Morgott remained steadfast in his servitude to the Golden Order and the Erdtree, fortifying Leyndell during the Shattering in a purely defensive battle against his Demigod kindred. His Great Rune massively boosts HP.
- Mohg builds up a cult to help invade and attack Tarnished to gain their blood, and has remained hands-off compared to his more brazen siblings. His Great Rune reflects this by giving Summons and Furled Fingers a blessing of blood that heals them whenever they kill an enemy, and buffs their attack whenever hemorrhaging occurs. It also helps in invading by giving the bearer three consumables that buff enemies and bosses with the same effects, offloading as much of the work as possible onto expendable minions.
- Malenia has suffered from the Scarlet Rot since birth, a constant source of mental and physical agony that cost her most of her body, yet persevered to become the world's best warrior regardless. Her Great Rune makes Flask healing less effective but gives you a Bloodborne-style rally mechanic that lets you regain lost health by retaliating quickly after taking damage, giving you a tool specifically to triumph in the face of adversity through skillful aggression.
- Though her Great Rune can't be set, Rennala's Great Rune of Rebirth is used to complete the rebirth ritual to give someone new life. In the game, it's used to respec your character.
- Malenia's Great Rune is extremely underwhelming. It gives you her self-heal ability... except it doesn't really, because not only can you only heal immediately after something hits you (she heals whenever she hits anything, period), the actual amount of health you heal is pitiful compared to hers. It's not really worth using. But reading the Rune's description and putting two and two together reveals that it makes perfect sense: the Rune itself doesn't grant healing. The only reason it heals you is because of "the infusion of Malenia's spirit of resistance" still left in it. The "healing" she exhibited in her fight was actually just the Determinator will that Malenia had cultivated to resist the Scarlet Rot's call for her entire life despite the effect on her body and mind and it being consistently described as some of the worst torment imaginable. Since you have to trigger her Goddess of Rot phase to get the Rune, all you've managed to gather from defeating her are the scraps left over after her will is finally broken.
- Another thing worth noting during her boss fight: Malenia will never heal from damage you take from either Rot build-up or the impact of her Scarlet Aeonia, yet will continue to heal if she lands an ordinary cut or stab with her sword. Using the Rot represents her ceasing with her "spirit of resistance", while taking pride in her own martial prowess represents continuing to maintain her own will and identity, so the latter restores her HP while the former doesn't.
- Malenia seems to detach her prosthetic sword arm whenever she is not immediately fighting, visibly attaching it before her fateful duel against Radahn, as well as when you find her in the Haligtree. This is because the prosthetic is made of unalloyed gold, so its weight is comparable to the weight of her entire (remaining) body — not only is it exhausting to the shoulder muscles, but it's also taxing on the spine, which has to compensate for the resulting vast imbalance between the left and right sides of her body. In other words, while she needs the prosthesis to fight, it adds to the pain she is already constantly in. There may be a deeper layer of meaning here, as well: if Malenia prefers to do most things without her sword arm, it may indicate that despite her status as the preeminent war goddess of the Lands Between, she is actually reluctant to take up arms (in contrast to her gung-ho half-brother Radahn, who idolizes Godfrey), presumably only doing so to defend Miquella or herself. This seems to be supported by the stark difference in her depictions around the Haligtree and everywhere else: to the outside world, she is the terrifying and awe-inspiring goddess of battle, but to Miquella's subjects, she is a caring big sis who has come to terms with her disability. It stands to reason that the latter view is more in line with her own self-image.
- A minor but fun one, it makes sense that the god of the Scarlet Rot was defeated by a man aided by a blue fairy.
- One of the Golden Order's ultimate spells, Law of Regression, has insane stats requirements for the meager effect of dispelling all status effects (situationally useful) and revealing all mimicry. To make up for the cost, the "revealing mimicry" part turns out to be so powerful that it unravels the millenia-old mythos built around Radagon, who is actually a part of Marika.
- Margit's Shackle, which you can obtain relatively early in the game, can be used to briefly stun Margit and make his fight a little easier. The Shackle, however, also works on Morgott, which makes sense since Morgott and Margit are the same person.
- Spells like Black Flame and Black Blade, as well as the Black Knife weapon skill, all share a similar damage-over-time effect and maximum health reduction when using them on enemies. Not only are all of them related in some way to the Rune of Death and the act of killing gods, but this is reinforced on a mechanical level as the 'burn' damage and maximum health reduction scales much harder against the larger health pool of bosses, many of which are indeed gods or descendants of them. It works on enemies that are immune to all other ailments, and even the Elden Beast is no exception.
- Unlike poison, the items needed to create cures for the Scarlet Rot are either in limited supply, hard to find, take ages to respawn, or a combination of the above. The only consistent way to cure the Rot is to use an incantation on yourself that physically burns you, and the spell is also not known to many people. The recipe for said cures is also nowhere near any afflicted areas, being in the underground Siofra River region that is mostly unknown to the surface world, and there are very few doses to be found in the world. This makes perfect sense from a storyline perspective, as Scarlet Rot is shown to easily spread and quickly kills anyone who gets it even in-game, up to the demigods themselves. People literally did not have the time to find ways to make a mass-produced version due to how hard it is to make a cure in the first place, not helped by a prior civilization's knowledge of the cure being lost entirely. Also, in the lore, fire is noted to be very effective against Scarlet Rot, which explains why burning yourself expunges it from your body.
- The Greater Will is noted to hold disdain for the primeval lifeforms which roamed the Lands Between prior to the Age of Erdtree, and Marika's Empire has waged war against the Dragons and then the Giants for it. This disdain is never explained beyond vague descriptions about how they are associated with "fire". The Frenzied Flame is also utterly reviled by the Golden Order, with the Three Fingers and Shabriri holding it being imprisoned in two separate prisons. This might seem odd until one realizes the Greater Will has tree-like nature: with the Erdtree and its roots, the Greater Will plants its influence deep on the Lands Between, its behavior likened to a World Tree Cosmic Entity... and trees can't coexist with fire. Thus its opposition of the Black Flame of Destined Death, the fell god of the Fire Giants, and the Frenzied Flame is born from natural incompatibility in their ways of being.
- In another vein regarding the primeval forces of the Lands Between. The Greater Will seems to be allied with or at least indifferent to outer gods who either share its avoidance of fire and association with vegetation (the Scarlet Rot) or represents things trees need (the Dark Moon and its connection to water).
- With regards to the Scarlet Rot, there's another layer to it - the Scarlet Rot manifests as insects and as fungus, two forms of life known for establishing symbiotic relationships with trees, as pollinators and as mycorrhiza respectively.
- There are certain specific enemies that, when killed, will suddenly morph into a much more powerful enemy without warning and start kicking your ass. Killing the more powerful enemy will get you a Larval Tear, and the reasoning behind the surprising transformation will now make sense: the weak enemy used the Larval Tear to be reborn in a stronger form and get revenge on you.
- That, or they're just stray Mimic Tears.
- The set of armor that is shown on the game's cover art is not obtainable as it is. The form it does come in is the Fingerprint Set. It makes sense when you realize it is never intended to portray the Player Tarnished. It is, in truth, Vyke, the character closest to becoming the Elden Lord and thus a perfect representation of a Tarnished vying for the title. Given that we only meet this character after their fall from grace, it's logical that we start the game too late to obtain the armor as it looks in the cover art.
- Why did Morgott even bother to disguise himself as Margit and block the path to Godrick? Because he knows that Godrick is the weakest link of the demigods bearing Great Runes, so he places himself as an additional roadblock to Tarnished trying to get a Great Rune. Any Tarnished trying to gain power can and will eventually become a problem for Morgott, so it serves his purposes to split his attention between the capital and Godrick's castle.
- While in past Souls games you could create some bizarre and hideous abominations in the character creation menu, in this game it's a bit more justified. Grotesque creatures like Omens, Margit, Blaidd, and Master Hewg exist, along with Body Horror monstrosities like the Grafted. You can easily justify the player Tarnished as having an outlandish and malformed figure with such beings existing alongside them. Indeed, compared with the nightmarish beings we encounter regularly in the Lands Between, a Tarnished with a grotesque face won't raise any eyebrows at all.
- Scarlet Rot is a very effective form of cheese for Radahn in his boss fight, often being strong enough that it can chew through his health and only needs to be applied twice (it's cleared during his phase transition) during the fight. This makes a lot of sense, since it's basically speeding up his affliction with it.
- Maliketh managed to defeat the Gloam-Eyed Queen and her Godskin cult at the height of their power (while Destined Death was still with them and unbound), despite being Marika's half-brother and thus a divine entity who is vulnerable to their Godslayer Black Flames. This might seem odd until one pays attention to Maliketh's skillset; Bestial Incantations, which mainly conjure and manipulate stones of the earth for offense and defense. Destined Death may be one of the most lethal essences in the entire setting and capable of killing immortals, undeads, and gods alike... but it is not as terribly effective on inanimate rocks, and proven by how Maliketh sealed it into his Black Blade, which appears to be made out of obsidian.
- Maliketh also has an incredibly acrobatic and agile fighting style, rivalling Malenia. Such an evasive way of fighting would be necessary if you're going up against foes wielding unbound Black Flame, as taking a single hit would be fatal.
- Radahn's swords have an engraving of a magnetic field around a globe. Fitting for a demigod who protects his world from the influence of the stars, just like a planet's magnetic field that catches and redirects charged particles from space.
- It doesn't become apparent until you have obtained all the maps in the game, but the Lands Between geographically looks like a (deformed) curled finger: the Mountaintop of the Giants forms the knuckle, Liurnia the middle section, and the northernmost part of the Dragonbarrow, the Bestial Sanctum, the tip of the finger.
- The final boss being a Sequential Boss seems strange, as it's the only fight of its type in the game. You have to fight Radagon and the Elden Beast back-to-back with no room for restoration, and Radagon respawns if you kill him but lose to the Beast. Why are they treated as a single boss? Pay attention to the black smoke and miniature Elden Ring coursing through Radagon's body. It exits his corpse when he dies, materializing into the Beast. He was a puppet. You weren't actually fighting Radagon; the whole battle is a two-phase fight against the Elden Beast.
- The final boss's phase transition cutscene completely recontextualizes the first trailer and the entire game, yet in the most simple way possible. The Elden Beast is the Elden Ring, and it's conscious. Marika shattering the Ring wasn't her attempt to cause a war or screw over reality. It was, very straightforwardly, Marika trying to kill the Beast while it was in a vulnerable form, secure in the knowledge that if she failed, the demigods and Tarnished would pick up where she left off, and have an easier time of it for the effort.
- If you look at the dome of branches over the Aeonia Swamp from a distance, you may recognize its shape — it's a dried out Scarlet Aeonia bloom, the aftermath of Malenia's fight against Radahn.
- Blackguard Boggart's taste in prawn. This is actually a bit of Truth in Television. In olden times, shellfish (like prawn and lobster) was considered food of the lowest class (prisoners, beggars, etc.). Boggart, being a criminal, likely developed his taste for prawn while serving his prison sentence. Also, his Secret Test of Character when you buy/eat some of his prawn, and Boggart proclaims that he can trust someone who likes prawn. By showing a taste for it, you are showing that you do not consider yourself better than he is.
- An extremely subtle one: The Elden Throne set before the Erdtree in Leyndell is the same one the player character sits on in the Elden Lord ending... except it looks smaller there than in-game, and the player character is able to sit on it like a normal throne. Why is that? Because upon becoming Elden Lord, your character got bigger, fitting the Large and in Charge logic of the game!
- Or they just had a new chair made. Your character's proportions don't change (all the actually inhumanly tall characters have fitting proportions, e.g. long limbs and small heads) and it's extremely unlikely the original Elden Throne survived the Godfrey fight. Especially since one of his scripted phase-change attacks is a massive shockwave that covers the entire arena (and unavoidably destroys the chair), and he'll proceed to spam similarly-sized shockwaves the entire rest of the fight.
- The second stage of Rennala's fight is actually an illusion created by Ranni, and the summons used in the fight reflect the people who work for her: a beast-like knight (and Dummied Out content reveals that she was originally able to summon Blaidd himself before it was changed), a troll, and a dragon; notably, Seluvis is not present because he's a backstabbing creep who Ranni neither likes nor trusts. Rather humorously, the summons include the wolves just outside her tower, implying Ranni literally sees him as lesser than the animals. Alternatively, it could simply be because Seluvis is a sorcerer and Rennala herself fills that niche far better than he ever could.
- The steadily increasing lethality of the conventional armies of each demigod isn't just for gameplay reasons. There's in-universe reasons why each army gets more and more dangerous.
- Godrick's soldiers are the weakest and worst-trained, and also fewest in number. Not only is he the weakest demigod overall, he rules over a region that is almost entirely wilderness, and the only area outside of Stormveil with any population is the Weeping Peninsula, and that has fallen into chaos with the Misbegotten uprising. He's forced to rely on exiles, prisoners, and banished knights to make up his numbers, and none of them have the discipline or equipment to really contest the other factions. His forces are made even less effective due to the thorny corruption that has afflicted Stormveil Castle, which has damaged the castle's defenses (massive holes in its walls and foundations) and affected his soldiery (many of his forces in the castle have holes in their limbs and are covered in thorns). Godrick only holds his territory because none of the other demigods wanted it; it's relatively worthless at the present time in spite of its size, and its sheer distance from the Erdtree makes it even more undesirable.
- The Cuckoos in Liurnia of the Lakes are better trained and far better equipped, but the civil war with the sorcerers of Raya Lucaria has caused them to suffer heavy attrition. The nonstop fighting between the Raya Lucaria sorcerers and the Carian Royals means that the Cuckoos are still being ground down despite the region having avoided the worst of the Shattering.
- The Redmanes are hardened, tough veterans who have survived the endless struggle of surviving in Caelid. However, the exact same struggle in Caelid has also been inevitably grinding them down as well. While one of the most experienced and organized armies of the Lands Between, the Redmanes just don't have the numbers to do anything more than holding their positions and try to hold back the Rot, which is a full-time job.
- The Leyndell soldiers in general are the best equipped and organized of the remaining conventional armies, and this is a shadow of the former power of Morgott's army after the siege of Volcano Manor. As the forces of the capital city itself and the more prosperous area of the Lands Between, even the shattered remnants of Leyndell's army would be a fearsome foe.
- The only Lordsworn troops are the Leyndell faction, who are both hardened veterans of the Siege of Mt. Gelmir and occasionally Frenzied. The rest of the land is occupied by whatever monsters were tough enough to survive in the Death World of Mt. Gelmir. This is in keeping with Rykard's selfishness and 'survival of the fittest' mentality; Rykard's only "subjects" are those powerful enough to survive despite him, the God-Devouring Serpent devoured its own, the Taker took his fellow Demigod's soldiers for his own defense (since they attack anyone entering Mt. Gelmir who isn't part of their faction), and the whole fief has met the wretched end Bernahl predicted.
- Mohg has no organized army and instead makes do with a ragtag bunch of Albinaurics and Bloody Fingers, with mutated wildlife for support. He was never accepted as a Lord and so has no Lordsworn, instead only gathering together a bunch of outcasts and psychos like himself. However, because Mohg was no lord and so had no stake in the Shattering, said Ragtag Bunch of Misfits have suffered no Mook Depletion and are at the top of their game, backed up by the Formless Mother's support and Mohg recruiting from handpicked invaders who demonstrated enough skill and bloodthirst.
- The soldiers of the Haligtree are the best in terms of individual equipment and skill, especially due to having been led by Miquella and Melenia. The Haligtree is a relatively safe location, only accessible by first getting through Leyndell, which they seem to be on friendly or at least non-hostile terms. They also have fearsome monsters and nonhumans in support, and coupled with their isolation they haven't suffered as much as the other armies and thus are well-suited to making the Tarnished player's life hell. On top of that, proximity to both the Erdtree and the Haligtree (and Miquella's power, even after his kidnapping) means that the local population is far healthier than it would be further south or west.
- It might feel weird that Morgott, despite mentioning by name every other Demigod (including Godrick), specifically doesn't mention Mohg despite being his twin; but it actually makes sense in the context of the cutscene: He's mentioning every Demigod who was supposed to rule the Lands Between and had literal seats of power in Leyndell, but betrayed that role in favour of waging war. Mohg fits neither category; he hasn't waged any war yet (he just sponsors the Bloody Fingers and kidnapped Miquella, and Morgott might not know about either of these), and he was always outside the Golden Order as an Omen, so even if he did oppose it, it wasn't a betrayal because he never owed it loyalty in the first place.
- Despite allowing you to ally yourself with very explicitly villainous factions, the Dung Eater, the Recusants of Volcano Manor, the Bloody Fingers and the Frenzied Flame, only two of them have endings associated with them while the others you'll eventually betray as part of their questlines, but the reasons why are backed up in the story:
- For Volcano Manor, there is simply no upside for the player character Tarnished to see Rykard's vision through to the end. Even in the case of the Lord of Frenzied Flame and Blessing of Despair endings, the Tarnished gains a position of power (as the avatar of chaos and Elden Lord of the damned and cursed respectively), while their destiny for siding with Volcano Manor is just getting devoured by Rykard and becoming a part of him. Even if a Tarnished wants to destroy the world and devour the gods, Rykard's methods are less than ideal for them on a personal level and are not guaranteed to even work.
- For Mohg and the Bloody Fingers, the reason is very simple: it's an impossible ending to achieve. So long as Miquella is still "sleeping" in his cocoon (i.e. dead or close to it), Mohg can't become a true Lord of Blood and bring about the dynasty he so desperately wants. A few of the item descriptions associated with them makes mention of the "inevitability" of their reign, such as the Bloodrose, ("Glory to [The Lord of Blood]'s inevitable reign.") and the Pureblood Knight's Medal ("Be Patient. The new dynasty is nigh."), but it's actually just the game being subtly tongue-in-cheek: that moment can't and will never come, Mohg and his cult are just delusional madmen destined to wait forever.
- And on top of that, in Mohg's own Remembrance it says that he "received no response from the young Empyrean" despite his best efforts to rejuvenate him and break his curse. Whatever part of Miquella is still alive wants absolutely nothing to do with the Mohgwyn Dynasty and is completely ghosting the guy. So yeah, it's an impossible outcome because the crux of Mohg's plan, his kidnapped and unwilling consort, is totally outside of his control. Even if the Tarnished wanted to help Mohg for whatever reason, there is basically no way for them to convince Miquella to aid the would-be "Lord of Blood" after everything he's done to Miquella and by extension Malenia.
- Another interesting thing about Mohg is that there are no Oracle Envoys in Mohgwyn Palace. Oracle Envoys appear to herald the dawn of a new age, and as such are found in places where the status quo can definitely be changed. They're mostly found in Leyndell, because you're going to usher in a new age by winning the game. They're also found in the Haligtree, presumably because Miquella's plan could have easily worked if Mohg didn't ruin it. Mogh is trying to create a new age under a different Outer God, much like Ranni (she's represented by the Oracle Envoys in Leyndell), but there are no Oracle Envoys, implying that his new age will never happen.
- And as of the DLC trailer arrival, it seems that the DLC will center around retrieving Miquella from the Land of Shadow, and the access point is Miquella's cocoon. Since Mohg guards the cocoon and you can't get near it until afterwards, Mogh will probably never live to see Miquella's rebirth.
- After the climactic moment at the Mountaintops of the Giants and Melina sacrificing herself to awaken the Flame of Ruin, the last-minute excursion to Farum Azula to unleash Destined Death felt a bit... out of place for some players, specifically for the fact that you're never, ever explicitly explained why you need BOTH Destined Death and the Flame of Ruin unleashed to burn the Erdtree. While this can be hand-waved away by simply stating that Destined Death unleashed can weaken the Erdtree, there is another far subtler, far simpler explanation: in the cutscene after Maliketh is defeated and Destined Death itself appears physically, you can notice it at first simply oozes dark fog and glows a faint red - but when the Tarnished touches it, the Rune suddenly burns and spews blood-red flames mixed with black fog. Those flames are not apart of Destined Death, you're infusing the Flame of Ruin with Death, that's why it's able to finally bypass the Erdtree's invincibility!
- In a related fashion, why does Enia the Finger Reader die immediately after unleashing Destined Death and burning the Erdtree? There are two ways to look at it: either Enia is linked to the Erdtree spiritually, and so its burning affects her as well, though this has no real proof in-game, or unleashing Destined Death has returned 'proper death' into the world as a whole... which means Enia, who is likely hundreds if not thousands of years old, just died of old age.
- Two out of the three types of butterflies appearing in the game are symbolically connected to Marika's children with Radagon: Malenia with the Aeonia Butterfly, infected with scarlet rot, and Miquella with the Nascent Butterfly, a butterfly stuck in stasis and unable to fully grow after being emerging from its cocoon. However, there is one final butterfly that isn't evidently connected: the Smoldering Butterfly, forever burning. Untill you realize that Melina has reddish hair, a name fitting the scheme of Marika and Radagon's children, and her role was to burn herself at the Forge of the Giants, and she says that her mother lives in the Erdtree...
- Radahn's Meteor Move has him set alight even though he's visibly moving far too slowly for orbital reentry. At first this may seem like simple Rule of Cool, and hardly uncommon for anime-style action. But recall that a lot of his soldiers are capable of using fire magic,note with their signature Ash of War (Flame of the Redmanes) being a conical fire blast. And if you try to block his meteor attack with a 100% physical negation shield, you'll still lose health - because the attack deals fire damage. It also ends in a unique bright, firey explosion rather than the usual purely physical shockwaves that happen when other characters simply hit the ground really hard, e.g. the Troll's Dynamic Entry at the Gatefront Ruins, nor is the singular meteor we see hit the land when he dies wreathed in flame like he is despite going faster. The obvious conclusion: he isn't achieving orbital reentry, that literally is a fire spell.
- Or it's both. He's slowing himself down so he can survive re-entry and casting a fire spell around himself.
- Enemies generally get stronger and drop larger rune quantities the further north and east you travel. Aside from their training and attrition (detailed above), there are other reasons for this.
- Cut dialogue from an unused NPC named Shanehaight in Leyndell indicates that proximity to the Erdtree makes one healthier and stronger; he uses this as part of his justification for why a Tarnished, who grew up far from it, are not worthy of being in his presence. Enemies become even more powerful beyond Leyndell, because not only are you ascending higher and thus getting even closer to the Erdtree's golden light, but you're also getting closer to Miquella's Haligtree and its power as well. The Consecrated Snowfield is bathed by both the Erdtree and the Haligtree, and thus everything native to that area is vastly stronger than the rest of the surface areas of the Lands Between. Even the vestiges of Miquella's power left in the rotting Haligtree are immensely powerful. It's no surprise that some of the toughest enemies in the game live either on or inside the Haligtree.
- There's minor flavor text on the Smithing Stone descriptions that basically just say that they strengthen weapons, and that higher-level versions are mined from different regions: tiers 1-4 are "found in plenty throughout the Lands Between" and are brownish grey, 5-6 are "larger rare specimen[s] tinged with gold... mined near the foot of the Erdtree" and are brownish gold, and 7-8 are "found in the polar regions... semi-vitrified" and are blueish white. So basically the magical strengthening effect of the stones is more powerful with ones mined in the northern regions (Gelmir, Altus-Leyndell, Mountaintops-Haligtree) than the southern ones (Liurnia, Limgrave, Caelid). This seems more or less meaningless until you realize that the game follows a south-north progression, and all the enemies are clearly using the same smithing stones that you are (they're often found in bases or chests and all soldiers drop them, as do many quests NPCs and bosses); the different text and colors are there to partially explain why enemies in the later regions have so much more health and damage than enemies of the same type in earlier ones.note They have better equipment, just like you. The increase magic influence in said regions probably plays a part in the stones being so potent.
- Two other high-end late-game areas, Mohgwyn Palace and Farum Azula, have powerful inhabitants as well. Moghwyn Palace is not a naturally populous region (it seems to have been abandoned for centuries by the time Mohg found it), but rather everyone there was deliberately recruited by Mohg for his murderous cult of invaders, so you've got to be tough to earn an invite. Anyone who isn't specifically invited has to come through the teleporter in the Consecrated Snowfields, which itself is a Brutal Bonus Level. The creatures of Farum Azula are not only in a place locked out of time but are in proximity to both Placidusax and Destined Death. The beastmen, knights, and other denizens of Farum Azula would already be powerful due to being selected to protect one of the most dangerous and potent dragons in history even without being fueled by proximity to such magical strength.
- The inverse also explains why Limgrave's inhabitants are the weakest and why the Weeping Peninsula is roughly the same difficulty as Limgrave. The distance from the Erdtree means that the people and monsters in the region wouldn't be as healthy as the ones closer to the Erdtree.
- Caelid at first seems to be an exception, as its human enemies are stronger than the ones in Limgrave (but not Altus Plateau or the Mountaintops/Haligtree) despite its populated bits being equally as distant from the Erdtree. But this is actually explained in the Redmane Knight Armor item (with even clearer wording in Japanese): most (possibly all) of the soldiers in Caelid aren't from Caelid. They specifically refer to it as far from their actual home, which was presumably Liurnia (going by the fact that Iji smithed their weapons in the past), and their leader has the title of shogun (historically used to refer to an expeditionary commander).note They probably grew up and trained there (and so did their dogs, trolls, lions, slaves, etc.), and lo and behold, they have nigh-identical stats to the human enemies in Liurnia as a result (they're slightly tougher, which likely just reflects better training and more battle experience). Meanwhile the other enemies like the giant dogs and crows are at their weakest in Caelid, as the ones in the Mountaintops would've been born and bred closer to the setting's main source of vitality (they also aren't rotting to death). Also, Maliketh isn't from Caelid, so nor should all of his followers in Dragonbarrow like the Vulgar Militia and Black Blade Kindred. There's a reason many characters refer to it as "the Caelid Wilds" even before it was rotted.
- The people and creatures on Mt Gelmir are roughly as powerful as those in Leyndell despite being further from the two great trees. But like those inhabiting Moghwyn Palace, they have another source of power: the God-Devouring Serpent. On top of that, the brutal wilderness and harsh landscape of the mountain, along with the extreme ruthlessness and might-makes-right philosophy of Volcano Manor's inhabitants means that only the strongest will survive living there. There might not be a lot of inhabitants of the volcano, and they might not have as much of the Erdtree's light to grow strong, but the sheer brutality of living there means the ones that do survive will be the toughest and meanest.
- This also applies to the Tarnished. The reason they start off so weak even if they're a veteran knight or skilled warrior is because they have lived all their life away from the Lands Between and the Erdtree. This may also explain why the Confessor has the highest level of all the starting classes, as they were a direct agent of the Golden Order and thus may have gotten a small amount of the Erdtree's power directly over their lifetime.
- Tying into the above, there's a reason why Godrick's army, despite being the weakest per-man, is still sizable (the second biggest of the shardbearers, Space Compression aside) even after being repelled in their siege of Leyndell and then utterly drubbed by Malenia's army. If you look at Limgrave, Stormveil, and the Weeping Peninsula, the territory that Godrick controls is massive; in sheer area it's the largest controlled by any shardbearer. While most of it is ruins in the present day like the rest of the Lands Between, Godrick's holdings likely had a much larger population and a lot more farmland than any area short of Leyndell itself before the Shattering. In the present day the region has a lot of fortifications, towers, and a significant number of civilians, even if Godrick's army is disorganized dregs and mercenaries. The Tree-and-Beast Surcoat item, as well as Godrick referring to Leyndell as "our home", also indicates that he had a recruiting base in Altus Plateau on top of the lands he actually ruled in Limgrave/Weeping Peninsula. He doesn't have powerful troops, special weapons, or magic, but what he did have was a huge population and farmland to provide the numbers needed to match other shardbearers.
- Miquella's affliction might not be an incapacity of growing up per se, but an inability to decay in any way; after all, aging is just the natural process of the cells multiplying and dying. Despite being born alongside Malenia, and the implications that the scarlet rot has been infecting her since birth, Miquella seems to be immune to it, and what is rot but acceleration of the decay process of the body cells, affecting not only the flesh and bones, but also the blood and even the brain as it eats away as the memories; Miquella being a prodigy on intellectual fields, like Fundamentalism and even artificy, could be because his neurons are incapable of decaying so his mind is literally forever fresh and able of recollecting and remembering information. It seems that, once he passed a certain age, Miquella's body either no longer was able to decay, or thanks to his association with abundance his body regenerates faster than it decay, healing him out of the aging process. Miquella really is Cursed with Awesome.
- Gold is the most recurrent color in the game, this is because it's directly associated with the Erdtree, the Golden Order and the Greater Will. Gold is good, gold is just, gold is the color of gods, heroes and champions. Do you know what else is gold? The Frenzied Flame. More accurately, it's a sickening yellow. This is almost certainly intentional, because the Caravan who either summoned or created the Frenzied Flame from their suffering were oppressed by the Golden Order. When the Players becomes Lord of Chaos their eyes become a burning yellow, similar to how demigods and extremely powerful Golden Order champions have golden eyes. One lord creates and the other destroys. Whatever entity creates Frenzied Flame is associated with yellow as a parody. It's very existence is a mockery of the Golden Order and a big "Screw You" to the Greater Will.
- Furthermore, Elden Ring isn't the first setting to associate yellow with eldritch horror, primordial evil, and insanity. The Caravan isn't just heretics, they're Hastur cultists!
- The Greater Will being associated with gold also explains the Tarnished: gold is capable of tarnish when it's alloyed with other metals, like silver and copper. The cult of dragons is associated with red gold (copper), and the Tarnished were deprived of their grace just after Radagon's marriage to Rennala (who's associated with silver).
- For an empyrean to ascend to godhood, it seems imperative they have a Lord to be married (or engaged) to. But how and why was Godfrey rebuked as Marika's consort? The lore says Godfrey lost his grace the moment the last opponent to Marika's rule was dealt with; what if it wasn't much Godfrey losing the thrill of battle, but Marika no longer having any use for a warrior at her side? After all, a crown won by strength has no place during peace times, and after the age of plenty was over, Marika needed a Lord who championed faith in the erdtree and research of its secrets. And at the end of the game, the playable tarnished is the only one with the runes needed to mend the Elden Ring, bringing a new change to the system.
- Marika needing to marry her other, more faithful, self when she was starting to get her own doubts can be seen as her attempts at remaining steadfast in her believes.
- The only other empyrean who gets a consort in the game is Ranni; the only way to get married to her is following her lead to the end, proving that you believe in her and her vision, no matter how many questionable things she did or has you made for her, and after she's explicitly released you from her service so you aren't obligated in any way to help out.
- As far as we're shown, Malenia and Miquella are the only other two empyreans without a shadow, but it's understandable once you think further: Malenia already lost three limbs by the time her brother invented unalloyed gold, so her shadow might've already succumbed to the scarlet rot. Miquella's entire plan for the Haligtree is to be a improved version of the Erdtree, and the Greater Will might not have looked kindly upon this heresy; Malenia might've decided to become Miquella's protector after she put his shadow down herself in order to keep it from killing her brother, since shadows are both protectors and potential slayers to their empyreans should they stray from the Greater Will's path for them.
- This answer is actually hidden in plain sight in-game. Ranni tells you that she and the twins had their own sets of Fingers. Malenia and Miquella's Two Fingers are the ones at the Isolated Divine Tower where you activate Malenia's Great Rune. Those Two Fingers are dead and clearly have been for a long time, and the Haligtree is full of Ancient Dragon Smithing Stones, which can craft "a weapon capable of slaying a god" (flower-Malenia also personally gives one as a quest reward). The twins seemed to have opened the war having already completed the goal Ranni is currently pursuing; slaying their own Two Fingers, almost certainly followed by the Two Fingers making their Shadows go berserk (as Blaidd does immediately after Ranni's Two Fingers are killed), after which the shadows would be easily disposed of by Malenia. Further supporting this is that there notably aren't any dead Fingers at Ranni's Divine Tower... because she explicitly only kills them at the end of her quest, underground. Incidentally this also explains why the Two Fingers in the Roundtable Hold despise the demigods so much and insist to the player Tarnished that they all must die (the Fingers claim it's because the Greater Will wants it, but the thorn reveal indicates they haven't even "spoken" to the Greater Will in countless years).
- This would also explain how Ranni even knows such thing as slaying an empyrean's Two Fingers is possible and how Iji knows what would happen to a shadow if such thing happened, and thus grew cautious about Blaidd's destiny and trapped him in an evergaol as a precaution. They learnt from the twins' previous endeavours.
- This is a bit muddied by the existence of the Fingerslayer Blade, because if all you need to slay the Two Fingers was an Ancient Dragon Smithing Stone, then that devalues the creation of the Fingerslayer Blade and probably means that there should be a lot more people stuck underground with the Nox, since even Gostoc can get ahold of one. It's also possible that the Nox who originally made the Fingerslayer Blade went and tested it out on some Two Fingers, which is what prompted the Greater Will to notice and retaliate.
- This answer is actually hidden in plain sight in-game. Ranni tells you that she and the twins had their own sets of Fingers. Malenia and Miquella's Two Fingers are the ones at the Isolated Divine Tower where you activate Malenia's Great Rune. Those Two Fingers are dead and clearly have been for a long time, and the Haligtree is full of Ancient Dragon Smithing Stones, which can craft "a weapon capable of slaying a god" (flower-Malenia also personally gives one as a quest reward). The twins seemed to have opened the war having already completed the goal Ranni is currently pursuing; slaying their own Two Fingers, almost certainly followed by the Two Fingers making their Shadows go berserk (as Blaidd does immediately after Ranni's Two Fingers are killed), after which the shadows would be easily disposed of by Malenia. Further supporting this is that there notably aren't any dead Fingers at Ranni's Divine Tower... because she explicitly only kills them at the end of her quest, underground. Incidentally this also explains why the Two Fingers in the Roundtable Hold despise the demigods so much and insist to the player Tarnished that they all must die (the Fingers claim it's because the Greater Will wants it, but the thorn reveal indicates they haven't even "spoken" to the Greater Will in countless years).
- As noticed in their character page, Malenia, Mogh and Rykard are the only demigods who don't speak in Elizabethan English. note What do all of them have in common? They've been influenced by an outer god to the point it became a part of themselves; Malenia's speech pattern might've changed after her first blooming turned her into the avatar of the rot god, Mogh (while not an avatar) has been serving the formless mother since his time in the sewers and she has blessed his very blood, and Rykard and the blasphemous serpent have literally become one.
- Malenia is also the youngest shardbearer and Rykard does speak archaically in his (very few) Japanese lines, so it seems that's more just a reflection of their ages. Mohg's the exception since he was raised in a sewer.
- Godfrey and Malenia are the only bosses to respect you, both giving you compliments when they lose and saying that you're worthy of the throne.note This might seem a bit weird considering their high statuses and the fact that Tarnished are scorned in their kingdom (other characters like Morgott and Gideon say that no Tarnished should ever be lord), but even putting aside their personalities in general, they each have a specific reason to lack that typical prejudice. For Godfrey it's obvious; he was the Monster Progenitor of your kind, and a Tarnished himself, so he knows full well how strong you can be. But Malenia's requires a bit of investigation, namely connecting the descriptions of the Prosthesis-Wearer Heirloom, Curved Sword Talisman, Blue Cloth Set, and Warrior background choice. In short: Malenia doesn't look down on Tarnished because her sword tutor was a Tarnished too.note
- Not only that, but Malenia's entire deal is being a phenomenal warrior in spite of her status as a triple amputee with a horrible space disease. There's no one she'd respect more than a person, Tarnished or otherwise, who could rise to the occasion and defeat her.
- Despite its gameplay mechanic of purging any status ailment including the Scarlet Rot, it seems that lore-wise the Law of Regression was incapable of curing Malenia despite Miquella's immense intelligence not being an obstacle for him in order to perform it, and his Discus of Light and Triple Rings incantations give away that he was versed in the Fundamentalism's Laws of Causality and Regression so such knowledge wasn't kept from him neither. This is because the Law of Regression doesn't "purge" ailments per se, but actually returns the body to a previous state of being when it wasn't affected by the offending condition; Malenia was not only born with the rot, but it's also the manifestation of an outer god, so the only ways the incantation might work for her would either regress Malenia to non-birth or somehow regress the god of rot to nonexistance.
- The truth of the Golden Order is represented by a pose shaped like a T. However, when Goldmask, who is learning the truth of the order, does the poses, he only poses with one hand. Why is this? Because at first, he has only half of the equation (he knows about Marika, but not Radagon). Once he learns that, he is considering Radagon.
- Look at how the three Mending Runes apply themselves upon the Elden Ring if they are used:
- The Mending Rune of Perfect Order surrounds the Elden Ring in a full circle, symbolizing Goldmask's nature of protecting the order and stability of the ring from the fickle nature of Marika and gods like her. It doesn't change anything about the rune itself, which might explain why the rune is "discovered" rather than gestated.
- The Mending Rune of the Full Curse scabs over and overrides part of the Elden Ring, not only covering it like the infection the Fell Curse is, but denying other aspects the rune previously provided.
- The Mending Rune of the Death-Prince attaches itself to the bottom of the ring, introducing an entirely new concept, but leaving the current order otherwise unchanged.
- Godrick's throne in Leyndell is set somewhat away from the others, about the space it'd take to fit one extra throne. While the only explanation available with the main game is Godrick being that much of a Butt-Monkey, the DLC gives a better option: That space was originally Messmer's throne. When whatever happened to get him in the Land of Shadow happened, it was removed along with the implied erasure of all mention of him from history.
- Morgott's combat style and how it changes throughout the game shows him re-evaluating the Tarnished's threat level: When he's fought as Margit in Stormveil, his first phase has him fight in a deadly, but slow and deliberate as if he's still evaluating or underestimating your strength. Once you hit his second phase he acknowledges your skill and brings out the big guns, becoming faster as a result. When he fights you again as Margit and ambushes you just outside Leyndell he'll already take you seriously and start in phase 2 - however he's still limited by being an apparition and thus is exactly as strong as in Stormveil. Once you reach Leyndell and his identity as Morgott is revealed and are literally seconds from reaching the Erdtree, he decides that you're too much of a threat and reaches the Godzilla Threshold, not only bringing out much stronger holy firepower and a faster moveset, but breaking his cane to reveal the cursed sword underneath - a sword that, as the intro shows, he didn't even use against Radahn. Once you make him hit half health and cause him to flood the throne room with his cursed blood, he goes completely berserk and throws himself at you with 100% of his strength, fighting like a cornered and very angry animal, becoming one of the most aggressive bosses in the whole game.
- It's made rather evident throughout the game that the reason why the player Tarnished can resurrect and other Tarnished cannot is because other Tarnished have lost the Guidance of Grace for one reason or another - but why is it that Godfrey, THE Tarnished and the strongest man in the world, literally a walk away from becoming Elden Lord, does not resurrect? While this can be chalked up to Gameplay and Story Segregation, a reason can be found on his final words: He acknowledges that since you bested him, you are deserving of the crown. He loses his ambition in his dying moments, which means he wasn't worthy of Grace and causing him to die permanently.
Fridge Horror
- Radahn casting a gravity well over Lands Between to block shooting stars and light from distant stars from reaching the realm sounds like a good idea to protect the land... until one realizes they accumulate over time unless Radahn redirects them to move away from the planet. Given he does not do so (most likely due to the Scarlet Rot destroying most of his mind), all he effectively does is gather an increasing amount of space debris and when he inevitably falls, they all fall en masse as a meteor shower, causing more damage to the Lands Between and the world at large than they would ever have when allowed to fall naturally. His last act to protect the world may have effectively doomed it due to all the Voidborn that will land all at once.
- There is a problem though. What happens when a new shooting star collides with an already caught one? Unless Radahn intentionally slows each one down and/or leaves spaces for new ones to be caught, the unlucky ones caught first might be constantly bombarded with everyone that comes next. This would still result in a meteor shower but the inevitable collisions may fragment anything caught. Thus a ton of smaller rocks rather than less but bigger ones. Also, being stopped in mid air means whatever previous speed and kinetic energy is gone. It’s going to come down hard but only with the speed of meteors their size dropping from that point, without the previous speed they had on top. Finally, how would trapped Voidborn interact in an inevitable collision? Would they get along, eat each other or otherwise fight? At least some might get hurt thanks to the next guy crashing into them. While having them appear all at once can be argued to be worse than one at a time, there’s some possibility that everyone caught together won’t be in their best state.
- It doesn't become obvious until a re-watch, but the images of the famed Tarnished shown in the introduction cutscene show the exact point they're revived by Grace. Now consider when the Dung Eater was revived: after being hanged publicly. So now the Dung Eater is revived, after being presumed dead, in front of a crowd of defenseless people. Friendly reminder that this is a man that is canonically described as having killed and defiled thousands.
- To ease things a little, at least he wouldn't have had a weapon and would have had to free himself from the noose before he could do anything. So people would have had some time to at least run away.
- Staying with the Dung Eater, his namesake habits primarily seem designed to invoke revulsion at his habit of consuming filth. But consider it from a Japanese perspective — shirikodama are mythical balls that contain people's souls... and it's contained within the anus. By indulging in his disgusting habit, the Dung Eater is literally eating the souls of his victims and binding them to himself to corrupt them and separate them from the Erdtree.
- Just who the hell did Godfrey and his army fight during the Long March? We're given almost no information on that battle other than it took place in a place outside the Lands Between, possibly the Badlands, and most importantly Godfrey and his army actually struggled in that fight, managing to break the former Elden Lord's signature axe, and possibly are the ones who killed him and hung him up on a tree as shown in the intro cutscene. Whoever, or whatever, they fought was powerful enough to give pause and possibly decimate the undefeated army who fought and won against the Fire Giants.
- The idea that there are people out there stronger than Godfrey is already freaky. Whether it was one man or an entire army, someone killed the strongest guy in the world, disemboweled him and hung him from a tree. It's a safe bet that whoever was still traveling with Hoarah Loux by that point was thoroughly demoralized.
- The Frenzied Flame seems to almost infect people who are suffering enough, like the soldiers in Mt Gelmir. Now consider the state of the Lands Between, full of people who are driven to insanity even before the Frenzied Flame by endless death and rebirth. How long is it before the Frenzied Flame infects everyone in the Lands Between? There’s a chance the Frenzied Flame could destroy the Lands Between even if you don’t become the Lord of Chaos.
- The Frenzied Flame's Giant Eye of Doom is thankfully only encountered once by the player, but look at the ones creating it — it's just a group of regular peasants infected by the Flame. There's no special ritual or item, no frenzied priest channeling them, thus implying any group of frenzied people could create one that would go a long way in rapidly spreading it to everyone in the area.
- ...Why the hell are eyeballs called grapes here, with the description outright saying they are eyes?
- The most likely answer is to prevent would-be Finger Maidens of the Three Fingers from abandoning their quest out of disgust. Lightseeker Hyetta only asks about them well into her quest, and has a minor BSOD if you tell her the truth. She continues regardless, but that could just as easily be her thinking she's gone too far to back out.
- The Greater Will really dislikes having his vassals harmed. The Nox were banished underground by the Greater Will itself for their attempted usurpation and wanting to harm it and its vassals - note wanting, it's not even known if they ever have killed a vassal with the Fingerslayer Blade before Ranni took it. What do you do at the end of the game, regardless of ending? Kill one of its prime vassals in the form of the Elden Beast. If the Greater Will ever reestablishes contact with the Lands Between, it's going to be very, very pissed.
- Malenia's body is still rotting, despite being covered in Unalloyed Gold wraps and prosthetics. There seems to be two possibilities here; either Unalloyed Gold is far from perfect and doesn't delay the effects forever or Malenia's "blessing" makes her particular case of Scarlet Rot so uniquely horrible that it's stronger than every known cure to the ailment. What supports the second conclusion is that Millicent was able to stop the Rot from spreading further and killing her with a single, patched-together needle, so there's no question that the substance worked. Maybe this is why Miquella was so obsessed with finding a way to cure his sister even though he had already invented a great workaround.
- She's rotting because she doesn't have a (complete) needle, only the unfinished one that she trades you for at the end of the quest. Millicent's entire quest was to return the unalloyed gold needle to her, which she accomplishes in the "good" ending (confirmed in the Future Press guide) via you giving it to Malenia's rebirth flower form, because doing so (in combination with the "dew" Millicent leaves on the needle) would, in the words of the needle's final description (itself quoting Millicent), restore Malenia to who she was. In other words, it would work for her the same way it worked for Millicent, who serves as a convenient demonstration of the point because she's literally younger Malenia's clone. Miquella was continuing his work even after inventing the needles simply because they "only" stopped the rot from advancing and thus allowed her body to heal and operate normally while it was in. What it didn't do was get rid of the rot entirely - as we can see, the core infection remains within Millicent even when the needle is inserted and she quickly loses whatever progress she made when she pulls it out, dying shortly after. The needle being singularly more effective than all the wraps, prosthetics, and armors made of the same material is simply due to its craftsmanship and precision compared to just wrapping gold on someone (Gowry calls the needles the work of "a true artisan, a meticulous, bold craftsman who grasps the essence of life") - you can confirm this from the fact that putting unalloyed gold armor on yourself won't do much to stop rot status from building up, and it won't push the status bar down at all. Out of universe, the needle is also obviously a reference to acupuncture (which, incidentally, was often done with gold needles among nobles), itself a common motif in eastern fantasy stories, so in its original cultural context it makes perfect sense that wearing armor made of a material is nowhere close to the same thing as having a needle inserted made of the same material.
- On that note, even with an explicitly-unfinished needle that's otherwise useless and wasn't working for Malenia herself, you're capable of entirely purging the Frenzied Flame from your body. Frenzyflame Stones no longer heal you (they heal all hosts of the Flame) and your Frenzy eyes go back to normal. What was the difference? You insert the needle in Placidusax's chamber, said to be "beyond time." The Ancient Dragon Smithing Stones are scales of Placidusax, and their description has something interesting to say about the issue: "A scale of the Ancient Dragonlord, and hidden treasure of Farum Azula... this stone lightly twists time, allowing the creation of a weapon capable of slaying a god." You aren't just healing yourself; you're using a very precisely tailored tool that's made not to harm you and stabbing the god inside you while sheathed in its Kryptonite Factor, killing it (at least, the portion of it in you). This even generates a unique spell glyph that is not seen or heard in the other two instances of a needle being inserted (with Millicent and Malenia), as if it'd finally reached its ultimate purpose. Note also what Hewg says when you integrate one of the Placidusax's scales and their "lightly twisted time" into a weapon:
Hewg: Oh, finally! It's complete! I've done it! A weapon to slay a god! Oh, you have my deepest gratitude.- Note that flower-Malenia also gives you one of said scales (along with the unfinished needle) in return for her repaired dew-covered needle, almost like she's hinting at what you should do if you want to use it (your character would otherwise have no way to connect the needle to Placidusax in-universe). If integration of twisted time into the needles is enough to truly purge an outer god from its host, then it also makes sense as to why you find so many Ancient Dragon Smithing Stones in the Haligtree and Snowfield - Miquella was trying to use them that way, but he got kidnapped before he could complete his work (integrating the scales into a delicate medicinal needle is likely a lot harder than doing so to a sword or axe with a smithing hammer, as Hewg does).
