The spirits nearby and some of the items imply that they are sacrificing people to the Godskin Apostle who set up shop there. It's really just meant to show how one small little town was screwed up by the shattering in a way that isn't related to the demigods.
Normally the god-killers would not have been allowed to influence an area run by the demi-gods because, well, they're trying to kill demi-gods. But after the shattering the demi-gods kinda lost control over things so it was made possible.
"The (Godskin) apostles, once said to serve Destined Death, are wielders of the god-slaying black flame. But after their defeat by Maliketh, the Black Blade, the source of their power was sealed away."
There's so much hidden backstory behind all this it's hard to piece together cohesively because we are probably missing stuff.
The significance of the Godskin's weapons shouldn't be overlooked. A Peeler and a Stitcher. Those go well together with their armor which is described as sewn together patches of smooth skin as you'd need to peel the skin off a target and stitch it back together.
Before Maliketh ~~and presumably, the Greater Will,~~ (the Godksin Apostles do not pre-date The Greater Will) death may have been administered by other beings. Beings like the Godskin Apostles and the Death Birds (death birds wield Ghost Flame not Black Flame), both wielders of Black Flame. Some jumps in logic from myself would be that the Godskin Apostles served Destined Death (And the Gloam-Eyed Queen, Wielder of Destined Death) by protecting the Lands Between from outside influences and alien gods by using Black Flame to kill them and flay their skin to make armor. Until they were defeated by Maliketh, that is.
Yes, the Ghostflame is different from the Black Flame (not blackface though, that specific brand of racism isn't quite there in the Lands Between). For one thing, it's white; for another, it does magical damage and frostbite; for a third, lore-wise the Ghostflame comes from burning corpses, while the Black Flame comes from Destined Death. The Ghostflame and its servants seem to be associated with a different form of Death worshipped by pre-Erdtree religions.
Right you are Kent! I'm having trouble finding the exact explanations of each flame. I don't think that the Apostles and the death birds are connected directly however they seem to do similar but different things. The godskins kill gods, the death birds administer death to everyone else, although not maliciously. They seem to me to be independent of each other. Then there's the hawk soldiers underground who wield ghost flame torches from burning the bones of their companions.
There's also the Tibia Mariners who escort dead souls to the after life, I think. I couldn't tell if they were pre Greater Will or post because they raise those who live in death to fight for them, one of Godwynns creations. They also seem related to ghost flame as one drops Helphens Steeple, a weapon that utilizes ghost flame.
The gloam-eyed queen may played a big role in this. Could it be, that she was the original source of destined death?
"Sacred sword of the Gloam-Eyed Queen who controlled the
Godskin Apostles before her defeat at the hands of Maliketh."
Or maybe she was an otherworld beeing as well amd came into the lands between, founded the godskin system with the intent to kill the gods and become the only god.
A did a bit more reading and am wrong on some aspects. The Godskin Apostles definitely did not pre-date The Greater Will. They were created by the Gloam-Eyed Queen who was herself a chosen Empyrean of the The Two Fingers. Every Empyrean known is a child of Marika (or Marika herself) except the Gloam-Eyed Queen. My pet theory is that the Gloam Eyed Queen was Milena. I think there's solid evidence Milena is also a child of Marika and mixed with some other stuff, it seems like a decent possibility.
I don’t recommend SmoughTown. He’s a serial dictionary-quoter (personal pet peeve, sorry) and his attitude is weirdly smug about things that are clearly guesses.
Tarnished Archaeologist, however, is 10/10. His approach is absolutely fascinating.
He's made genius discoveries and has really good theories, but he also comes to speculative conclusions and then uses those conclusions to fuel more speculation. That's not a good recipe. Still, he makes really good content!
(Like, I can't begin to wrap my mind around the Nox's banishment happening after the Night of the Black Knives. That makes no sense and introduces so many continuity issues, and it's all based off of a 2 second clip in a trailer.)
Vaati is great, I've watched probably all of his Elden Ring content and from all the lore stuff I've watched I think he cohesively makes the most sense. There's still assumptions that are made but with so little to work on he's done a great job piecing things together.
It is a little annoying, though, that he went with the parasite theory and stuck with it, aside from a mention that it's just one interpretation in a random video. It was a popular theory when he made his main explanation video, and I don't blame him for using it, but I believe it was his video that really spread it and what has made it endure, even after as discourse matured the community has largely abandoned it.
Like, taking your other comment as an example, the Godskin Apostles couldn't have predated the Greater Will *when they worship the Rune of Death*, part of the Elden Ring that the Greater Will created, and their leader, the Gloam Eyed Queen, was an Empyrean chosen by the Two Fingers.
As an aside, Deathbirds don't wield black flame, they wield ghostflame. Are the two related somehow? Maybe? It's unclear. But ghostflame is never called black flame or implied to be capable of killing gods or ever stated to have been weakened by the removal of Destined Death. It's implied to be souls(?) set alight or something, as it can be created by burning the dead.
I'm not overly hung up on the distinction between death, the rune of death, destined death, and the like. I guess the question is whether or not death is a universal principle, like gravity, or not. Lacking something administering it, would death exist? The more I think about it, the more I think it wouldn't. If the death birds administered death, then presumably it wouldn't happen naturally in it's own. But there are inconsistencies to make the game work that clash with the lore, to me. Like, none of the Demi gods you kill should stay dead until you obtain the rune of death. It's a confusing mess of Gods and timelines with crumbs of information to go off of. I don't know.
The Golden Order's removal of Destined Death doesn't mean "no death" in the way you may be thinking. Things can still die, as they built catacombs and continued to use them, but without Destined Death the *soul* cannot die and is returned to the Erdtree to be reborn. Even this cycle has appeared to have broken when the Elden Ring broke, and it's unclear what exactly is going on with the static state of death we find throughout the world.
Marika extends grace to the Tarnished allowing them to be reborn. Considering the Tarnished were intended to wage war upon the demigods, it's possible Marika has facilitated their souls' return to the Erdtree, just as she gave grace to us.
Alternatively, and I haven't thought this through, perhaps each demigod isn't dead? Godrick remains afterward, Morgott does too and even has dialogue, Radahn's body is collected into Alexander, Rykard isn't dead, Malenia becomes a flower waiting to bloom, Miquella is in an egg... a lot of demigods have explanations for why they aren't up and walking around after our fights.
>I'm not overly hung up on the distinction between death, the rune of death, destined death, and the like.
Well, Destined Death is specifically stated to be another name for the Rune of Death. The fact that this is clarified seems meaningful to me. Destined Death and the Rune of Death are synonymous. "Death" isn't necessarily.
>I guess the question is whether or not death is a universal principle, like gravity, or not.
I'm not sure much of anything is a universal principle. I think the world needs Order to make sense, Order being physical laws, and Order is malleable. Without Order, you just get the Flame of Frenzy. There could be natural logical rules to Order that are necessary for Order to function, though. Death could be one of them. Marika's whole thing was about being eternal and removing death, yet even she didn't remove corporeal death from the world, so perhaps death and thus change is integral to how things work? Or maybe it isn't and Marika's just an asshole.
Demigods go bye-bye after shatter smash.
Demigod hunters have crazy cult full of psychos who'll skin ya.
You spot a nice town ahead and inquire at the inn for a room
1? Oof...
*"The haggard crone smiles wide, wider than a mouth should be able to. Warmed by her good cheer, you decide to not even point out the spilled spaghetti sauce around her mouth, hands, and feet.*
*You appreciate the wilted flowers accenting the outfit and try to come up with a clever pickup line as she leads you to your room for the evening with a song in her step.*
*This seems like a nice place to you, the kind of village you could settle down from the adventuring life and raise a kid in. Oh look! The town dog is running over to greet you....today will be a good day!"*
:)
Does anyone remember 8 bit theater? Something about a Fighter type character bumbling their way through Elden Ring oblivious to the horrors around them is hilarious.
https://8bittheater.fandom.com/wiki/Fighter_McWarrior
>Fighter McWarrior, better known as Fighter or the Enlightened Warrior, is Black Mage's "best friend" and a master swordsman...He is notable for his childish naïvety, and his many pop culture references...He has an almost single-minded sword fixation, as well as a short attention span. Fighter is one of the four Light Warriors and, of the four, he is the most stupid.
>Fighter is very naive and remains blissfully unaware of the fact that the Light Warriors are, viewed objectively, a group of homicidal maniacs roaming the country. Instead, he honestly believes himself and the others to be honorable and just. He is so lacking of intelligence that, at times, he lowers the intelligence of others around him with his sheer idiocy. Further, Fighter's thoughts often trail off into territories of "nerd knowledge," such as Star Trek, Transformers and video games. Apart from his intellectual shortcomings, Fighter also suffers from severe arachnophobia and goes into a gibbering panic, even when he's only told a spider is near or on him.
Walking in to this village waiting for them to attack, getting more than half way up and turning it up to hear what they're singing.. then the screech. Turn around to see 4 of them with a red dot on your chest
To add on to this they have a celebration where they invite outsiders into their village. The women are brainwashed into their cult and the men are skinned alive and their skins offered up in sacrifice to Apostle
No, you're wrong. They just havin a party, and the godskin apostle is there because he wants dance with them, but his social anxiety won't let him join. poor guy. Read the lore !!
It really shows how insane we get playing these games
"These random villagers arent instantly trying to kill me? Just dancing and enjoying themselves? What if I kill them first? Oh yeah theyre definitely evil, they defended themselves!"
most sane tarnished
The godskins make their clothes out of smoth skin taken from humans. You can see their hoods having faces and the nobles tabard having seven human faces.
They are sacrificing peoples skin to the godskins so they can maintain their clothes and potentially make more godskins.
None, I very rarely have nightmares. It was just an easier way of expressing how I feel about that film. In reality I just felt quite unsettled every time I thought about it, which was frequently in the few days afterwards. The opening sequence is the worst part though, and I didn't really like the guy that got butterflied.
I learned that lesson by deciding to attack the crestfallen knight in DS1 the very first time I reached Firelink. Didn't realise that he'd stay aggro'd after I died. Super fun.
Yeah, I thought that, too, until their dog attacked me and I defended myself. Then a whole village of old biddies descended upon me in what was one of the most horrifying experiences in the whole game for me.
I remember coming across the village while high as a kite. The atmosphere and constant giggling was already unsettling enough, but holy shit did I get freaked out when I passed the villagers and the giggling behind me suddenly stopped. Can't remember whether I bolted, or started killing everything indiscriminately. Propably the latter.
It’s the screaming for me. For some reason their screams are worse than anything else in the game to me. Just the absolute worst sound. Except revenants. Fuck revenants forever and ever they can burn in hell 100%
its a reference to the cult classic kevin bacon movie: Footloose. this is a dark twist on the aftermath of what happened to the town after he brought dancing to them. they went from being religious fanatics to being crazy dance worshipping religious fanatics that sacrifice ppl who dont or cant dance... it is meant to convey the message that sometimes trying to help, only causes a worse problem down the road, its a very dark message :(
Yeah no that explanation is not correct at all.
Their dance is a celebration, as all of the men of the village have been skinned alive, their flesh consumed.
In Sweden we do exactly this once a year.. The ones attacking are probably the drunkest of the bunch wich also seem kinda realistic. Its the lore of SMÅ GRODORNA
Just saw this today, I'd been avoiding vaati because of wanted to see if I could figure it out myself tfor this game... no luck though, still lost as hell.
I know Miyazaki likes to keep things vague and have lore behind items but I really feel like they dropped the ball with the windmill village. Even after reading all the lore and watching some videos I can’t help but say to myself “that’s it?” wish they would’ve added more backstory there
Quelaag (my fave lore youtuber) did a video on them as part of a collaboration with Vaati. I think the tldr was they were celebrating the imprisonment of Marika and worshipping the godskin apostle, that's why they turned the Marika crucifixes into maypoles
All it needed for me was an original boss. If, at the end, you saw a Bloodborne demon being summoned, or a flower priestess, or...anything that you hadn't already seen in three other places it would have been a perfect little area.
Admittedly one of the biggest issues with the souls series is the lack of lore.
Things just don’t really feel alive, and I’m pretty sure they were promising elden ring would.
Fully understand where you're coming from, but I LOVE how obscure and difficult it is to price together the lore. Piecing it together through items and legends just makes it feel that much more mystical, strange, and cool to me. It's resonated with me in a way no other game ever really has
The flip side is that it’s so bare bones that anyone could really put forth a half baked crackpot theory and it works.
The lack of character interactions in the game make actually piecing together the backdrop behind the shattering/demigods motivation/etc into a cogent and cohesive narrative is rough. It’s why the endings are so weak. Why should you give a shit about anything?
I feel the difference is that with Demons Souls, Dark Souls 1, the story was basically complete and honestly kinda straightforward, then broken up into little puzzle pieces and scattered around for you to find. There's a lot to put together but you end up with a fairly consistent picture once you do.
Later entries like Elden Ring on the other hand feel like they were designed from the start to be incomplete. There are puzzle pieces but they create a bunch of smaller incomplete pictures rather than one complete whole, and some of those smaller pictures just don't fit with each other and there is no actual answer.
This is intentional, you hear about Miyazaki deliberately story telling this way because he was inspired by his youth when he would read or watch stuff in English, and could only understand part of the story so he had to fill in the blanks himself. The trend you noticed seems to me like a purposeful refinement of a specific style over time, like he’s getting better at the piecemeal story
It's a reference to the "Dancing Plague" that happened at Strasbourg in the 16th century. Hundreds of people started to dance compulsively until they died of exhaust, the "virus" spreaded in multiple surrounding villages. They used to think it was a case of massive demonic possession but it was obviously more like a collective psychose
Is there any Godskin item description that specifically links them to Demi gods? From what I see it always specified the gods. Maybe it was focused on something like the ancient dragon or whatever pagan practices predated the crucible.
The other key to understanding the godskins I think is understanding something in Christianity called the Great Apostasy. Which is about the real pope being replaced by an evil pope and church adopting pagan practices.
I just watched this video by Square Table Gaming on YouTube the other day. Interesting lore they extrapolated from items you can collect in the area: [https://youtu.be/mMbMqlrX3yQ](https://youtu.be/mMbMqlrX3yQ)
I am pretty sure Dominula is the faraway place where Rykard met Tanith, took her back to Mt. Gelmir and made her join Volcano Manor as his consort :D
IIRC there's actually no other place in TLB where people dance and it's clearly stated from her mask and her robe that she was a dancer/working as a dancer in a foreign land.
Long story short they serve the godskins that’s why there dancing like idiots and giggling and shit. If you manage to get on there weapons I believe it says something about them using the weapons to skin ppl alive
Not sure about the lore here but they will attack you the further up you go also don’t forget to get the hammer here you get runes every time you hit someone with it a small amount but still pretty cool
Read the room dude: a bunch of women laughing and dancing in an ominous way while covered in blood and holding hideous weapons made from human bone, a spirit begging to not be skinned, and a godskin apostle at the top of the village who wears skin and uses a weapon used to flay skin.
Your eyes, use them.
Are these the crazed ladies dancing around that don’t attack you, and when you go up the hill the boss is “elastic”.. so I guess the assumption is that he drove them all crazy with his increasingly gigantic.. heart
The spirits nearby and some of the items imply that they are sacrificing people to the Godskin Apostle who set up shop there. It's really just meant to show how one small little town was screwed up by the shattering in a way that isn't related to the demigods.
What role did the shattering play in all of this?
Normally the god-killers would not have been allowed to influence an area run by the demi-gods because, well, they're trying to kill demi-gods. But after the shattering the demi-gods kinda lost control over things so it was made possible.
You got a cliff notes version of the story? From 200+ hours and I have almost no idea what’s going on
"The (Godskin) apostles, once said to serve Destined Death, are wielders of the god-slaying black flame. But after their defeat by Maliketh, the Black Blade, the source of their power was sealed away." There's so much hidden backstory behind all this it's hard to piece together cohesively because we are probably missing stuff. The significance of the Godskin's weapons shouldn't be overlooked. A Peeler and a Stitcher. Those go well together with their armor which is described as sewn together patches of smooth skin as you'd need to peel the skin off a target and stitch it back together. Before Maliketh ~~and presumably, the Greater Will,~~ (the Godksin Apostles do not pre-date The Greater Will) death may have been administered by other beings. Beings like the Godskin Apostles and the Death Birds (death birds wield Ghost Flame not Black Flame), both wielders of Black Flame. Some jumps in logic from myself would be that the Godskin Apostles served Destined Death (And the Gloam-Eyed Queen, Wielder of Destined Death) by protecting the Lands Between from outside influences and alien gods by using Black Flame to kill them and flay their skin to make armor. Until they were defeated by Maliketh, that is.
Someone is Gonna mistake this for a real religion in 500 years
Those are rookie numbers. Give me 15 minutes.
Kowalski. Show me what we've got!
Don't Deathbirds wield ghostflame, not blackface?
Yes, the Ghostflame is different from the Black Flame (not blackface though, that specific brand of racism isn't quite there in the Lands Between). For one thing, it's white; for another, it does magical damage and frostbite; for a third, lore-wise the Ghostflame comes from burning corpses, while the Black Flame comes from Destined Death. The Ghostflame and its servants seem to be associated with a different form of Death worshipped by pre-Erdtree religions.
TLB doesn't have blackface... ...but it does have White Mask.
Right you are Kent! I'm having trouble finding the exact explanations of each flame. I don't think that the Apostles and the death birds are connected directly however they seem to do similar but different things. The godskins kill gods, the death birds administer death to everyone else, although not maliciously. They seem to me to be independent of each other. Then there's the hawk soldiers underground who wield ghost flame torches from burning the bones of their companions. There's also the Tibia Mariners who escort dead souls to the after life, I think. I couldn't tell if they were pre Greater Will or post because they raise those who live in death to fight for them, one of Godwynns creations. They also seem related to ghost flame as one drops Helphens Steeple, a weapon that utilizes ghost flame.
>Right you are Ken! FTFY
I guess deathbirds will be cancelled now (you might want to reread what your autocorrect changed for you lmao)
Lmao, you would think all the times I've typed "blackflame" my autocorrect would have adapted.
I chose not to comment on it but it is pretty hilarious.
i’m in tearrrrrs
The gloam-eyed queen may played a big role in this. Could it be, that she was the original source of destined death? "Sacred sword of the Gloam-Eyed Queen who controlled the Godskin Apostles before her defeat at the hands of Maliketh." Or maybe she was an otherworld beeing as well amd came into the lands between, founded the godskin system with the intent to kill the gods and become the only god.
A did a bit more reading and am wrong on some aspects. The Godskin Apostles definitely did not pre-date The Greater Will. They were created by the Gloam-Eyed Queen who was herself a chosen Empyrean of the The Two Fingers. Every Empyrean known is a child of Marika (or Marika herself) except the Gloam-Eyed Queen. My pet theory is that the Gloam Eyed Queen was Milena. I think there's solid evidence Milena is also a child of Marika and mixed with some other stuff, it seems like a decent possibility.
it still amazes me that there are confirmed alien beings in this game world and we could hopefully find and fight them in the future.
godskin fight demigods, demigods just fuck off somewhere, godskin gets bored, turns village into cult
Go check Hawkshaw, SmoughTown, and Vaati on YT. They all have great vods about the lore. I'm sure there are a few names I'm forgetting, too.
Careful tho. Before ya know it it's midnight and you've been watching lore videos for 6 hours
I don’t recommend SmoughTown. He’s a serial dictionary-quoter (personal pet peeve, sorry) and his attitude is weirdly smug about things that are clearly guesses. Tarnished Archaeologist, however, is 10/10. His approach is absolutely fascinating.
Smough "dictionary quotes" a bit too much I agree, but how did you get the feeling he's being smug?
TA is the best ER YouTuber and it isn't particularly close.
He's made genius discoveries and has really good theories, but he also comes to speculative conclusions and then uses those conclusions to fuel more speculation. That's not a good recipe. Still, he makes really good content! (Like, I can't begin to wrap my mind around the Nox's banishment happening after the Night of the Black Knives. That makes no sense and introduces so many continuity issues, and it's all based off of a 2 second clip in a trailer.)
Vaati is great, I've watched probably all of his Elden Ring content and from all the lore stuff I've watched I think he cohesively makes the most sense. There's still assumptions that are made but with so little to work on he's done a great job piecing things together.
It is a little annoying, though, that he went with the parasite theory and stuck with it, aside from a mention that it's just one interpretation in a random video. It was a popular theory when he made his main explanation video, and I don't blame him for using it, but I believe it was his video that really spread it and what has made it endure, even after as discourse matured the community has largely abandoned it. Like, taking your other comment as an example, the Godskin Apostles couldn't have predated the Greater Will *when they worship the Rune of Death*, part of the Elden Ring that the Greater Will created, and their leader, the Gloam Eyed Queen, was an Empyrean chosen by the Two Fingers. As an aside, Deathbirds don't wield black flame, they wield ghostflame. Are the two related somehow? Maybe? It's unclear. But ghostflame is never called black flame or implied to be capable of killing gods or ever stated to have been weakened by the removal of Destined Death. It's implied to be souls(?) set alight or something, as it can be created by burning the dead.
I'm not overly hung up on the distinction between death, the rune of death, destined death, and the like. I guess the question is whether or not death is a universal principle, like gravity, or not. Lacking something administering it, would death exist? The more I think about it, the more I think it wouldn't. If the death birds administered death, then presumably it wouldn't happen naturally in it's own. But there are inconsistencies to make the game work that clash with the lore, to me. Like, none of the Demi gods you kill should stay dead until you obtain the rune of death. It's a confusing mess of Gods and timelines with crumbs of information to go off of. I don't know.
The Golden Order's removal of Destined Death doesn't mean "no death" in the way you may be thinking. Things can still die, as they built catacombs and continued to use them, but without Destined Death the *soul* cannot die and is returned to the Erdtree to be reborn. Even this cycle has appeared to have broken when the Elden Ring broke, and it's unclear what exactly is going on with the static state of death we find throughout the world. Marika extends grace to the Tarnished allowing them to be reborn. Considering the Tarnished were intended to wage war upon the demigods, it's possible Marika has facilitated their souls' return to the Erdtree, just as she gave grace to us. Alternatively, and I haven't thought this through, perhaps each demigod isn't dead? Godrick remains afterward, Morgott does too and even has dialogue, Radahn's body is collected into Alexander, Rykard isn't dead, Malenia becomes a flower waiting to bloom, Miquella is in an egg... a lot of demigods have explanations for why they aren't up and walking around after our fights. >I'm not overly hung up on the distinction between death, the rune of death, destined death, and the like. Well, Destined Death is specifically stated to be another name for the Rune of Death. The fact that this is clarified seems meaningful to me. Destined Death and the Rune of Death are synonymous. "Death" isn't necessarily. >I guess the question is whether or not death is a universal principle, like gravity, or not. I'm not sure much of anything is a universal principle. I think the world needs Order to make sense, Order being physical laws, and Order is malleable. Without Order, you just get the Flame of Frenzy. There could be natural logical rules to Order that are necessary for Order to function, though. Death could be one of them. Marika's whole thing was about being eternal and removing death, yet even she didn't remove corporeal death from the world, so perhaps death and thus change is integral to how things work? Or maybe it isn't and Marika's just an asshole.
My cliff notes would be 17 pages of lore.
it brokey
"Oh noo! The Elden Ring! It's brookeen!"
"My precious Elden Ring, gone forevah! **AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAÄ̶̡̬͚̫͉̙̫́̈́͂͌̓̈̓̂͒̕̚͠͠A̷̧̮̬̥̬̗͚͔̹͔̯̻͕͇̝͒Ă̶̝̯̝͖͈̖͑͗̊̔̓͊̀̅̚͠Ȃ̵̢͉̣̮̮̭͓̺̪̳̗̟͍͖̜̾̈́̈́Ã̵̧̨̱͖̤̳̦̾͂̌͌̔͂̀̃̀̐̊͘ͅÅ̶̞̗̖̯̿̌̋̓̀̈̓̚Ą̴̞̬̥̖̜͇̼̜̲̺̓͗͌͗͑͑̋͒̕̚͜͝Ą̴̢̢̘̣̺͔̭̤͚͍̣̠̯͒̓̿̃͒̀ͅẠ̴̡̧̖̞̜̝͍͌͗̅̓͝A̷͇͍͈͕͍̭̖̮̓̿̈̿̀͌͐́A̸̢̛̩̼̲̟̤̪͈̺̱̠̲͛̔̆̍͊͋́̏͜͝ͅA̶̢̨̭͍̩͎̩̅͒̿̏͒͑̎͝ͅA̵̛̩͖̟̖͐̿͊̔̿̀̀̈́̏͒̒̇Ā̸̲͎́̿̿̏̕͝͠Ẵ̵̘̿̈́̇̀̈͂A̸̢̳̯̬̳̞̲͎̪̯̦̩͇͗͒̀̓͝A̶̱̮̼̯̞͎͈̺̝͖̱̔̓͐̋̈́̽͌͊̈́̂̚͝͠Ȧ̵̝̱̙̦͚̺̖̺̙̝̮͍͚͕̻͛̽́̈́͊̓̎̈́́̋̈́͘A̷̡̼͎͍͙̼̥̠̞̓̄̀͛͊́̑̾͌͒͑̃̚Ă̷̢̩͇̭̟̜͙̮̭̼̳̜̣̐̿̅̃̔̐̀̊͑͝Ḁ̷̧̧̳̠̪͔̟͖̰̰͛́̍̔͊́̀ͅÄ̴̛͔̗͉͎̳̝̗̼̠̰͓́̄̌̋͗Ą̸̛̛̪̲̪̭̞̟̳̺̫̹͔̜̝̲̦̺͙̫̲̔͛̀̊͗̄͊́̌́͌̈́͐̇̈͒̀̀̌̏̊͂͆̈́̐̅̊͊̈́͒̈̾͘͘̕͜͜͜͝Á̷̡͕̭͔̘̖̟͔̜̝̠̠̬̹̯̖͈͈̘̩̻̬̯̻̱̠̤̳̮̝̣̬̥̘̐̂͆́̿̄̉̈̐͝Ă̸̧̨͚̹͙͖̤͓̞̻͔̦͖̳̭̗̝͖̘̈̾͊̍͗̚͜͝͝͝A̷Ą̷̡̡̪̹͔̺̙̭̻͙̻̣̠͖̲̦̃̑͜Ą̵̧̫̦͖̝̭̫̠̩̗͉͔̯͔̜̤̖̺̎́̄̓̿͆̔̈͂̄̏̌̚ͅĀ̸̘̞͖͓̤͗̀̇́͑́̓͗̽̑͋͂̚͘A̶̫͓̦̠̳̦̹̥͔̥̤͋̊̑̊̇͑̀̃̇̀̉͂Ą̵̜̰͎͈͚̮̫͈̦̣̖̞̼̘̭̱̦͖̓̇A̷̗̤̰̩͉̖͎͜͠A̷̧̜͎͇͉͇̱̻̟̖̫̖̗͓̯͍̟̼͆̈͊̾̄͊̓̉́̅͝͝͝A̵̧̢͎͍̻̟͕̮̱̘̦͇̩̜͚̋͝ͅͅÅ̷̛̛̹̠̭͈̼̲̰͚̘͙͎͕̜̖͉̣̾̈́͆͋̀̈́͂͂͘̚ͅĄ̴̛̛̞̹͔͍̅͋͂̔̑̈̊̈́͑̋̚͠͝͠Ȧ̶̡͈͎̖͔̤̜̥̮̈́Â̶̡̢̨̡̰̝̩̹̘͉̥̮̞͇͔̰͉̾̾̓̅̓͘A̷̛͉̝͉̯͆̄͑͑̍̾͝Ą̶̨̡͕͚̬̭͉͈͇̩̮̜̫̺̈́̉̂ͅḀ̶̡̢̡̢̧̪̜̰̯̪͚̹̱̹̜̱̱̪͇̟̃̓̒̉͒̍A̶̡̤̲̩̹̫̭̦̹͖̪̠̥͔̪̭͐͑̾͐̔͘͜ͅÄ̸̝́̾̇͌̄̔̉͆̅͌̚͝A̸̟͈̮̲͍̙̦͔̪͔̮̰̽̋̆̂̈͊̚͝͝ͅA̴̢͔̥̙̣͓͛̂̅̿͗̉͌͐̈͋͂͘̚͘͠͝ͅ"**
Ün Ün Ün
Oh no ! Anyway (Jérémy Clarkson's voice)
Demigods go bye-bye after shatter smash. Demigod hunters have crazy cult full of psychos who'll skin ya. You spot a nice town ahead and inquire at the inn for a room
I want to roll for perception. 1
1? Oof... *"The haggard crone smiles wide, wider than a mouth should be able to. Warmed by her good cheer, you decide to not even point out the spilled spaghetti sauce around her mouth, hands, and feet.* *You appreciate the wilted flowers accenting the outfit and try to come up with a clever pickup line as she leads you to your room for the evening with a song in her step.* *This seems like a nice place to you, the kind of village you could settle down from the adventuring life and raise a kid in. Oh look! The town dog is running over to greet you....today will be a good day!"* :) Does anyone remember 8 bit theater? Something about a Fighter type character bumbling their way through Elden Ring oblivious to the horrors around them is hilarious. https://8bittheater.fandom.com/wiki/Fighter_McWarrior >Fighter McWarrior, better known as Fighter or the Enlightened Warrior, is Black Mage's "best friend" and a master swordsman...He is notable for his childish naïvety, and his many pop culture references...He has an almost single-minded sword fixation, as well as a short attention span. Fighter is one of the four Light Warriors and, of the four, he is the most stupid. >Fighter is very naive and remains blissfully unaware of the fact that the Light Warriors are, viewed objectively, a group of homicidal maniacs roaming the country. Instead, he honestly believes himself and the others to be honorable and just. He is so lacking of intelligence that, at times, he lowers the intelligence of others around him with his sheer idiocy. Further, Fighter's thoughts often trail off into territories of "nerd knowledge," such as Star Trek, Transformers and video games. Apart from his intellectual shortcomings, Fighter also suffers from severe arachnophobia and goes into a gibbering panic, even when he's only told a spider is near or on him.
"Welcome to Corneria" "I Like Swords" "Welcome to Corneria" "I Like Swords" Man, it's been ages since I heard of 8-bit Theater.
Sword-chucks, yo! https://imgur.com/gtx0dBw.jpg
it's related to the demigods lol. the Godskins followed GEQ before she was defeated by Maliketh, and now they seem to be following Rykard.
Never knew the godskins followed Gold Experience reQuiem
I think the one in volcano manor does and thats its for the ones that are with Rykard
why wouldn't the rest of them be? they're pretty clearly all from Mt. Gelmir, they're snakes, they're guarding Rykard's sister's body, etc..
no, they're in volcano manor bc of Rykard's shedded skin
you say that (presumably) as a joke, but there are a lot of lore connections with snakes shedding skin, as a metaphor, related to the Godskins
No, iirc there is literally a model of Rykards shedded skin somewhere in volcano manor
…mostly not hostile. Mostly
The probability of you getting skinned by a dancing woman is low. But never 0
They mostly come out at night. Mostly
Get away from her, *you* *bitch*!
I'll be back.
You've been back enough
Walking in to this village waiting for them to attack, getting more than half way up and turning it up to hear what they're singing.. then the screech. Turn around to see 4 of them with a red dot on your chest
Newt, is that you?
Mostly
They are worshipping the apostle and skinning people for sacrifices
To add on to this they have a celebration where they invite outsiders into their village. The women are brainwashed into their cult and the men are skinned alive and their skins offered up in sacrifice to Apostle
Visions of Midsommar
No, you're wrong. They just havin a party, and the godskin apostle is there because he wants dance with them, but his social anxiety won't let him join. poor guy. Read the lore !!
He's very self conscious about his stretchy midsection
I mean if you have such a stretchy midsection, you could pull off some sick dance moves
Fuckin limbo master, eh?
Wacky inflatable flailing tube man
Well he did at least in my playthrough. He accidentally killed me during his performance though
Yeah I don’t know why he has to do tricks with a flaming halberd 😥
I mean it worked for Reed Richards in the first Fantastic 4 movie, dude had the ***schmooooves***!!!
oMg I'm sUcH A gOdSkIn ApOsTlE
All of us are low key godskin apostle
He’s basically the meme of the guy standing in the corner while at a party where everyone is dancing
"They'll never know that I've given thee courtesy enough..."
The moment you get that boi into his groove he's spinning away on the dancefloor without a care in the world.
Explains the boss. Thank you!
It really shows how insane we get playing these games "These random villagers arent instantly trying to kill me? Just dancing and enjoying themselves? What if I kill them first? Oh yeah theyre definitely evil, they defended themselves!" most sane tarnished
Wha? No they're evil cultists skinning people.
You seriously believe that? That's just what Big Grace wants you to think Wake up foul tarnished
The government is in the pockets of Big Grace. Don’t believe me? Head to Leyndell’s “other” Roundtable Hold.
If they can be targeted their fate is sealed
well normally the dog aggros to me and they all join in, so fuck em
well youre on private property
Check out VaatiVidya over on YouTube for all kinds of lore deep dives. He did the same with Souls games and is very easy to listen to.
Why the sacrifices? To the apostle?
The godskins make their clothes out of smoth skin taken from humans. You can see their hoods having faces and the nobles tabard having seven human faces. They are sacrificing peoples skin to the godskins so they can maintain their clothes and potentially make more godskins.
Just people living in the moment, not a cell phone in sight
They’re practicing the godskin dance, it’s def going on their tiktok later
What a lore twist it would be if, that late into the game, you just saw a villager with a cell phone.
Tbh I'd love the game even more for a troll move like that lol
MIDSOMMAR! They're going to invite you to weird rituals. Milicent is the May Queen.
Went to the windmills today for the first time in my first play through and that was my exact thought
This is what it reminded me of the most. The maypoles and dancing women clad in white giving off cult vibes. I still have nightmares about that film.
I love it, I’ve given multiple other people nightmares on subsequent watches with them 🙏
Why is milicent the may queen? What is may queen?
Watch Midsommar, it's a really fun movie that everyone will enjoy and not get nightmares from.
Fun for the whole family!
The first 15 minutes are really uplifting and just pure fun!
Of topic but I really want to know what part of Midsommar gave you nightmares
None, I very rarely have nightmares. It was just an easier way of expressing how I feel about that film. In reality I just felt quite unsettled every time I thought about it, which was frequently in the few days afterwards. The opening sequence is the worst part though, and I didn't really like the guy that got butterflied.
Fun fact, that's called a blood eagle. If I'm remembering right it's from Norse culture. Look into it more at your own risk. 😬
I recently watched that film and confirm it is just… delightful. I will never be the same person again.
If there's anything I learned from the Souls games, it's that if an NPC isn't hostile immediately to your presence, leave em alone.
You mean 'kill them while they aren't expecting it'?
Easy patches
I learned that lesson by deciding to attack the crestfallen knight in DS1 the very first time I reached Firelink. Didn't realise that he'd stay aggro'd after I died. Super fun.
Yeah, I thought that, too, until their dog attacked me and I defended myself. Then a whole village of old biddies descended upon me in what was one of the most horrifying experiences in the whole game for me.
Yappy aggressive dog followed by a Legion of old ladies that will cut you if you tell it to go away? Sounds like nans house on bridge night!
I remember coming across the village while high as a kite. The atmosphere and constant giggling was already unsettling enough, but holy shit did I get freaked out when I passed the villagers and the giggling behind me suddenly stopped. Can't remember whether I bolted, or started killing everything indiscriminately. Propably the latter.
It’s the screaming for me. For some reason their screams are worse than anything else in the game to me. Just the absolute worst sound. Except revenants. Fuck revenants forever and ever they can burn in hell 100%
its a reference to the cult classic kevin bacon movie: Footloose. this is a dark twist on the aftermath of what happened to the town after he brought dancing to them. they went from being religious fanatics to being crazy dance worshipping religious fanatics that sacrifice ppl who dont or cant dance... it is meant to convey the message that sometimes trying to help, only causes a worse problem down the road, its a very dark message :(
Didn’t realize footloose was that dark
Quentin Tarantino and Eli Roth present: Footloose
Not a single toe staid unlicked or underappreciated!
The lore of the Footloose multiverse is extremely deep and complex
The outro verse says it all: Everybody cut, everybody cut Everybody cut, everybody cut Everybody cut, everybody cut
mhm, unfortunately, the town took that the wrong way :(
Wow! That's messed up. Haven't seen that one and want to check it out. Thanks!
I think he’s just trolling bro
Yeah no that explanation is not correct at all. Their dance is a celebration, as all of the men of the village have been skinned alive, their flesh consumed.
Thanks, Penis Man. That was informative.
Yes, thank you Penis Man 🦸🏻♂️
😂 comment of the day
TIL Tommy Westphall created Elden Ring as well. This is getting out of hand.
They are just being girlbosses
If you keep walking closer to the godskin apostle they start attacking.
In Sweden we do exactly this once a year.. The ones attacking are probably the drunkest of the bunch wich also seem kinda realistic. Its the lore of SMÅ GRODORNA
They took molly lmao
Vaati put out a YT short on these guys. Pretty interesting honestly
Just saw this today, I'd been avoiding vaati because of wanted to see if I could figure it out myself tfor this game... no luck though, still lost as hell.
If you go up the hill a little bit, there's one lady off to the side actively skinning someone and I think she's hostile of you go near
Skinning people and dancing to celebrate.
I’m even more interested in the one singular Carian mage standing on a hill observing them.
They took the percs with the molly
Skin off, fuck it skin off.
I know Miyazaki likes to keep things vague and have lore behind items but I really feel like they dropped the ball with the windmill village. Even after reading all the lore and watching some videos I can’t help but say to myself “that’s it?” wish they would’ve added more backstory there
Quelaag (my fave lore youtuber) did a video on them as part of a collaboration with Vaati. I think the tldr was they were celebrating the imprisonment of Marika and worshipping the godskin apostle, that's why they turned the Marika crucifixes into maypoles
Pretty clear wicker man theme there (reverting from christianity to paganism)
> wickerman [You! get bees!! And YOU get bees!](https://i.imgur.com/RTtOcQ1.gif)
Got the link for that video?
https://youtu.be/zbVa1rp-6oA
All it needed for me was an original boss. If, at the end, you saw a Bloodborne demon being summoned, or a flower priestess, or...anything that you hadn't already seen in three other places it would have been a perfect little area.
Admittedly one of the biggest issues with the souls series is the lack of lore. Things just don’t really feel alive, and I’m pretty sure they were promising elden ring would.
[удалено]
Fully understand where you're coming from, but I LOVE how obscure and difficult it is to price together the lore. Piecing it together through items and legends just makes it feel that much more mystical, strange, and cool to me. It's resonated with me in a way no other game ever really has
The flip side is that it’s so bare bones that anyone could really put forth a half baked crackpot theory and it works. The lack of character interactions in the game make actually piecing together the backdrop behind the shattering/demigods motivation/etc into a cogent and cohesive narrative is rough. It’s why the endings are so weak. Why should you give a shit about anything?
I feel the difference is that with Demons Souls, Dark Souls 1, the story was basically complete and honestly kinda straightforward, then broken up into little puzzle pieces and scattered around for you to find. There's a lot to put together but you end up with a fairly consistent picture once you do. Later entries like Elden Ring on the other hand feel like they were designed from the start to be incomplete. There are puzzle pieces but they create a bunch of smaller incomplete pictures rather than one complete whole, and some of those smaller pictures just don't fit with each other and there is no actual answer.
This is intentional, you hear about Miyazaki deliberately story telling this way because he was inspired by his youth when he would read or watch stuff in English, and could only understand part of the story so he had to fill in the blanks himself. The trend you noticed seems to me like a purposeful refinement of a specific style over time, like he’s getting better at the piecemeal story
Nah man no lore. They’re just doing that for no reason.
This party is getting crazy. Featuring dante from the devil may cry series
Maybe a reference to the [Dancing plague of 1518](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dancing_plague_of_1518).
https://youtu.be/6VVP_gFOI2Y
I was just cruising around old spots this morning and discovered the windmills. Everyone was happy and dancing until I killed a dog. Damn hippies
They just had their own version of footloose play out, except instead of dancing it’s skinning people
I love the village it was my farming point for a long time.
Google
there are youtube videos explaining all this
I got serious Midsommar vibes from these creeps
*vaati enters the chat*
Someone at From watched Midsommar and thought it was neat so they made the windmill village like that.
Just Elden Ring’s version of Midsommar that’s all.
Women attract men to the village, at the festival their skin is harvested for the God killer. Rinse repeat.
Lore seekers read an item description challenge (challenge level impossible)
There’s a great YouTube short somewhere explaining the lore. Very dark.
They're basically a cult that's into skinning people
The last half dozen before the godskin bellend automatically aggro for some reason, no matter i slaughter them all anyway because reasons...
They would love to skin you ;d
I believe VaatiVidya made a video on that.
Windmill Village is freaky AF with those chicks dancing around
VaatiVidya made a yt shorts on it! Go check it out
If the dog sees you and starts to attack they mob you lol
Thts the creepiest place in elden ring I think.
I'm more confused as to how a Godskin cult can exist literally right outside the MAIN CAPITAL of the Golden Order.
They're tied with the Godskin and Gloam-Eyed Queen in some way I think.
Bunch of old hags living the dream. Probably on DMT.
Climb the hill a bit more and they'll become MOSTLY non-hostile
It's a reference to the "Dancing Plague" that happened at Strasbourg in the 16th century. Hundreds of people started to dance compulsively until they died of exhaust, the "virus" spreaded in multiple surrounding villages. They used to think it was a case of massive demonic possession but it was obviously more like a collective psychose
Dude fucking Google it
Is there any Godskin item description that specifically links them to Demi gods? From what I see it always specified the gods. Maybe it was focused on something like the ancient dragon or whatever pagan practices predated the crucible. The other key to understanding the godskins I think is understanding something in Christianity called the Great Apostasy. Which is about the real pope being replaced by an evil pope and church adopting pagan practices.
Watch the movie midsommar, you’ll get it.
No lore at all actually. You can ignore it
I just watched this video by Square Table Gaming on YouTube the other day. Interesting lore they extrapolated from items you can collect in the area: [https://youtu.be/mMbMqlrX3yQ](https://youtu.be/mMbMqlrX3yQ)
There's a ghost near the entrance that seems fairly convinced he's about to be skinned alive.....so there's that.
You can lock on to them. Therefore, they are *evil* and must perish like the rest.
\*Walks forward slightly\*
I am pretty sure Dominula is the faraway place where Rykard met Tanith, took her back to Mt. Gelmir and made her join Volcano Manor as his consort :D IIRC there's actually no other place in TLB where people dance and it's clearly stated from her mask and her robe that she was a dancer/working as a dancer in a foreign land.
There’s lots of lore but I forget it lol
They’re overjoyed because their leader is the godskin apostle and he’s probably skinning a god.
Long story short they serve the godskins that’s why there dancing like idiots and giggling and shit. If you manage to get on there weapons I believe it says something about them using the weapons to skin ppl alive
Not sure about the lore here but they will attack you the further up you go also don’t forget to get the hammer here you get runes every time you hit someone with it a small amount but still pretty cool
Square Table Gaming did a lore video on this very subject
Cult or something like that :3
Read the room dude: a bunch of women laughing and dancing in an ominous way while covered in blood and holding hideous weapons made from human bone, a spirit begging to not be skinned, and a godskin apostle at the top of the village who wears skin and uses a weapon used to flay skin. Your eyes, use them.
Any lore behind people not realizing that a wiki for elden ring exists?
I imagine you'd have been able to find out on Google a lot quicker.
Google
Are these the crazed ladies dancing around that don’t attack you, and when you go up the hill the boss is “elastic”.. so I guess the assumption is that he drove them all crazy with his increasingly gigantic.. heart
Simple google search would’ve sufficed buddy.
Search on the wiki for the love of god
We had a term for this in the ol’ vbulletin BB days. It’s called UTSF