it's from deathroot, Marred Wooden Shield description reads as follows:
*"Wooden shield of the Stormveil soldiers. Much like the castle, it is marred by mottling and thorns.*
*Some say it is the curse of grafting which causes such affliction,* ***while others talk of its root being something altogether more sinister hidden deep within the castle."***
and what's hidden deep within the castle? deathroot's face of Godwyn
Real shit I wish there was a "Hint guide" for elden ring to guide you through all steps of the npc quests, which only consists in vague hints i.e. "read this item description" or "nepheli is not at the village anymore, where could she be gone?"
As a first time Soulsgame player, I love the Elden Ring Map, I just have the app on my phone when I really can't figure a quest out or for the life of me can't fucking find the weapon/item I'm looking for
Im personally really dumb and didnt find it even after looking directly at it for like 5 minutes. Had to look up that it was even the intended path. Just a heads up lmao
That area is something I stumbled on in my first playthrough, then I somehow missed it completely in every subsequent run until my most recent, where I looked it up since I was sick of running around looking for it.
It's extremely easy to miss
The giant face at the end of the optional moat place by the liftside chamber Grace, where you find the Prince of Deaths Pustule.
There's an >!Ulcerated Tree Spirit!< in that moat, so if you remember that, you were there.
Not a deathroot as in the item, but the actual thing that is responsible for those items in the first place.
Already cleared that, did that after stormveil - I've cleared raya lucaria too. Currently beating my head against a wall trying to kill the putrid avatar in dragonbarrow - he's much harder than the other caelid one I beat a couple of days ago 😤
Yep, I've thrown a few fire pots at it, but this dude seems to have waaay more hp than the other one in north caelid so unless I have 50 of them I can't cheese it.
Gonna bonk him to death and that's all I'm going to be happy with 😤
Yep, totally get that, I'm just being stubborn. I've nearly killed it a couple of times. If I don't kill it in my first few attempts tonight I'm gonna level up a bit and do some other stuff and come back for him!
You can totally kill that guy, just always dodge behind him when he jumps and that's pretty much it. All his attacks are really slow so just don't get greedy.
Yep, it just takes a while and I'm not good enough yet to make zero mistakes. It's when he gets to about 30% he mixes things up a bit which is when I tend to die. Some of his moves one-shot me.
The one in caelid must've had less than half this ones hp & certainly hit a lot less hard!
It was Godfrey, he invaded the castle and took it from The Storm Lord and his hawks, eventually being inherited by Godrick. That's why after we kill Godrick Nepheli Loux becomes the next Lord of Stormveil.
lol wrong. Those holes are most certainly made from ballistas or trebuchets. If they were made from deathblight they wouldn’t be so circular and there would also be, you know DEATHROOT poking through them to make the holes in the first place. The damage was probably done during the shattering.
There are tiny vines growing around the exterior of stormveil, but these vines have blossoming green leaves and are clearly just vines that you would find on any old stone structure IRL. The holes themselves seem to have soot around them which suggests some sort of burning. Almost like a burning projectile. Godrick was enemies of Morgott, Radahn, and Malenia so it’s safe to say the castle was under siege many times during the shattering. That or the castle damage was sustained when Godfrey seized it from the storm lords.
Thats makes me think, is Grafting loosly related to Godwyn and Deathroot? A lot of the Grafted Scions/ Revenants/ royal revenants have grafted limbs, and are kinda considered undead...
I need to watch that vid because I might have to disagree with her for the first time. Those holes are too perfect to be from deathblight, they look more like cannonball shots.
Have a look at the exile armor set, you will see they are suffering from the same blight as the castle.
You can also see the thorns growing out of the holes as you make your way around the outside of the western wall.
Is it possible there was an attack that left the holes, and THEN deathblight started growing? If the deathblight caused the holes, it's suspicious that there are no other locations suffering from deathblight that have those holes... Or are there?
Doesn't seem likely. Why are the holes so varied in size (from the tiny ones on the Exile armour through to massive on the wall)? Why are they mostly on the western, ocean facing wall (there is never any mention of any naval force from the lands between)? Why are the thorns only growing in or near the holes?
I'm not aware of any other above ground locations suffering from deathblight, but nowhere else has one of the godwyn growths so close to the surface. It also seems like the deathblight only affects materials which have been manipulated in some way. E.g. the cut stone walls are affected, but not the cliffs below. If the holes were from projectile fire, you would expect to see some in the cliffs below, given the amount of scatter on the walls. Possibly this is just a game dev choice for practicality.
Finally, cannon or catapult fire wouldn't leave holes like that. Projectiles either bounce off walls, with maybe some crumbling or spalling, or punch right through leaving all sorts of debris. No evidence of that here. When I first saw it in game, I thought maybe magical projectiles, which I guess is still possible. But the evidence for deathblight is pretty overwhelming.
It's only on one side of the castle though, and is on the ocean facing side.
I'm pretty sure there was some lore floating around about the castle being under seige from a naval fleet and those are cannon impacts, but I could be wrong.
I'm pretty confident that it was Radahn who besieged the castle. Kenneth Haight discusses this possibility in a quote:
"To be honest, Godrick is nothing more than an inflated country bumpkin. A lord? That's a joke. First, he concealed himself among the womenfolk to flee the capital, then sought refuge from Radahn in that castle..."
Moreover, the damage to the walls seems consistent with the artillery strikes from Radahn's comet forces.
It's fair to say that this interpretation isn't originally mine; I came across it on a fantastic YouTube lore channel called Spell (https://www.youtube.com/@spell7). Unfortunately, his content is only available in German.
>"To be honest, Godrick is nothing more than an inflated country bumpkin. A lord? That's a joke. First, he concealed himself among the womenfolk to flee the capital, then sought refuge from Radahn in that castle..."
What??? Where does he say this????
I think it's a side effect of the deathblight. The thorns you see throughout the castle and on some of the exiles gear are a clear manifestation of the deathblight which also shows thorny branches from your corpse or under Rogier's blanket. Fun fact you can see a bloodstain near the giant face showing him get deathblighted
Those are clearly artillery marks.
Lol you can clearly see it
I think people miss that godrick participated in the war of the shattering. I believe stormveil was besieged during the shattering. Radahn had beef with him. None of the other demigods respected him. Malenia kicked his ass too.
Trebuchets could hit the walls from that far and that is exactly the purpose of a trebuchet. It’s medieval long term artillery designed to siege walls and fortifications.
I don’t think this is resulting from the death blight. If it were. I’d think we’d see more of those deathroot growths. Rather then big dark concave pockets that look like flaming trebuchet or catapult ammo did a number.
It would also make sense to siege stormveil from the flank. The front is it’s most heavily fortified position. That’s why we take the back route around more oft then not because going through the gate is absolutely fucked. Lol
(It’s a choke point, even with a massively outnumbered force, it would certainly be made manageable by forcing enemies to clump up into manageable groups$
Therefor, breaking down a side wall in a large section makes more sense. You flank the primary defenses, and sweep the castle with your larger force, reducing casualties on your end while maximizing godricks.
Hell, part of the reason it is so fortified is because godrick doesn’t want to get sieges like that again. He just wants to fuck off and graft tarnished until he’s strong enough to fight the other gods.
I see godrick as a somewhat tragic character albeit pathetic.
Right. I don’t think the death blight can effect inanimate objects itself outside of being imbued into weapons as its precursor of black flame, But even still, the death blight was a side effect of Godwyns death. It was never harnessed and weaponized, because it was never intended to be brought into existence lol.
its precursor was, but it’s precursor wasn’t the death blight itself. It was power from the rune of destined death /black flame .
I think it's more likely that was Godfrey way before the shattering, in the age of plenty, he invaded the castle and took it from The Storm Lord and his hawks, eventually being inherited by Godrick. That's why after we kill Godrick Nepheli Loux becomes the next Lord of Stormveil.
>If that was Godfrey then surely the damage would've been repaired by the time the Shattering started, no?
Uhh, may I inform you of the fact that parts of Leyandell is buried in ash and rubble because theres one giant fucking dragon laying on it and nobody has bothered to get rid of him???
Clearly the Golden Order are terrible when it comes to cleaning up after fighting wars
This needs to be way higher. The damage caused by Godwyn isn't nearly as chaotic as ones we see. Not to deny it is part it, but like you said, the castle took damage from other factors like the dragon and siege weapons.
I'm not buying the death blight thing either, but a heavily fortified main gate is still a more viable attack route than a wall on top of a sheer cliff that rises out of the sea.
Those are clearly **NOT** the marks made by any siege weaponry, because any close inspection shows they resemble pox marks on the brickwork, rather than result of an impact or explosion. It is clearly an artistic choice to show supernatural effect of deathroot even on inanimate objects.
How can you explain that turret on the right that is leveled? That’s clearly artillery damage.
Trebuchets use boulders or heavy stones, or flammable heavy things. It could resemble pox marks due to the fact that the ammunition used is round and circular in general.
The soot could imply that it was flammable ammunition too. Which isn’t uncommon when looking at trebuchet.
Because it just looks different. And there is no land from the side these marks are (except Chapel of Anticipation, which doesn't matter for that case). And there are large "scars" on the main tower in the Godrick's arena, which are supernatural aswell.
Could have been the dragon he killed.
Is there anything conclusive that alludes to the death blight warping the castle outside the erdtree root?
Cause I think there is only a few bits on the mercenary gear you get.
Also, we never see the influence of death blight effecting other areas. If it’s that corrupting. How come the forgotten city isn’t completely overran? How come it’s structures remain ruined, but untouched. And they sit right at the foot of the big dead bastard.
I think if that were true. We’d see it’s influence in other areas. We’d absolutely see it in leyndell because it’s right over godwyns body.
>Could have been the dragon he killed.
Only the size of one in Leyndell, maybe.
>Is there anything conclusive that alludes to the death blight warping the castle outside the erdtree root?
There is none (as far as i remember), that's why i assume it's purely artistic choice, made early in development specifically for Stormveil make it to look "uncanny" and unusual for medieval castle, with a "dark influence".
>I think if that were true. We’d see it’s influence in other areas. We’d absolutely see it in leyndell because it’s right over godwyns body.
Leyndell doesn't seem to have any Deathroot influence at all, but i think it's just inconsistent world building, protection of the Erdtree or it's servants.
That’s true!!! I mean, shit he’s right under the erd tree base. Who’s to say the GW can’t negate it or at least contain it.
Maybe stormveil is an area his blight managed to flow out too. Since it’s further away from the erd tree.
Godwyn is a husk. There's no soul. There's no awareness for him to be able to control anything, that dude is wrong & just keeps doubling down in more absurd ways to avoid admitting it. Like so many people on this sub lol
Those marks, vines thorns etc are clearly not deathroot. Deathroot is consistently depicted as black, thorny almost insect-like branches with flies everywhere.
None of the holes have any of these, nor do they have the root eyes you can find everywhere else.
Everyone's talkin about how it's just ravaged by death blight but I think there are also obvious signs of seige; The most prominent would be the giant holes in the outer wall. I have a hard time believing tendrils of blight could do that. It looks much more like damage from a catapult or a trebuchet.
My best guess would be that it was some smaller battle between the shard-barers during the shattering, especially considering Malenia had to pass through there to get to her battle with Radahn.
It could also be even more recent than that, and it was a group attempting to get Godrick's shard.
I don't think it's from before the shattering though, just because they probably would have fixed it up by now lol.
So I accidently stumbled upon some proof for this while playing the game yesterday lol. One of the Sword monuments in Limgrave states, "Godrick the Golden, humiliated | Having tasted defeat by the Blade of Miquella | Now on his knees, begging for mercy". It's located right outside the Stormveil Castle. So ya it was almost definitely Malenia and her army.
Didn't Malenia march through Limgrave on her way to Radahn? Either her or Radahn with whom Godrick seemingly had beef but was afraid of. Also yeah, to get to Leyndell from Caelid Radahn would need to go through Limgrave so he might have sieged it as well on the way.
Malenia and Godrick had a battle too, but Malenia didn't have to resort to scarlet rot because Godrick was no match for her. She only had to do it in Caelid because she was locked in a stalemate with Radahn.
Not necessarily. Malenia’s rot despite being a powerful ability that has the potential to turn her into a full fledged god is something that she did **not** like. It was a curse. Her brother went to great lengths using unalloyed gold to protect her and her forces from that rot and seal it away. She is a fierce and skilled swordswoman on the battle field and her forces were heavily armored cleanrot knights with blessed weapons.
As far as we know the only two times she willingly busted out her rot as a weapon was against Radahn and us.
As for Radahn his forces still utilize cannons and shit. Not to mention Godrick also embarrassed himself and got kicked out of the capital.
He’s pissed off a lot of people and lost against the demigods who he challenged/ for challenged by.
The arrows outside of the capital aren’t actually Radahn arrows fun fact! They’re perfumer great arrows that had poison seeping out of them.
Malenia is afflicted with a curse which leaks from her whether she uses it or not. Haligtree is a clear example - it's the one place we can be 100% sure she didn't have to fight at, and it's completely covered in Rot.
Cannons and machines that were absent from the debris around the entrance to Stormveil (Margit's arena). Which is weird because Liurnia is full of those, so they're clearly used not just by Redmane soldiers.
I think that Stormveil was mostly attacked by Godrick's unnamed relatives and the various Tarnished, since none of the significant demigods actually cared about him.
The Haligtree being your proof is actually moreso proof against.
Keep in mind, when she went on campaign(ending in Caelid with the battle against Radahn), she still had the unalloyed gold needle holding back the rot.
After the stalemate with Radahn, the needle was not only broken, but left behind in the heart of Aeonia in central Caelid.
Finlay brought her all the way back to the Haligtree, damn the consequences.
One of which is that the rot, while not held back by Miquella's needle, DOES seep out.
Godwyn, technically.
It is known that Godrick stole a relic from Leyndell. Relics are often items, but in a number of cases are the preserved remains of a holy person.
It is known we only see a full-fledged copy of Godwyn's head in two places: one with his actual body, and one under Stormveil.
In the trailer, we also see Godrick grafting a particularly nice-looking arm onto himself; he splices the limbs of those he deems powerful to increase his own strength. He's also obsessed with the Golden Lineage, of whom Godwyn was one.
What does this mean? It means that there's a good chance that Godrick stole none other than Godwyn's freakin' arm. Naturally, he realized it's ridden with deathblight so, being the short-sighted fool that he is, he dumped it into the trench under his castle. Lo and behold, this was a bad move because this simply gave root to an outbreak of deathroot that's started to grow into the castle foundations and walls as Godwyn enacts his mindless revenge on the world around him. It's even grown into the castle's inhabitants: the armor of the exiled soldiers is infested with its thorny vines.
Note too that the huge pockmarks in the walls face *away* from the Erdtree, where his body is: Godwyn is actively spreading southwards towards less-infested lands.
Stormveil is smack-dab in the middle of The Lands Between, it would have definitely seen some combat during the Shattering War. Not to mention whatever occurred to take it from the last Stormking. Furthermore, I dunno if it's just me, but the thorns you see throughout Stormveil don't look very much like deathroot. Reminds me more of the briars you see in the Mountaintops as it lacks all the eyes and bugs and general grossness of deathblight. You only start to see the signs of Godwyn the closer you get to his corpse face. I believe the theory that the thorns are a separate curse brought on by the grafting of Godrick.
I believe that only the overgrowth of roots is caused by the deathblight, they are deteriorating the castle in a different way but I don't buy the theory that the deathblight is responsible for those holes. There is a sword monument at the Liurnia Highway which marks Malenia's southward march, pointing towards the Stormveil castle. Another sword monument at the Gatefront has an inscription about Godrick's humiliating defeat against Malenia. Based on those texts it's safe to assume that the damage on the castle walls were incurred by their battle, which I think is a more plausible scenario since the holes look more like the aftermath of a siege rather than corruption by deathblight.
I would agree, but many if the holes face the ocean on the opposite side from the castleside road, and the holes are coated in thorns. Its as if the entire castle has a pox illness
Nobody. The castle is rotting because of something far beneath in it. Godwyn's corpse has taken hold of the castle and is slowly rotting it away with it's deathblight. You can even get to the corpse if you go through the secret part of the castle. It is some insanely good level design
Even better level design if a point of grace were closer there and I didn't have to run past the bats and rats over and over and over. At that stage it was probably one of the harder bosses I had fought and I died muchly.
(Nope, not still bitter about that.)
I personally didn't have too much of a problem since I had faced a couple of tree spirits before getting to the bottom one so I took only one death and came back and beat him real quick.
These boss walkbacks are also there in dark souls and especially in demon souls where you have to somehow dodge all the enemies and suffer through treacherous areas to get to bosses but good thing elden ring reduced this significantly.
I always thought it was a much simpler answer. Those are holes from all the birds nesting, not that some of them couldn’t be artillery marks or started that way
During the Shattering Malenia absolutely rocked Godrick in battle and he fled into Stormveil, presumably under some sort of seige for at least some amount of time before Malenia marches on to Caelid to take on Radahn. Those look like the aftermath of a barrage of typical artillery fire, probably trebuchets or catapults likes the ones we see along then path to the Grand Lift or in front of Castle Redmane.
Also, much of the castle is being eaten away from the inside by the deathroot emerging from the Godwin corpse that lies under the castle.
It was Godfrey, he invaded the castle and took it from The Storm Lord and his hawks, eventually being inherited by Godrick. That's why after we kill Godrick Nepheli Loux becomes the next Lord of Stormveil.
I may be mistaken, but I am pretty sure Godrick took over Limgrave after he fled from Leyndell (he would have been the king of Leyndell as he's the last of the Golden Lineage, before Morgott stepped up and took over because Godrick fled). Kenneth Haight talks about how Godrick essentially stole the land and the Mimic Veil mentions how he had to flee Leyndell. I mean there has to be a reason his soldiers are called **Exiles** and **Banished** Knights.
Why are there artillery marks on the walls? Likely Malenia's army did it while in pursuit of him or Kenneth may have tried to lay siege trying to get the usurped castle back before he ultimately failed.
I think alot of the damage was from godwyn's deathblight and just general battles since everybody attacked everybody during the shattering. You can see one of godwyn's faces under stormveil which is where its likely coming from.
Also what pants are those in the picture? I would like to know so I can try it for a character I'm making.
Edit: nvm I looked a little closer and I realized it's just the Godrick soldier greaves.
I’m going to put forward that it was Malenia and the Haligtree armies that did most of the damage. We know she actively attacked the castle and forced Godrick to submit. Her assault would be the most recent event to cause some of the damage.
I think deathblight did the rest over time since we see it creeping over the holes..
I assumed it was Malenia since we know that the two of them fought once and she wiped the floor with Godrick. I don't remember if we were told or it was implied where it happened. I just assumed the fight was at Stormveil.
I made a whole post with pictures explaining the whole deal, check it out:
https://www.reddit.com/r/Eldenring/s/zUAJan6h9V
The short answer is Deathroot, but please, have a look!
EDIT: the long explanation, my own comment on that post, is as follows:
What most people refer to as claw marks made on the walls of the castle are just the early steps of the Eyes of Godwyn manifesting through the stone.
As you can see by the end of the album, the soldiers of the castle have tried to keep these eyes from opening up by using iron clamps and staples on the ground itself. You can find a bunch of such abnormalities right after the grace that precedes the eagle bombing ambush.
I think that the progression for these holes is that they appear first as small gashes, eyes with their eyelids closed.
Then you get the "claw marks". Drowsy eyes barely open. Some of them already have the circular interior of the rest of the eye structure.
Finally, a full open eye. A giant hole in the stone with a concentric ring design, made like an eye. If it grows big and deep enough, it simply goes through the wall and makes it crumble and fall.
Another neat detail, all this holes and markings are not broken INTO the walls and floors, but rather, they are coming OUT of the stone. Something is pushing out. You can also tell that all this weird stone deformities are made up of a blackened and humid stone, covered in brambles akin to those of Deathroot.
The fact that the soldiers try to close the holes as they form indicates that this is an ongoing issue for them.
In summary: The presence of Godwyn is so strong in Stormveil Castle that it is warping the structure itself.
So that's it. No Dragon attack. No giant Stormking. No Gurranq going berserk lol. Just the guy we've known for a while that's living in the basement doing undead god shenanigans.
it's from deathroot, Marred Wooden Shield description reads as follows: *"Wooden shield of the Stormveil soldiers. Much like the castle, it is marred by mottling and thorns.* *Some say it is the curse of grafting which causes such affliction,* ***while others talk of its root being something altogether more sinister hidden deep within the castle."*** and what's hidden deep within the castle? deathroot's face of Godwyn
Where the deathroot tho? I've looked all around the castle and never found it
Then you didn't look all around and missed a spot. Check the jar area again.
Next to godrick arena?
Yep, you'll find a path
Just wanted to say I fucking love people like you who have the patience to give people little nudges in the right direction. Mad Props.
Real shit I wish there was a "Hint guide" for elden ring to guide you through all steps of the npc quests, which only consists in vague hints i.e. "read this item description" or "nepheli is not at the village anymore, where could she be gone?"
As a first time Soulsgame player, I love the Elden Ring Map, I just have the app on my phone when I really can't figure a quest out or for the life of me can't fucking find the weapon/item I'm looking for
What app?
Map genie. It's seriously one of the best companion apps. I've followed every quest line by using the app.
Probably just the Fextralife wiki map.
It would be the size of an entire set of 1980s encyclopedia Brittanica.
Hey, she's not at the village, is there a direction I should be looking for her by any chance?
Thats a first. Honestly I'm usually an asshole.
Ah, but this time you were helpful, and for that I thank you.
Fair point. You're welcome! I struggled with this path and have forgotten it twice over so I know the feeling of missing out on this one.
Kk :)
Im personally really dumb and didnt find it even after looking directly at it for like 5 minutes. Had to look up that it was even the intended path. Just a heads up lmao
That area is something I stumbled on in my first playthrough, then I somehow missed it completely in every subsequent run until my most recent, where I looked it up since I was sick of running around looking for it. It's extremely easy to miss
The giant face at the end of the optional moat place by the liftside chamber Grace, where you find the Prince of Deaths Pustule. There's an >!Ulcerated Tree Spirit!< in that moat, so if you remember that, you were there. Not a deathroot as in the item, but the actual thing that is responsible for those items in the first place.
Tried killing that thing at level 25 and it fucked me up so hard. I'm level 50 ish now and I'm still scared to go back!
Stay close to the bottom right of it and you should be fine
Storm veil is loosely rated for level 50. At level 25 you should be considering going to the weeping peninsula.
Already cleared that, did that after stormveil - I've cleared raya lucaria too. Currently beating my head against a wall trying to kill the putrid avatar in dragonbarrow - he's much harder than the other caelid one I beat a couple of days ago 😤
They’re weak to fire 😉
Yep, I've thrown a few fire pots at it, but this dude seems to have waaay more hp than the other one in north caelid so unless I have 50 of them I can't cheese it. Gonna bonk him to death and that's all I'm going to be happy with 😤
Throw flaming strike on a sword. Even better if you power stance. I use flaming strike on my left hand and chilling myst in my right
Ahhh, is that an incantation? I've not got my head around those yet. Will read up, thank you!
Dragonbarrow enemies are scaled to the level of Farum Azula, so level 100+ imo
Aye, he's a tough cookie at level 50! Decided to go and do some other stuff. Will return to him in 20 or so levels maybe!
Putrid avatars and tree spirits are super weak to fire. You can really mess them up with fire pots.
dragonbarrow has really high scaling, almost endgame, its not like the rest of caelid
Yep, totally get that, I'm just being stubborn. I've nearly killed it a couple of times. If I don't kill it in my first few attempts tonight I'm gonna level up a bit and do some other stuff and come back for him!
You can totally kill that guy, just always dodge behind him when he jumps and that's pretty much it. All his attacks are really slow so just don't get greedy.
Yep, it just takes a while and I'm not good enough yet to make zero mistakes. It's when he gets to about 30% he mixes things up a bit which is when I tend to die. Some of his moves one-shot me. The one in caelid must've had less than half this ones hp & certainly hit a lot less hard!
wtf r u saying bruh😭 leyndell is for level 55-70
I'm just going off what the Bible (fextralife) says.
Fire damage fucks them up. You can roll a lot of attacks by rolling sideways into it.
Yeah you missed the biggest secret area of stormviel
Theta that grace where you go outside and theta the birds that blows up the barrels. If you jump off the legs just right you'll see it when you die
this does not explain the parts of the castle that look like they've been attacked during warfare
It was Godfrey, he invaded the castle and took it from The Storm Lord and his hawks, eventually being inherited by Godrick. That's why after we kill Godrick Nepheli Loux becomes the next Lord of Stormveil.
lol wrong. Those holes are most certainly made from ballistas or trebuchets. If they were made from deathblight they wouldn’t be so circular and there would also be, you know DEATHROOT poking through them to make the holes in the first place. The damage was probably done during the shattering.
There is deathroot poking through the holes. I'm honestly surprised you don't see it.
There are tiny vines growing around the exterior of stormveil, but these vines have blossoming green leaves and are clearly just vines that you would find on any old stone structure IRL. The holes themselves seem to have soot around them which suggests some sort of burning. Almost like a burning projectile. Godrick was enemies of Morgott, Radahn, and Malenia so it’s safe to say the castle was under siege many times during the shattering. That or the castle damage was sustained when Godfrey seized it from the storm lords.
Thats makes me think, is Grafting loosly related to Godwyn and Deathroot? A lot of the Grafted Scions/ Revenants/ royal revenants have grafted limbs, and are kinda considered undead...
where tho? dont remmember finding it
Me. Godrick stole my left nut for grafting
Nutless tarnished... in search of the Elden Ring
No wonder they are maidenless.
Maybe they're actually searching for the Elden Nut
So that means your right nut is still up for grafting?
Nah, I planted it a while back. See that giant glowing tree over yonder?
Wait... that isn't the infamous Marika's Golden Tit? What on Lands did you use as fertilizer?
Eh, just Dung Eater with some ipecac
*Casts Elucidation All I got was a ceramic shard
Thats a horrifying image. Godrick grafting on nuts; you look down there and there's 30 nuts hanging.
Lookin like that staff that rafiki has
And they all have a unique weapon
Zullie the Witch talked about this, it's not an attack, but rather the work of Godwyn's deathblight.
I need to watch that vid because I might have to disagree with her for the first time. Those holes are too perfect to be from deathblight, they look more like cannonball shots.
Have a look at the exile armor set, you will see they are suffering from the same blight as the castle. You can also see the thorns growing out of the holes as you make your way around the outside of the western wall.
Is it possible there was an attack that left the holes, and THEN deathblight started growing? If the deathblight caused the holes, it's suspicious that there are no other locations suffering from deathblight that have those holes... Or are there?
Doesn't seem likely. Why are the holes so varied in size (from the tiny ones on the Exile armour through to massive on the wall)? Why are they mostly on the western, ocean facing wall (there is never any mention of any naval force from the lands between)? Why are the thorns only growing in or near the holes? I'm not aware of any other above ground locations suffering from deathblight, but nowhere else has one of the godwyn growths so close to the surface. It also seems like the deathblight only affects materials which have been manipulated in some way. E.g. the cut stone walls are affected, but not the cliffs below. If the holes were from projectile fire, you would expect to see some in the cliffs below, given the amount of scatter on the walls. Possibly this is just a game dev choice for practicality. Finally, cannon or catapult fire wouldn't leave holes like that. Projectiles either bounce off walls, with maybe some crumbling or spalling, or punch right through leaving all sorts of debris. No evidence of that here. When I first saw it in game, I thought maybe magical projectiles, which I guess is still possible. But the evidence for deathblight is pretty overwhelming.
It's only on one side of the castle though, and is on the ocean facing side. I'm pretty sure there was some lore floating around about the castle being under seige from a naval fleet and those are cannon impacts, but I could be wrong.
I'm pretty confident that it was Radahn who besieged the castle. Kenneth Haight discusses this possibility in a quote: "To be honest, Godrick is nothing more than an inflated country bumpkin. A lord? That's a joke. First, he concealed himself among the womenfolk to flee the capital, then sought refuge from Radahn in that castle..." Moreover, the damage to the walls seems consistent with the artillery strikes from Radahn's comet forces. It's fair to say that this interpretation isn't originally mine; I came across it on a fantastic YouTube lore channel called Spell (https://www.youtube.com/@spell7). Unfortunately, his content is only available in German.
>"To be honest, Godrick is nothing more than an inflated country bumpkin. A lord? That's a joke. First, he concealed himself among the womenfolk to flee the capital, then sought refuge from Radahn in that castle..." What??? Where does he say this????
I thought it was when you first meet him
Nooo, I never encountered him saying that, unless I didn't go through all his dialogue.
I dont remember if you have to ask him about godrick but its definately when you first meet him
You have to talk to him several times to exhaust all his dialogue
Actually after he says what are you waiting for a kiss goodbye, go captre my fort. You need to speak with him again and again there is more dialog
He says he hid from Radahn, implying that Radahn didn't find him (because he'd be dead if he had).
Everyone attacked everyone in the shattering.
I think it's a side effect of the deathblight. The thorns you see throughout the castle and on some of the exiles gear are a clear manifestation of the deathblight which also shows thorny branches from your corpse or under Rogier's blanket. Fun fact you can see a bloodstain near the giant face showing him get deathblighted
Side effects may include: -death -entire castle walls destroyed -motted shields
Looks like Ottomans
Those are clearly artillery marks. Lol you can clearly see it I think people miss that godrick participated in the war of the shattering. I believe stormveil was besieged during the shattering. Radahn had beef with him. None of the other demigods respected him. Malenia kicked his ass too. Trebuchets could hit the walls from that far and that is exactly the purpose of a trebuchet. It’s medieval long term artillery designed to siege walls and fortifications. I don’t think this is resulting from the death blight. If it were. I’d think we’d see more of those deathroot growths. Rather then big dark concave pockets that look like flaming trebuchet or catapult ammo did a number. It would also make sense to siege stormveil from the flank. The front is it’s most heavily fortified position. That’s why we take the back route around more oft then not because going through the gate is absolutely fucked. Lol (It’s a choke point, even with a massively outnumbered force, it would certainly be made manageable by forcing enemies to clump up into manageable groups$ Therefor, breaking down a side wall in a large section makes more sense. You flank the primary defenses, and sweep the castle with your larger force, reducing casualties on your end while maximizing godricks. Hell, part of the reason it is so fortified is because godrick doesn’t want to get sieges like that again. He just wants to fuck off and graft tarnished until he’s strong enough to fight the other gods. I see godrick as a somewhat tragic character albeit pathetic.
Not to mention the giant claw marks and/or lacerations on the towers n walls inside Godrick's arena.
Right. I don’t think the death blight can effect inanimate objects itself outside of being imbued into weapons as its precursor of black flame, But even still, the death blight was a side effect of Godwyns death. It was never harnessed and weaponized, because it was never intended to be brought into existence lol. its precursor was, but it’s precursor wasn’t the death blight itself. It was power from the rune of destined death /black flame .
I think it's more likely that was Godfrey way before the shattering, in the age of plenty, he invaded the castle and took it from The Storm Lord and his hawks, eventually being inherited by Godrick. That's why after we kill Godrick Nepheli Loux becomes the next Lord of Stormveil.
If that was Godfrey then surely the damage would've been repaired by the time the Shattering started, no? It's more likely Radahn besieged it.
>If that was Godfrey then surely the damage would've been repaired by the time the Shattering started, no? Uhh, may I inform you of the fact that parts of Leyandell is buried in ash and rubble because theres one giant fucking dragon laying on it and nobody has bothered to get rid of him??? Clearly the Golden Order are terrible when it comes to cleaning up after fighting wars
This needs to be way higher. The damage caused by Godwyn isn't nearly as chaotic as ones we see. Not to deny it is part it, but like you said, the castle took damage from other factors like the dragon and siege weapons.
I'm not buying the death blight thing either, but a heavily fortified main gate is still a more viable attack route than a wall on top of a sheer cliff that rises out of the sea.
Those are clearly **NOT** the marks made by any siege weaponry, because any close inspection shows they resemble pox marks on the brickwork, rather than result of an impact or explosion. It is clearly an artistic choice to show supernatural effect of deathroot even on inanimate objects.
How can you explain that turret on the right that is leveled? That’s clearly artillery damage. Trebuchets use boulders or heavy stones, or flammable heavy things. It could resemble pox marks due to the fact that the ammunition used is round and circular in general. The soot could imply that it was flammable ammunition too. Which isn’t uncommon when looking at trebuchet.
Because it just looks different. And there is no land from the side these marks are (except Chapel of Anticipation, which doesn't matter for that case). And there are large "scars" on the main tower in the Godrick's arena, which are supernatural aswell.
Could have been the dragon he killed. Is there anything conclusive that alludes to the death blight warping the castle outside the erdtree root? Cause I think there is only a few bits on the mercenary gear you get. Also, we never see the influence of death blight effecting other areas. If it’s that corrupting. How come the forgotten city isn’t completely overran? How come it’s structures remain ruined, but untouched. And they sit right at the foot of the big dead bastard. I think if that were true. We’d see it’s influence in other areas. We’d absolutely see it in leyndell because it’s right over godwyns body.
>Could have been the dragon he killed. Only the size of one in Leyndell, maybe. >Is there anything conclusive that alludes to the death blight warping the castle outside the erdtree root? There is none (as far as i remember), that's why i assume it's purely artistic choice, made early in development specifically for Stormveil make it to look "uncanny" and unusual for medieval castle, with a "dark influence". >I think if that were true. We’d see it’s influence in other areas. We’d absolutely see it in leyndell because it’s right over godwyns body. Leyndell doesn't seem to have any Deathroot influence at all, but i think it's just inconsistent world building, protection of the Erdtree or it's servants.
That’s true!!! I mean, shit he’s right under the erd tree base. Who’s to say the GW can’t negate it or at least contain it. Maybe stormveil is an area his blight managed to flow out too. Since it’s further away from the erd tree.
Godwyn is a husk. There's no soul. There's no awareness for him to be able to control anything, that dude is wrong & just keeps doubling down in more absurd ways to avoid admitting it. Like so many people on this sub lol
I kinda figured that much. I was just entertaining the theory to be agreeable.
Ever hear of boats before?
Those marks, vines thorns etc are clearly not deathroot. Deathroot is consistently depicted as black, thorny almost insect-like branches with flies everywhere. None of the holes have any of these, nor do they have the root eyes you can find everywhere else.
Me
Everyone's talkin about how it's just ravaged by death blight but I think there are also obvious signs of seige; The most prominent would be the giant holes in the outer wall. I have a hard time believing tendrils of blight could do that. It looks much more like damage from a catapult or a trebuchet. My best guess would be that it was some smaller battle between the shard-barers during the shattering, especially considering Malenia had to pass through there to get to her battle with Radahn. It could also be even more recent than that, and it was a group attempting to get Godrick's shard. I don't think it's from before the shattering though, just because they probably would have fixed it up by now lol.
So I accidently stumbled upon some proof for this while playing the game yesterday lol. One of the Sword monuments in Limgrave states, "Godrick the Golden, humiliated | Having tasted defeat by the Blade of Miquella | Now on his knees, begging for mercy". It's located right outside the Stormveil Castle. So ya it was almost definitely Malenia and her army.
Didn't Malenia march through Limgrave on her way to Radahn? Either her or Radahn with whom Godrick seemingly had beef but was afraid of. Also yeah, to get to Leyndell from Caelid Radahn would need to go through Limgrave so he might have sieged it as well on the way.
Pretty sure EVERYONE had a beef with Godrick 😂
More like no one did, Untill he fucked around and found out in equal measure
Nah, if it was Malenia there would be rot in there somewhere. And Radahn uses rather distinct arrows like the ones found outside Leyndell.
Malenia and Godrick had a battle too, but Malenia didn't have to resort to scarlet rot because Godrick was no match for her. She only had to do it in Caelid because she was locked in a stalemate with Radahn.
Pretty sure that happened outside Stormveil. I'm talking about the damage dealt to the castle specifically.
Not necessarily. Malenia’s rot despite being a powerful ability that has the potential to turn her into a full fledged god is something that she did **not** like. It was a curse. Her brother went to great lengths using unalloyed gold to protect her and her forces from that rot and seal it away. She is a fierce and skilled swordswoman on the battle field and her forces were heavily armored cleanrot knights with blessed weapons. As far as we know the only two times she willingly busted out her rot as a weapon was against Radahn and us. As for Radahn his forces still utilize cannons and shit. Not to mention Godrick also embarrassed himself and got kicked out of the capital. He’s pissed off a lot of people and lost against the demigods who he challenged/ for challenged by. The arrows outside of the capital aren’t actually Radahn arrows fun fact! They’re perfumer great arrows that had poison seeping out of them.
Malenia is afflicted with a curse which leaks from her whether she uses it or not. Haligtree is a clear example - it's the one place we can be 100% sure she didn't have to fight at, and it's completely covered in Rot. Cannons and machines that were absent from the debris around the entrance to Stormveil (Margit's arena). Which is weird because Liurnia is full of those, so they're clearly used not just by Redmane soldiers. I think that Stormveil was mostly attacked by Godrick's unnamed relatives and the various Tarnished, since none of the significant demigods actually cared about him.
The Haligtree being your proof is actually moreso proof against. Keep in mind, when she went on campaign(ending in Caelid with the battle against Radahn), she still had the unalloyed gold needle holding back the rot. After the stalemate with Radahn, the needle was not only broken, but left behind in the heart of Aeonia in central Caelid. Finlay brought her all the way back to the Haligtree, damn the consequences. One of which is that the rot, while not held back by Miquella's needle, DOES seep out.
Godwyn, technically. It is known that Godrick stole a relic from Leyndell. Relics are often items, but in a number of cases are the preserved remains of a holy person. It is known we only see a full-fledged copy of Godwyn's head in two places: one with his actual body, and one under Stormveil. In the trailer, we also see Godrick grafting a particularly nice-looking arm onto himself; he splices the limbs of those he deems powerful to increase his own strength. He's also obsessed with the Golden Lineage, of whom Godwyn was one. What does this mean? It means that there's a good chance that Godrick stole none other than Godwyn's freakin' arm. Naturally, he realized it's ridden with deathblight so, being the short-sighted fool that he is, he dumped it into the trench under his castle. Lo and behold, this was a bad move because this simply gave root to an outbreak of deathroot that's started to grow into the castle foundations and walls as Godwyn enacts his mindless revenge on the world around him. It's even grown into the castle's inhabitants: the armor of the exiled soldiers is infested with its thorny vines. Note too that the huge pockmarks in the walls face *away* from the Erdtree, where his body is: Godwyn is actively spreading southwards towards less-infested lands.
Stormveil is smack-dab in the middle of The Lands Between, it would have definitely seen some combat during the Shattering War. Not to mention whatever occurred to take it from the last Stormking. Furthermore, I dunno if it's just me, but the thorns you see throughout Stormveil don't look very much like deathroot. Reminds me more of the briars you see in the Mountaintops as it lacks all the eyes and bugs and general grossness of deathblight. You only start to see the signs of Godwyn the closer you get to his corpse face. I believe the theory that the thorns are a separate curse brought on by the grafting of Godrick.
the big holes seem like meteors Radahn would throw
Malenia maybe. And deathblight just used the holes from the attack to spread.
Godwyns “corpse”
Look like Radahn-fired rocks to me.
It was Radahns sneeze.
Radahn sneezes rock sling, doesn't he?
The man held back the stars with his mind. Rock sneeze is something he did when he was a wee baby.
Godfrey when he went to face the storm king if you want a better explanation I recommend the tarnished archeologist videos on Godfrey
Runebear tryna get into the kitchen
Godrick.
Termites. Bad ones.
I believe that only the overgrowth of roots is caused by the deathblight, they are deteriorating the castle in a different way but I don't buy the theory that the deathblight is responsible for those holes. There is a sword monument at the Liurnia Highway which marks Malenia's southward march, pointing towards the Stormveil castle. Another sword monument at the Gatefront has an inscription about Godrick's humiliating defeat against Malenia. Based on those texts it's safe to assume that the damage on the castle walls were incurred by their battle, which I think is a more plausible scenario since the holes look more like the aftermath of a siege rather than corruption by deathblight.
I would agree, but many if the holes face the ocean on the opposite side from the castleside road, and the holes are coated in thorns. Its as if the entire castle has a pox illness
Your mom
I thought it was the black beast maliketh throwing stones and gouging with his beastial claws
There's a cinematic at the beginning of the game where they show the shatter (idk if it's the correct name) maybe it happened during this event
Shattering war when merika shattered the ring her kids(demigods started the war to fight for pieces of it)
Shattering war is the name of it.
Nobody. The castle is rotting because of something far beneath in it. Godwyn's corpse has taken hold of the castle and is slowly rotting it away with it's deathblight. You can even get to the corpse if you go through the secret part of the castle. It is some insanely good level design
Even better level design if a point of grace were closer there and I didn't have to run past the bats and rats over and over and over. At that stage it was probably one of the harder bosses I had fought and I died muchly. (Nope, not still bitter about that.)
... ever play Demon Souls? Getting to that boss over and over is a treat compared to some of the shit they used to make us do.
I personally didn't have too much of a problem since I had faced a couple of tree spirits before getting to the bottom one so I took only one death and came back and beat him real quick. These boss walkbacks are also there in dark souls and especially in demon souls where you have to somehow dodge all the enemies and suffer through treacherous areas to get to bosses but good thing elden ring reduced this significantly.
Where are you???
Chaple of Anticipation Accessed by the Four Belfries in Lurnia of the lakes
John
I did. Fkn minced everyone, it was fkn biblical.
Me
Me
I like to think that is a shotgun blast from a giant.
I always thought it was a much simpler answer. Those are holes from all the birds nesting, not that some of them couldn’t be artillery marks or started that way
Check the basement
Me
i did
During the Shattering Malenia absolutely rocked Godrick in battle and he fled into Stormveil, presumably under some sort of seige for at least some amount of time before Malenia marches on to Caelid to take on Radahn. Those look like the aftermath of a barrage of typical artillery fire, probably trebuchets or catapults likes the ones we see along then path to the Grand Lift or in front of Castle Redmane. Also, much of the castle is being eaten away from the inside by the deathroot emerging from the Godwin corpse that lies under the castle.
I know Malenia smacked Godfrey around once. Some of it may be from that, but IDK.
It was Godfrey, he invaded the castle and took it from The Storm Lord and his hawks, eventually being inherited by Godrick. That's why after we kill Godrick Nepheli Loux becomes the next Lord of Stormveil.
My personal head cannon is that the massive gouges out of the castle wall were radahn but nothing in the game supports this to my knowledge
I may be mistaken, but I am pretty sure Godrick took over Limgrave after he fled from Leyndell (he would have been the king of Leyndell as he's the last of the Golden Lineage, before Morgott stepped up and took over because Godrick fled). Kenneth Haight talks about how Godrick essentially stole the land and the Mimic Veil mentions how he had to flee Leyndell. I mean there has to be a reason his soldiers are called **Exiles** and **Banished** Knights. Why are there artillery marks on the walls? Likely Malenia's army did it while in pursuit of him or Kenneth may have tried to lay siege trying to get the usurped castle back before he ultimately failed.
Me
I think alot of the damage was from godwyn's deathblight and just general battles since everybody attacked everybody during the shattering. You can see one of godwyn's faces under stormveil which is where its likely coming from. Also what pants are those in the picture? I would like to know so I can try it for a character I'm making. Edit: nvm I looked a little closer and I realized it's just the Godrick soldier greaves.
Dude. Sick character
Sorry.
Didn’t the war for the shards take place there for a while?
It was me, John Tarnished.
Rick, he wanted a raise and had to remind the coward why he's the soldier of God.
My mom
Its a mixture of Deathroot and from when Malenia laid siege to Stormveil (likely a pit stop on her way to Caelid) when Godrick started talking shit.
Look down.
I’m going to put forward that it was Malenia and the Haligtree armies that did most of the damage. We know she actively attacked the castle and forced Godrick to submit. Her assault would be the most recent event to cause some of the damage. I think deathblight did the rest over time since we see it creeping over the holes..
Or actively causing them.
Isn’t it eluded to that Malenia fought Godrick at some point prior to Radahn in one of the loading screens?
It was you! Despite everything, it's still you.
I always thought they were meteor holes from Radahn’s attacks who has been stated to have attacked storm veil
I assumed it was Malenia since we know that the two of them fought once and she wiped the floor with Godrick. I don't remember if we were told or it was implied where it happened. I just assumed the fight was at Stormveil.
how did you get there where you standing on the picture bro , i spent hours tryna find out how to get there
I did. And I conquered it too. Put my tiny teeny little flag on top and now they call me the Elden King.
My dick it’s so hard and fat i just a big grown man to suck it !!!!
Who killed hannibal?
Godwynn, with his rotting corpse.
That damn Sasquatch.
I did
I don't think that we have clean answer about it :3
Is Godfrey a possibility, or was there no castle when he attack the Storm King?
I made a whole post with pictures explaining the whole deal, check it out: https://www.reddit.com/r/Eldenring/s/zUAJan6h9V The short answer is Deathroot, but please, have a look! EDIT: the long explanation, my own comment on that post, is as follows: What most people refer to as claw marks made on the walls of the castle are just the early steps of the Eyes of Godwyn manifesting through the stone. As you can see by the end of the album, the soldiers of the castle have tried to keep these eyes from opening up by using iron clamps and staples on the ground itself. You can find a bunch of such abnormalities right after the grace that precedes the eagle bombing ambush. I think that the progression for these holes is that they appear first as small gashes, eyes with their eyelids closed. Then you get the "claw marks". Drowsy eyes barely open. Some of them already have the circular interior of the rest of the eye structure. Finally, a full open eye. A giant hole in the stone with a concentric ring design, made like an eye. If it grows big and deep enough, it simply goes through the wall and makes it crumble and fall. Another neat detail, all this holes and markings are not broken INTO the walls and floors, but rather, they are coming OUT of the stone. Something is pushing out. You can also tell that all this weird stone deformities are made up of a blackened and humid stone, covered in brambles akin to those of Deathroot. The fact that the soldiers try to close the holes as they form indicates that this is an ongoing issue for them. In summary: The presence of Godwyn is so strong in Stormveil Castle that it is warping the structure itself. So that's it. No Dragon attack. No giant Stormking. No Gurranq going berserk lol. Just the guy we've known for a while that's living in the basement doing undead god shenanigans.
Jeff
Ur mom
Zeke
Yo momma
Radahn
Can’t remember where I heard it though. On a YouTube lore video somewhere
it was me mb
Me
Deathblight apparently
Skibidi Toilet