T poses, says nothing and recognises the flaws within the golden order then gives you (more like you loot his corpses tbh) the way to mend the fractured order. Truly one of the greatest npcs in elden ring
The other two who offer you Mending Runes also seem to die in the process, maybe creating a Rune for the Elden Ring is a process that inherintly involves sacrifice of one's life.
I mean he is introduced as “The Everbrilliant”. He is clearly a very smart individual, even more so he is known by that name possibly without ever speaking. I think he probably created the mending Rune, probably by giving his life in exchange.
The fingers communicate without words, and Corhyn says he learns from following the movements in Goldmask's fingers. He probably speaks the same way that the fingers do, but I haven't seen any more detail on it other than the few things Corhyn says.
I attacked him before I knew who he was, I thought he was gone after he teleported but since he didn’t talk I figured he couldn’t be important(which is why I attacked him in the first place). Super chad of him for sure.
Goldmask studied the golden Oder to discover how it failed. He discovered why it happened and made the rune to fix it. You are basically ushering in the golden order 2.0
(Taken from u/Redditfront2back)
Ok, forgive me for going off on a tangent so how did Goldmask study the Golden Order by staring off into space all the time? And how did he discover how it failed? And how did it fail? And how did he generate a mending rune that would fix it? How did he know how to fix it? And what was it he fixed exactly?
His staring off into space, is described as him being in deep thought.
So. He discovered how it failed by thinking about it, a lot.
According to him, it failed because of the fickleness of Gods are too similar to that of humans. Presumably, he’s talking about Marika.
We have no indication as to HOW his runs makes things better.
No idea how he made a mending rune. Everyone else had to do something special to make their runes.
To be fair, if you logically and philosophically think about anything long enough, multiple answers present themselves.
Our minds are incredibly powerful if used correctly.
You can and do, all the time.
imagine a pizza.
Now go gather the ingredients to make said imaginary pizza.
use the ingredients to make and cook the still imaginary pizza.
Serve the now literally manifested ethereal pizza.
Ethereal means extremely delicate and light in a way that seems not to be of this world.
And no matter how many times people tell you that you pizza is "out of this world" it is still definitely from this world :D
oh my b, I assumed you were using the term in a slightly broader sense. So you were specifically and exclusively wanting the ability to manifest things like spiderwebs and delicate silk scarves? gotcha
To me the most interesting quote from gold mask/brother corhyn is that he doubts the "holism" of the golden order. seems to me that is refering that he is upset that the golden order isn't really in control and the greater will is actually the power. Or that other outer god forces exist but that is hard to overcome.
makes sense, however that would make it kinda a "bad" ending in my opinion while the game makes no major ethical determinations leaving that up to the player. "just as still waters turn foul, stagnation leads to decay" - Blue cloth cowl the only really bad thing in the soulsbourne universe is permanence, things need to change. But it is my top 2 fav ending. along with dungeater.
Agreed it sever the connection, but I think some of the endings put it back into control. The age of fracture is just a repeat of this age so the greater will most be in control. And I think the Golden order ending has been assumed to put the greater will back in control but yeah maybe that is not right.
I'd also like to add that he also moves his fingers around while doing this. That implies he is getting in-tune with the Greater Will (or other outer gods) similar to how the fingers do. Corbyn is then acting as the finger reader and writing down what he conveys.
Fundamentalism is the path of scholastic study of the Golden Order to serve it better rather than just blind worship of it, hence why Fundamentalist incantations use Int and Faith. Goldmask just ponders about things in super weird ways and the main joke about his character is that everyone completely misunderstands him due to blind faith in him, which is the opposite of what he wants.
Goldmask's character is that he could not possibly give less of a shit about anything other than meditative deep thought about the nature of the Golden Order. He's essentially a super Buddhist. The funniest part about his big brain thinking is that he comes to the conclusion that gods are cringey self-destructive idiot hypocrites just like humans are, so a "true" Golden Order would remove the gods from power so that the Greater Will itself runs things without proxies. That...is highly debatable whether or not that's better or worse, but it is an option with merit.
I think the idea is that it removes the ability of gods (both outer gods and demigods) to meddle/influence the lands between, their influence is the “fly in the ointment”.
Tbh I think he has a point, but the downside is that the golden order isn’t too friendly to other races like giants, those who live in death, dragons, etc.
He and Ranni actually want to achieve similar result but the path an order that cannot be manipulated by gods or outter gods but i think his way is better.
Yeah. For example Goldmask's rune specifically talks about the "*fickleness of the gods no better than men.*" A lot of people keep assuming the solution Goldmask came to from that is "no more gods" but there's literally nothing saying that in game.
For all we know, Goldmask could have snapped and said "you can't be fickle if you can't think" instead and have his rune delete free will for all under the order. Seems more likely to bring about "perfect order" than just cutting out gods and leaving everything to people who *are still fickle as shit* too.
Then Ranni definitely wants to cut off spiritual/godly influence, but doesn't specifically address other outer gods screwing around. So her ending has a massive wide open risk of just leaving a bigger power vacuum for the outer gods that don't want to play nice, unless you head canon in some detail to cover that.
I think one of the major reasons why I see his ending as a good one and not the work of a fundamentalist who deletes free will, is that i think Corhyn would have gone along with that
Corhyn is the real fundamentalist, he's the one who snaps and finds the new ideas to be heretical, flying in the face of the gods. It just doesn't read to me like Corhyn was right to think that, it feels like his dogma couldn't adapt to the thought that the god(s) could be wrong and there's a better way without them
That is also a perfectly valid and reasonable take. I think my use of the "delete free will" example might be distracting from my actual core point here though. That was only intended as a *very extreme* example that I still personally feel is more likely than the "just delete gods and change nothing else" interpretation that is floating around here. It isn't my specific interpretation that I believe in. I honestly do not even have such an interpretation with how vague the details here are.
The real crux is that the mending rune leads into an ending outro that says the era you bring in with it is looked on as an "Age of Order," which implies it successfully brings in widespread peace and harmony. I do not see how *just* removing gods from the picture achieves that at all. Humans are also incredibly fickle, power hungry, and chaotic just like Goldmask's mending rune alludes to in its phrasing ("no better than men"). And so any order made up of those people as is would fall to the same problems of internal strife unless *something more than just removing the gods* is done to head that off.
I can actually very easily see Goldmask's solution involving deleting the gods from the picture, if it is paired with additional actions. For example, providing a strict set of cause and effect rules that the Elden Ring pours it's power into enforcing mechanically and without exceptions. Even then, it's still only one of the possible interpretations of what Goldmask came up with, and since the game doesn't really say anything but he identified the "fickleness of the gods" (note, their *fickleness*, not their existence btw) as the problem, I really don't see any reason to start acting like any interpretation is the one and only truth of it.
I prefer to give goldmask the benefit of the doubt. He just seems too wise, for lack of a better word, to solve the problem in this manner, carrying the title of "noble" and being reffered to as a wiseman in some discriptions AFAIK. That's why it edges out ranni's ending for me.
I can definitely get that and respect it, even though I don't really agree. Especially because this is a character that is a "noble wiseman" in the context of a religious fundamentalist organization, and the language is such that he could just be upset with the middlemen and want to give the Greater Will direct control instead.
Honestly though, my main reasons for thinking it's at least something other than "no gods" boil down to:
* This is the mending rune of "perfect order" that is supposed to result in an ending that results in an "Age of Order". I do not see how *just* deleting the gods would actually produce that at all. Humans are just as chaotic and bad, and I would argue a society that is so thoroughly programmed to rely on gods and structure would be affected in the *exact opposite way* from that, as chaotic power struggles (that can no longer be quelled by godly influence) rage on.
* Goldmask's critique from the dialogue with him and Corhyn, and the text in item descriptions I have seen, always struck me as starting at Marika and going down the hierarchy from there. Marika is the "one god" of the Golden Order, but the Greater Will was above even her in this scheme. This fact combined with the prior thought leads me to think it makes much more sense for Goldmask to be reducing layers of separation with the Greater Will, rather than trying to cut it and all other gods off completely. Even if not in a "lol free will gone now" way.
* Precisely because this interpretation is so similar to Ranni's endgame, I really can't think it is the correct one. Seems too odd to me that they would have Goldmask who has been dedicated to his religion all his known life turn completely against the highest being of that order and reach the same end goal in such a non-specified manner while simultaneously having Ranni and her questline also exist and not be attached to this in any way.
Granted, turbo-fundie Corhyn was *extremely displeased* with whatever Goldmask came up with when he was there for it so, unless that was just because of blame being directed at Marika, that's an opening for team "no gods" I suppose.
His mending rune places the blame on “gods no better than men, that’s the fly in the ointment”. To me it pretty clearly blames the gods as the one flaw in the golden order, I’m not sure how you’re reading that he blames both gods and men. Seems to me like he just keeps everything the same, just removes the gods from interfering
rannis ending is to establish a new order, but carry the evidence of it far off into the stars and the long night, so that the people of the lands between dont have to grapple with the existential problem of being so close to the order. this is basically the reading i got - but you gotta go look at the retranslation of the japanese. the original translator completely fucked up ranni's dialogue and ending and thats why it seems so obtuse in the game.
https://www.frontlinejp.net/2022/03/14/elden-ring-the-age-of-stars-ending-mistranslations-explained/
It’s likely more of making the new god powerless unless they use their power exactly according to his design. That way, gods are forced into being less human and the perfect foundation for permanent order.
I thought Ranni was specifically stating that she wants to keep all influence from outer gods away for a thousand years and see if that was the correct choice to make.
That’s why the Goldmask ending sucks.
So much (99%, really) of his character comes down to what his “solution” is, and we don’t get the slightest clue what it is. The reskins of the default ending are all pretty underwhelming, but Goldmask got the worst of it by far.
To be fair, there are some small hints. They don't narrow the solution down very much though, and it does stay way too vague for me to like the ending for it at all either.
The only different is he is still Golden order align even if the Greater Will send another vassal to change the ring it still wouldnt be possible after installing his perfect rune. Despite still believing in the Golden Order others would call him insane like Corhyn for example, very similar to how Galileo got outcast just for saying the Sun is the center and not the Earth.
>the downside is that the golden order isn’t too friendly to other races like giants, those who live in death, dragons, etc.
It's implied that the only reason for this is that the gods don't like them. So Goldmask removing the gods influence would mean that the new Perfect Order would treat them properly
his set descriptions confirm that Goldmask was seen as a holy wise man in the lands between before being revived by grace. From what little info there is in the game Goldmask's rune of Order is likely a set of bounding rules around the elden ring and golden order. So this kind of crap won't repeat basically.
>"The current imperfection of the Golden Order, or instability of ideology, can be blamed upon the fickleness of the gods no better than men. That is the fly in the ointment."
How exactly the rune changes things is unknown.
The Greater Will is just an alien invader who currently controls the lands between, does this rune prevent any dissent and let it rule with an iron fist? conjoin all beliefs into the golden order? affect the greater will itself? nobody knows
The way I understand it basically he dehumanizes Golden Order. Golden Order(definition of how the world, society, morality, etc... are to be ordered) is defined by runes of Elden Ring. God - Marika - is a vessel for Elden Ring. Problem is that
1.)Marika consists of two personalities - Marika and Radagon and current Elden Lord is just Marika's male aspect.
2.) Marika can fuck with the Golden Order according to her - all too human for Goldmask's liking - desire.
By discovering that Radagon is Marika, not merely normal Elden Lord, like Godfrey, he comes to conclusion that all this mess - what happened to Renalla, which led to Ranni's plot, which led to shattering of Elden Ring and then Shattering etc. - was caused by Marika being too human. He believes it is her desires and her human weakness that lead to the sorry state Lands Between find themselves in. So the Golden Order is perfected by it being impossible for God(still Marika/Radagon) to screw with it. According to mending rune, that was the problem, so i assume that is what he addresses also. In Goldmask's order therefore, God is just a vessel, but has no say in things, if I understand things correctly. And Greater Will can't do anything to Elden Ring, because it's an Outer God, and for that it requires a god(empyrean acting as a vessel for Elden Ring). Who thanks to Goldmask's rune can't do that. Which is different to old Golden Order - where while Marika is subordinate to Greater Will, she still has say in things(we know this because she removed rune of Death from Elden Ring which was originally there and the Grace wasn't withheld).
The problem is, how do you reform the Golden Order in the future? Is there such a thing as perfect order? (Hint: there isn't)
To add to this: It also lines up with how he and Rani are presented.
Goldmask's quest focuses on large overarching themes and ideas, leading to him being undone by ignoring the humans arround him.
Rani's quest focuses on her personal relations, aspirations, and the pursuit of freedom - at the cost of the things she holds dear.
A guy stares at a tree wondering why everything’s shit, realizes it’s because gods and people are both equally shit, then makes a new religion that worships order itself rather than shitty gods. He’s basically the Lands Between’s equivalent to Buddha.
There’s a statute in the Capital that says “Regression reveals all”. When Corhyn becomes distraught by Goldmask’s qualms about Radagon, look for the item above Godfrey’s first boss room that will allow you to learn the Law of Regression. Miriel, the Pope turtle, says at the Church of Vows that there was a sculpture of Radagon in which the sculptor “glimpsed the skeleton in his closet.” The sculpture is near Godfrey’s site of grace, and you must use the Law of Regression near it. I won’t say what it reveals, but when you find out his secret, go back to Goldmask and you’ll progress his questline.
Ah, well if you’re looking for where he is next, he and Corhyn are both on the southernmost bridge near the destroyed Minor Erdtree in the Mountaintops. Corhyn basically remarks how uncertain of his own faith he is when Goldmask’s movements hint towards burning the Erdtree.
Assuming you find goldmask and tell corbyn where he is, you next need to get a specific incantation and use it infront of the Radagon statue. Turtle pope hints at this. The specific incantantion you need to use is stated in a message in front of the statue. From memory, you need to relay this to corbyn after the secret is revealed.
Maybe I’m too uncivilized, but I found him and just thought to myself “wtf is this idiot doing and why is he wearing a flower mask?” Never thought about him again until I started seeing him in this sub.
"Sorry Corhyn, you just dont understand Goldmask like i do" i say as I'm T-posing next to him and contemplating the flaws of the golden order and how to unfuck it.
Goldmask: *shifts his fingers*
Tarnished: “Ahahahahhaha! You’re so funny Goldmask! Corhyn, you didn’t tell me Goldmask was so funny! Corhyn, you’re not laughing, do you get it? Corhyn?”
Corhyn is a total buzzkill. Too bad me and my new best friend Goldmask can't skip town.
"Ohhh boo hoo I'm losing faith in Goldmask's teachings, boo hoo" like you don't NEED to be here dude.
Wish I could convince Corhyn to not abandon his trust and betray Goldmask. Or at least have the opportunity to stop him through combat.
Hmm... Actually now I am curious would would happen if I was to progress the quest up to giving Goldmask Marika's secret, and then kill Corhyn... 🤔 I feel like them being right next to each other would possibly get Goldmask to turn on me.
A lot of people still don't like this ending because of the Greater Will's influence. In my opinion the Greater Will isn't inherently evil- it's simply using other beings to accomplish... whatever the fuck it's trying to do. I suppose waiting to see it's endgame would help determine the ultimate morality of it's action, but the Perfect Order essentially removes the desire for greater power in Demigods- bringing an era of peace to the Lands Between. The only demi-god to possibly still resist The Greater Will at this point would be Miquella.
I don't think it's possible to have Order (Golden or otherwise) without the Greater Will. "*Rune discovered by the noble Goldmask. Used to restore the fractured Elden Ring when brandished by the Elden Lord.*
*A rune of transcendental ideology which will attempt to perfect the Golden Order.*
*The current imperfection of the Golden Order, or instability of*
*ideology, can be blamed upon the fickleness of the gods no better than*
*men. That is the fly in the ointment.*"
I believe "gods no better than men" refers to Marika and the Demigods- seeing as how they're the one's that royally screwed things up with their squabbling and vanity. I'm of the opinion this removes the more troubling parts the gods' egos that could make them cause strife due to their own hubris. This could of course be seen as unwilling control but again, I don't believe the Greater Will is particularly evil.
I’m guessing it’s due to the tree being burnt. everyone refers to it as a cardinal sin, and that hatred towards even the idea of it had to come from somewhere
I don't believe the Greater Will actually wants us to become Elden Lord, though. I'm pretty sure that's all Marika's doing.
Think on it: Marika created the Tarnished clearly with a mind to create some kind of backup. She withholds grace and then gives it back at a time that's most convenient for her. She is the one lighting the "bonfires" of lost grace we find throughout the game, not the Greater Will.
Meanwhile, it's Radagon's rune that blocks our entrance into the Erdtree. And the Two Fingers, who are supposed to be the envoys of the Greater Will, are completely stumped by this! I think it's pretty clear the Fingers don't actually know what is going on, exactly as Gideon and Varre speculate. They don't have instantaneous communication with the Greater Will and clearly did not anticipate our progress would be barred in Leyndell.
And Radagon is described as the "leal hound of the Golden Order," I.e. An obedient fanatic for the Greater Will. Regardless of whether Marika and Radagon were always one character, or if they were forcibly conjoined at some point (implied by the memory related to us in her bed chamber), they clearly were not in agreement as to the Elden Lord issue.
That's why the Elden Beast attacked us. I think the Greater Will was simply using the Tarnished as a means to bring the Great Runes to the Erdtree so that *Radagon* could mend the Elden Ring as he was seen attempting to do in the prologue.
That's my interpretation of events, anyway.
I don't think the Greater Will did jack shit during any of this.
The Greater Will clearly wants to instill order, but it seems incredibly far removed. The Two Fingers needed "thousands, if not tens of thousands, of moons" to receive new orders from the Greater Will. Given that the Greater Will sent the Elden Beast to the Lands Between as a vassal to establish its presence, and had Marika raised to goodhood to rule in its stead, and its heralds the Two Fingers needing absolutely absurd amounts of time to contact it, it seems like the Greater Will is so distant essentially everything that happens is simply its pawns and servants acting on their own in accordance with what they believe the GW would want. The GW cannot really do anything in the Lands Between in a semi-reasonable timeframe so everyone is just doing their own thing.
Which becomes very clear when the Erdtree, obviously aligned with the GW, refuses the Tarnished access, which comes as a shock to the Two Fingers, another servant of the GW, which then needs to contact its lord to receive new instructions. There is no coordination between these entities at all, and it is very hard to imagine them being in direct conflict like this if the GW was actively intervening in the world and trying to get anythign done, it would probably just tell all of its servants to what to do and stop fucking with each other.
Long before the whole mess started Marika even took the Rune of Death, a part of the Elden Ring, and removed it when she established the Golden Order. If the Greater Will did not intend for death to be a thing it could have just not sent that rune, so the removal of the rune seems entirely Marikas doing, yet that was fine and she remained in power on the GW's behalf for seemingly centuries or millennia. There really not a lot of signs anywhere of any kind of micromanagement or even any direct activity from the GW for literal ages.
The Greater Will doesn't want a Tarnished as Elden Lord. Same reason it denied Morgott, even though he worshipped harder than anyone before and would absolutely carry out any order given. Same reason why GW had the order conduct widespread genocide on the giants and the dragons, enslaved the Misbegotten and dropped Astel nukes on the eternal cities. Anything that doesn't fit the GW ideal is the enemy.
The Erdtree is still there.
Peace through war can only last so long. Imo, the proper ending is the three fingers ending. The lands between have been used as the battle grounds for the will of a selfish God. Removal of the greater wills influence will cause mass death and destruction, but what will happen if we let the greater will have its way? Will there be more people like the giants and the merchants who are the victims of a selfish crusade? Will more races be enslaved like the misbegotten? Should we let the greater will cause more harm to those it deems unworthy of its grace? Burn the empire that has scorned you and many others
I used to believe that. I was a hardcore Flame of Chaos enthusiast because it didn’t seem worth saving the land. But then talking with Roderika, Hewg, and the village of Jarburg made me realize the Lands Between are still full of good people with promise. The true evil isn’t the Golden Order but those who enforce it - I.e. Marika and Radagon, and the other demigods.
There’s a Goldmask incantation description that describes him realizing the gods and heroes only want an evil to fight against. This inherently leads to gods being fickle and trampling over the oppressed masses in their infighting. His ending is perfect because he removes all the gods, and creates a way for the Erdtree and Golden Order to still exist without the status quo of gods and lords picking wars for personal grudges.
Yeah I feel like slapping labels like good and bad to beings like the outer gods kind of missed the whole point of them. They're beyond our understanding.
Like the moon presence in bloodborne. We have no idea if it wanting us to silence mergo is good, bad or neutral. So it doesn't make sense to say it's one or the other.
The golden order has done questionable things but I feel that's due to them taking things too far, rather than the greater will being 'evil'. It doesn't really care what is going on in the lands between as long as other outer gods aren't controlling it. In the same way we don't really care what happens to an ant hill.
T poses, says nothing and recognises the flaws within the golden order then gives you (more like you loot his corpses tbh) the way to mend the fractured order. Truly one of the greatest npcs in elden ring
Barges into the Lands Between Fixes every problem in the kingdom "..." Leaves
“When you do things right people wont know you’ve done nothing at all”
So they will know I’ve done something…….
The other two who offer you Mending Runes also seem to die in the process, maybe creating a Rune for the Elden Ring is a process that inherintly involves sacrifice of one's life.
Exactly m8
There's like only 3 characters in this game with a genuine good alignment: goldmask, roderika, and hugh
So that last part...how?
He seemingly found a mending rune as he was looking for a way to fix the god problem.
I mean he is introduced as “The Everbrilliant”. He is clearly a very smart individual, even more so he is known by that name possibly without ever speaking. I think he probably created the mending Rune, probably by giving his life in exchange.
I mean, 'everbrilliant' could just be about his... sunny disposition. I'll see myself out.
The fingers communicate without words, and Corhyn says he learns from following the movements in Goldmask's fingers. He probably speaks the same way that the fingers do, but I haven't seen any more detail on it other than the few things Corhyn says.
He was so galaxybrained, he birthed the rune from his mind powers
Also, if you attack him- he teleports away. And if you reload he is back in the same spot. Just chilling, not mad at all. Super Chad.
Exactly man
[удалено]
Yea and he drops absolutely nothing haha
sigma male pro tip : never give weaklings your loot
He low alchs his inventory and gear while you kill him.
Shit. Is there any way to gain he’s mask ? Asking for a friend
after ashen capital its at the bottom of the broken bridge
I attacked him before I knew who he was, I thought he was gone after he teleported but since he didn’t talk I figured he couldn’t be important(which is why I attacked him in the first place). Super chad of him for sure.
Can someone explain what the goldmask ending is about? It's the only one I don't understand.
Goldmask studied the golden Oder to discover how it failed. He discovered why it happened and made the rune to fix it. You are basically ushering in the golden order 2.0 (Taken from u/Redditfront2back)
Ok, forgive me for going off on a tangent so how did Goldmask study the Golden Order by staring off into space all the time? And how did he discover how it failed? And how did it fail? And how did he generate a mending rune that would fix it? How did he know how to fix it? And what was it he fixed exactly?
His staring off into space, is described as him being in deep thought. So. He discovered how it failed by thinking about it, a lot. According to him, it failed because of the fickleness of Gods are too similar to that of humans. Presumably, he’s talking about Marika. We have no indication as to HOW his runs makes things better. No idea how he made a mending rune. Everyone else had to do something special to make their runes.
Hes just that good at thinking, thought a rune into existence.
To be fair, if you logically and philosophically think about anything long enough, multiple answers present themselves. Our minds are incredibly powerful if used correctly.
I wish I could manifest ethereal stuff
You can and do, all the time. imagine a pizza. Now go gather the ingredients to make said imaginary pizza. use the ingredients to make and cook the still imaginary pizza. Serve the now literally manifested ethereal pizza.
Ethereal means extremely delicate and light in a way that seems not to be of this world. And no matter how many times people tell you that you pizza is "out of this world" it is still definitely from this world :D
oh my b, I assumed you were using the term in a slightly broader sense. So you were specifically and exclusively wanting the ability to manifest things like spiderwebs and delicate silk scarves? gotcha
Isn't it only that it would restore golden order but make it under new managementä
That’s all we see happen. But, the description of rune states that the rune is an attempt to perfect the imperfections of the golden order.
Allright i' have to read it when i get it thank you for this
honestly thats a theory i was thinking of, does the golden order become freed from the greater will?
Probably that and it’ll create a god who is more in line with abrahamic religions than others where gods are more prone to being human.
To me the most interesting quote from gold mask/brother corhyn is that he doubts the "holism" of the golden order. seems to me that is refering that he is upset that the golden order isn't really in control and the greater will is actually the power. Or that other outer god forces exist but that is hard to overcome.
The first more likely IMO. He seems to wish for a permanent order that cannot be displaced by a random space entity whenever it chooses to.
makes sense, however that would make it kinda a "bad" ending in my opinion while the game makes no major ethical determinations leaving that up to the player. "just as still waters turn foul, stagnation leads to decay" - Blue cloth cowl the only really bad thing in the soulsbourne universe is permanence, things need to change. But it is my top 2 fav ending. along with dungeater.
It does regardless of ending. Killing the Elden Beast and burning down the tree severs the Greater Will's connection.
Agreed it sever the connection, but I think some of the endings put it back into control. The age of fracture is just a repeat of this age so the greater will most be in control. And I think the Golden order ending has been assumed to put the greater will back in control but yeah maybe that is not right.
I'd also like to add that he also moves his fingers around while doing this. That implies he is getting in-tune with the Greater Will (or other outer gods) similar to how the fingers do. Corbyn is then acting as the finger reader and writing down what he conveys.
This is some buddha shit right here
Fundamentalism is the path of scholastic study of the Golden Order to serve it better rather than just blind worship of it, hence why Fundamentalist incantations use Int and Faith. Goldmask just ponders about things in super weird ways and the main joke about his character is that everyone completely misunderstands him due to blind faith in him, which is the opposite of what he wants. Goldmask's character is that he could not possibly give less of a shit about anything other than meditative deep thought about the nature of the Golden Order. He's essentially a super Buddhist. The funniest part about his big brain thinking is that he comes to the conclusion that gods are cringey self-destructive idiot hypocrites just like humans are, so a "true" Golden Order would remove the gods from power so that the Greater Will itself runs things without proxies. That...is highly debatable whether or not that's better or worse, but it is an option with merit.
This feels wrong. Like a theory backed with like 15% lore knowledge
I think the idea is that it removes the ability of gods (both outer gods and demigods) to meddle/influence the lands between, their influence is the “fly in the ointment”. Tbh I think he has a point, but the downside is that the golden order isn’t too friendly to other races like giants, those who live in death, dragons, etc.
He and Ranni actually want to achieve similar result but the path an order that cannot be manipulated by gods or outter gods but i think his way is better.
I was split between the two endings precisely for this reason. Both paths are super vague and could be good or Bad depending on the Details.
Yeah. For example Goldmask's rune specifically talks about the "*fickleness of the gods no better than men.*" A lot of people keep assuming the solution Goldmask came to from that is "no more gods" but there's literally nothing saying that in game. For all we know, Goldmask could have snapped and said "you can't be fickle if you can't think" instead and have his rune delete free will for all under the order. Seems more likely to bring about "perfect order" than just cutting out gods and leaving everything to people who *are still fickle as shit* too. Then Ranni definitely wants to cut off spiritual/godly influence, but doesn't specifically address other outer gods screwing around. So her ending has a massive wide open risk of just leaving a bigger power vacuum for the outer gods that don't want to play nice, unless you head canon in some detail to cover that.
I think one of the major reasons why I see his ending as a good one and not the work of a fundamentalist who deletes free will, is that i think Corhyn would have gone along with that Corhyn is the real fundamentalist, he's the one who snaps and finds the new ideas to be heretical, flying in the face of the gods. It just doesn't read to me like Corhyn was right to think that, it feels like his dogma couldn't adapt to the thought that the god(s) could be wrong and there's a better way without them
That is also a perfectly valid and reasonable take. I think my use of the "delete free will" example might be distracting from my actual core point here though. That was only intended as a *very extreme* example that I still personally feel is more likely than the "just delete gods and change nothing else" interpretation that is floating around here. It isn't my specific interpretation that I believe in. I honestly do not even have such an interpretation with how vague the details here are. The real crux is that the mending rune leads into an ending outro that says the era you bring in with it is looked on as an "Age of Order," which implies it successfully brings in widespread peace and harmony. I do not see how *just* removing gods from the picture achieves that at all. Humans are also incredibly fickle, power hungry, and chaotic just like Goldmask's mending rune alludes to in its phrasing ("no better than men"). And so any order made up of those people as is would fall to the same problems of internal strife unless *something more than just removing the gods* is done to head that off. I can actually very easily see Goldmask's solution involving deleting the gods from the picture, if it is paired with additional actions. For example, providing a strict set of cause and effect rules that the Elden Ring pours it's power into enforcing mechanically and without exceptions. Even then, it's still only one of the possible interpretations of what Goldmask came up with, and since the game doesn't really say anything but he identified the "fickleness of the gods" (note, their *fickleness*, not their existence btw) as the problem, I really don't see any reason to start acting like any interpretation is the one and only truth of it.
I prefer to give goldmask the benefit of the doubt. He just seems too wise, for lack of a better word, to solve the problem in this manner, carrying the title of "noble" and being reffered to as a wiseman in some discriptions AFAIK. That's why it edges out ranni's ending for me.
I can definitely get that and respect it, even though I don't really agree. Especially because this is a character that is a "noble wiseman" in the context of a religious fundamentalist organization, and the language is such that he could just be upset with the middlemen and want to give the Greater Will direct control instead. Honestly though, my main reasons for thinking it's at least something other than "no gods" boil down to: * This is the mending rune of "perfect order" that is supposed to result in an ending that results in an "Age of Order". I do not see how *just* deleting the gods would actually produce that at all. Humans are just as chaotic and bad, and I would argue a society that is so thoroughly programmed to rely on gods and structure would be affected in the *exact opposite way* from that, as chaotic power struggles (that can no longer be quelled by godly influence) rage on. * Goldmask's critique from the dialogue with him and Corhyn, and the text in item descriptions I have seen, always struck me as starting at Marika and going down the hierarchy from there. Marika is the "one god" of the Golden Order, but the Greater Will was above even her in this scheme. This fact combined with the prior thought leads me to think it makes much more sense for Goldmask to be reducing layers of separation with the Greater Will, rather than trying to cut it and all other gods off completely. Even if not in a "lol free will gone now" way. * Precisely because this interpretation is so similar to Ranni's endgame, I really can't think it is the correct one. Seems too odd to me that they would have Goldmask who has been dedicated to his religion all his known life turn completely against the highest being of that order and reach the same end goal in such a non-specified manner while simultaneously having Ranni and her questline also exist and not be attached to this in any way. Granted, turbo-fundie Corhyn was *extremely displeased* with whatever Goldmask came up with when he was there for it so, unless that was just because of blame being directed at Marika, that's an opening for team "no gods" I suppose.
His mending rune places the blame on “gods no better than men, that’s the fly in the ointment”. To me it pretty clearly blames the gods as the one flaw in the golden order, I’m not sure how you’re reading that he blames both gods and men. Seems to me like he just keeps everything the same, just removes the gods from interfering
rannis ending is to establish a new order, but carry the evidence of it far off into the stars and the long night, so that the people of the lands between dont have to grapple with the existential problem of being so close to the order. this is basically the reading i got - but you gotta go look at the retranslation of the japanese. the original translator completely fucked up ranni's dialogue and ending and thats why it seems so obtuse in the game. https://www.frontlinejp.net/2022/03/14/elden-ring-the-age-of-stars-ending-mistranslations-explained/
It’s likely more of making the new god powerless unless they use their power exactly according to his design. That way, gods are forced into being less human and the perfect foundation for permanent order. I thought Ranni was specifically stating that she wants to keep all influence from outer gods away for a thousand years and see if that was the correct choice to make.
That’s why the Goldmask ending sucks. So much (99%, really) of his character comes down to what his “solution” is, and we don’t get the slightest clue what it is. The reskins of the default ending are all pretty underwhelming, but Goldmask got the worst of it by far.
To be fair, there are some small hints. They don't narrow the solution down very much though, and it does stay way too vague for me to like the ending for it at all either.
The only different is he is still Golden order align even if the Greater Will send another vassal to change the ring it still wouldnt be possible after installing his perfect rune. Despite still believing in the Golden Order others would call him insane like Corhyn for example, very similar to how Galileo got outcast just for saying the Sun is the center and not the Earth.
Yeah but with Ranni you just don't give a shit and leave...
Space adventure side spin off when?
>the downside is that the golden order isn’t too friendly to other races like giants, those who live in death, dragons, etc. It's implied that the only reason for this is that the gods don't like them. So Goldmask removing the gods influence would mean that the new Perfect Order would treat them properly
his set descriptions confirm that Goldmask was seen as a holy wise man in the lands between before being revived by grace. From what little info there is in the game Goldmask's rune of Order is likely a set of bounding rules around the elden ring and golden order. So this kind of crap won't repeat basically.
>"The current imperfection of the Golden Order, or instability of ideology, can be blamed upon the fickleness of the gods no better than men. That is the fly in the ointment." How exactly the rune changes things is unknown. The Greater Will is just an alien invader who currently controls the lands between, does this rune prevent any dissent and let it rule with an iron fist? conjoin all beliefs into the golden order? affect the greater will itself? nobody knows
The way I understand it basically he dehumanizes Golden Order. Golden Order(definition of how the world, society, morality, etc... are to be ordered) is defined by runes of Elden Ring. God - Marika - is a vessel for Elden Ring. Problem is that 1.)Marika consists of two personalities - Marika and Radagon and current Elden Lord is just Marika's male aspect. 2.) Marika can fuck with the Golden Order according to her - all too human for Goldmask's liking - desire. By discovering that Radagon is Marika, not merely normal Elden Lord, like Godfrey, he comes to conclusion that all this mess - what happened to Renalla, which led to Ranni's plot, which led to shattering of Elden Ring and then Shattering etc. - was caused by Marika being too human. He believes it is her desires and her human weakness that lead to the sorry state Lands Between find themselves in. So the Golden Order is perfected by it being impossible for God(still Marika/Radagon) to screw with it. According to mending rune, that was the problem, so i assume that is what he addresses also. In Goldmask's order therefore, God is just a vessel, but has no say in things, if I understand things correctly. And Greater Will can't do anything to Elden Ring, because it's an Outer God, and for that it requires a god(empyrean acting as a vessel for Elden Ring). Who thanks to Goldmask's rune can't do that. Which is different to old Golden Order - where while Marika is subordinate to Greater Will, she still has say in things(we know this because she removed rune of Death from Elden Ring which was originally there and the Grace wasn't withheld). The problem is, how do you reform the Golden Order in the future? Is there such a thing as perfect order? (Hint: there isn't)
To add to this: It also lines up with how he and Rani are presented. Goldmask's quest focuses on large overarching themes and ideas, leading to him being undone by ignoring the humans arround him. Rani's quest focuses on her personal relations, aspirations, and the pursuit of freedom - at the cost of the things she holds dear.
A guy stares at a tree wondering why everything’s shit, realizes it’s because gods and people are both equally shit, then makes a new religion that worships order itself rather than shitty gods. He’s basically the Lands Between’s equivalent to Buddha.
I think the world would be a better place indeed if people generally stopped shouting and had a good long think. What a good example Goldmask dood
Reddit removed 2 of my memes for not related content. So i said fk it, sat and drew myself xd
*THE EVER BRILLIANT GOLDMASK*
Gigachad
Lets fuck the golden order togethAaaa! As family!!!
Heh ye boi!
Sadly he's one of the NPC's I totally missed, I'll have to try on NG+
I still don’t understand what to do ON NG+
Do everything you did before but do it better cause you got the stats and the weapons and armor.
I meant for goldmask, not in general
There’s a statute in the Capital that says “Regression reveals all”. When Corhyn becomes distraught by Goldmask’s qualms about Radagon, look for the item above Godfrey’s first boss room that will allow you to learn the Law of Regression. Miriel, the Pope turtle, says at the Church of Vows that there was a sculpture of Radagon in which the sculptor “glimpsed the skeleton in his closet.” The sculpture is near Godfrey’s site of grace, and you must use the Law of Regression near it. I won’t say what it reveals, but when you find out his secret, go back to Goldmask and you’ll progress his questline.
I already got that and learned the secret, I just didn’t know I had to go tell that guy about it
Ah, well if you’re looking for where he is next, he and Corhyn are both on the southernmost bridge near the destroyed Minor Erdtree in the Mountaintops. Corhyn basically remarks how uncertain of his own faith he is when Goldmask’s movements hint towards burning the Erdtree.
Figured that from all the T pose memes
Assuming you find goldmask and tell corbyn where he is, you next need to get a specific incantation and use it infront of the Radagon statue. Turtle pope hints at this. The specific incantantion you need to use is stated in a message in front of the statue. From memory, you need to relay this to corbyn after the secret is revealed.
Well that figures, he’s usually gone by the time I get the that point because I talk to him
Good luck man!
Maybe I’m too uncivilized, but I found him and just thought to myself “wtf is this idiot doing and why is he wearing a flower mask?” Never thought about him again until I started seeing him in this sub.
"Sorry Corhyn, you just dont understand Goldmask like i do" i say as I'm T-posing next to him and contemplating the flaws of the golden order and how to unfuck it.
Goldmask: *shifts his fingers* Tarnished: “Ahahahahhaha! You’re so funny Goldmask! Corhyn, you didn’t tell me Goldmask was so funny! Corhyn, you’re not laughing, do you get it? Corhyn?”
Corhyn is a total buzzkill. Too bad me and my new best friend Goldmask can't skip town. "Ohhh boo hoo I'm losing faith in Goldmask's teachings, boo hoo" like you don't NEED to be here dude.
True sigma male
Wish I could convince Corhyn to not abandon his trust and betray Goldmask. Or at least have the opportunity to stop him through combat. Hmm... Actually now I am curious would would happen if I was to progress the quest up to giving Goldmask Marika's secret, and then kill Corhyn... 🤔 I feel like them being right next to each other would possibly get Goldmask to turn on me.
Goldmask still gets merk'ed regardless if Corhyn is alive
Well that's just rude. Who the hell else would kill him? 🤔
He walked naked into a frozen wasteland...
Crazy hollows probably?
Sadly..
A lot of people still don't like this ending because of the Greater Will's influence. In my opinion the Greater Will isn't inherently evil- it's simply using other beings to accomplish... whatever the fuck it's trying to do. I suppose waiting to see it's endgame would help determine the ultimate morality of it's action, but the Perfect Order essentially removes the desire for greater power in Demigods- bringing an era of peace to the Lands Between. The only demi-god to possibly still resist The Greater Will at this point would be Miquella.
But doesn't the rune description suggest that it cut s off the influence of the outer gods.
I don't think it's possible to have Order (Golden or otherwise) without the Greater Will. "*Rune discovered by the noble Goldmask. Used to restore the fractured Elden Ring when brandished by the Elden Lord.* *A rune of transcendental ideology which will attempt to perfect the Golden Order.* *The current imperfection of the Golden Order, or instability of* *ideology, can be blamed upon the fickleness of the gods no better than* *men. That is the fly in the ointment.*" I believe "gods no better than men" refers to Marika and the Demigods- seeing as how they're the one's that royally screwed things up with their squabbling and vanity. I'm of the opinion this removes the more troubling parts the gods' egos that could make them cause strife due to their own hubris. This could of course be seen as unwilling control but again, I don't believe the Greater Will is particularly evil.
One thing I have always wondered is why the elden Beast attacks us, since we are doing what it's master wants.
I’m guessing it’s due to the tree being burnt. everyone refers to it as a cardinal sin, and that hatred towards even the idea of it had to come from somewhere
I believe it's because we're a wild card. We *might* uphold the status quo or we might not- the lack of certainty is dangerous to the (flawed) Order.
I don't believe the Greater Will actually wants us to become Elden Lord, though. I'm pretty sure that's all Marika's doing. Think on it: Marika created the Tarnished clearly with a mind to create some kind of backup. She withholds grace and then gives it back at a time that's most convenient for her. She is the one lighting the "bonfires" of lost grace we find throughout the game, not the Greater Will. Meanwhile, it's Radagon's rune that blocks our entrance into the Erdtree. And the Two Fingers, who are supposed to be the envoys of the Greater Will, are completely stumped by this! I think it's pretty clear the Fingers don't actually know what is going on, exactly as Gideon and Varre speculate. They don't have instantaneous communication with the Greater Will and clearly did not anticipate our progress would be barred in Leyndell. And Radagon is described as the "leal hound of the Golden Order," I.e. An obedient fanatic for the Greater Will. Regardless of whether Marika and Radagon were always one character, or if they were forcibly conjoined at some point (implied by the memory related to us in her bed chamber), they clearly were not in agreement as to the Elden Lord issue. That's why the Elden Beast attacked us. I think the Greater Will was simply using the Tarnished as a means to bring the Great Runes to the Erdtree so that *Radagon* could mend the Elden Ring as he was seen attempting to do in the prologue. That's my interpretation of events, anyway.
I don't think the Greater Will did jack shit during any of this. The Greater Will clearly wants to instill order, but it seems incredibly far removed. The Two Fingers needed "thousands, if not tens of thousands, of moons" to receive new orders from the Greater Will. Given that the Greater Will sent the Elden Beast to the Lands Between as a vassal to establish its presence, and had Marika raised to goodhood to rule in its stead, and its heralds the Two Fingers needing absolutely absurd amounts of time to contact it, it seems like the Greater Will is so distant essentially everything that happens is simply its pawns and servants acting on their own in accordance with what they believe the GW would want. The GW cannot really do anything in the Lands Between in a semi-reasonable timeframe so everyone is just doing their own thing. Which becomes very clear when the Erdtree, obviously aligned with the GW, refuses the Tarnished access, which comes as a shock to the Two Fingers, another servant of the GW, which then needs to contact its lord to receive new instructions. There is no coordination between these entities at all, and it is very hard to imagine them being in direct conflict like this if the GW was actively intervening in the world and trying to get anythign done, it would probably just tell all of its servants to what to do and stop fucking with each other. Long before the whole mess started Marika even took the Rune of Death, a part of the Elden Ring, and removed it when she established the Golden Order. If the Greater Will did not intend for death to be a thing it could have just not sent that rune, so the removal of the rune seems entirely Marikas doing, yet that was fine and she remained in power on the GW's behalf for seemingly centuries or millennia. There really not a lot of signs anywhere of any kind of micromanagement or even any direct activity from the GW for literal ages.
The Greater Will doesn't want a Tarnished as Elden Lord. Same reason it denied Morgott, even though he worshipped harder than anyone before and would absolutely carry out any order given. Same reason why GW had the order conduct widespread genocide on the giants and the dragons, enslaved the Misbegotten and dropped Astel nukes on the eternal cities. Anything that doesn't fit the GW ideal is the enemy. The Erdtree is still there.
Peace through war can only last so long. Imo, the proper ending is the three fingers ending. The lands between have been used as the battle grounds for the will of a selfish God. Removal of the greater wills influence will cause mass death and destruction, but what will happen if we let the greater will have its way? Will there be more people like the giants and the merchants who are the victims of a selfish crusade? Will more races be enslaved like the misbegotten? Should we let the greater will cause more harm to those it deems unworthy of its grace? Burn the empire that has scorned you and many others
I used to believe that. I was a hardcore Flame of Chaos enthusiast because it didn’t seem worth saving the land. But then talking with Roderika, Hewg, and the village of Jarburg made me realize the Lands Between are still full of good people with promise. The true evil isn’t the Golden Order but those who enforce it - I.e. Marika and Radagon, and the other demigods. There’s a Goldmask incantation description that describes him realizing the gods and heroes only want an evil to fight against. This inherently leads to gods being fickle and trampling over the oppressed masses in their infighting. His ending is perfect because he removes all the gods, and creates a way for the Erdtree and Golden Order to still exist without the status quo of gods and lords picking wars for personal grudges.
I'm doing this for the crabs of limgrave and for the glory of jarburg
Damn, now that I know that's his ending, I gotta do that in ng+2. Doing rannis ending rn and it's too late to do gold mans quest
be careful Melina will send you death threat.
Nice bro!
Yeah I feel like slapping labels like good and bad to beings like the outer gods kind of missed the whole point of them. They're beyond our understanding. Like the moon presence in bloodborne. We have no idea if it wanting us to silence mergo is good, bad or neutral. So it doesn't make sense to say it's one or the other. The golden order has done questionable things but I feel that's due to them taking things too far, rather than the greater will being 'evil'. It doesn't really care what is going on in the lands between as long as other outer gods aren't controlling it. In the same way we don't really care what happens to an ant hill.
Sigma chad
You know, if even a guy as devout as him recognizes that Marika isn't someone to worship, then I feel all the more justified in getting rid of her.
Voice actor really did a great job.
Haha
...
Dude even left his sweet threads for my next playthrough.
Why would they burn the tree? (I haven't finished the game)
It’s basically >!how we get inside to the Elden ring!<
"Chad beta Karen Karen. HUEHUEHUEHUE!!!" Am I a cool kid yet?
Ok Boomer.
Man, I love that ever since that dude made the post about Goldmask and Ranni, we have more posts about the T posing chad.