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the witch crowned with stars

#elden ring art #sorceress sellen #literally me

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Elden Ring 💎

Prints available ;)

https://society6.com/gaxixx

Thanks for your support

#elden ring #elden ring art

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A Storm of Swords Illustrations by Petri Hiltunen, for the Finnish hardcover edition

Illustrations for the Finnish hardcover edition of A Storm of Swords (Miekkamyrsky, 2005-2006) by Finnish comics artist, writer and illustrator Petri Hiltunen

Scanned by me. Feel free to share elsewhere but please credit the artist (Petri Hiltunen) and myself for the scans (Saera, @saintarmand on Tumblr and @saera7a on Twitter), preferably with a link back to this post. It did take time! I'm planning on scanning the art from the other books as well but it may take some time since they're not all currently available at my local library.

Google Drive link

#asoiaf #asoiaf art

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Oh yeah here's my big dumb reddit post about the map alignments in Elden Ring

#elden ring #elden ring theory

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Messmer, The Impaler

#messmer the impaler #shadow of the erdtree #elden ring dlc #elden ring art

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"There is nothing more terrifying..."

Whenever I see Miquella's character or aspirations being described as terrifying or fearsome in the official lore, I can't help but think about that quote from A Game of Thrones (book): "There is no creature on earth half so terrifying as a truly just man".

Minor A Song of Ice and Fire spoilers ahead.

Those were the words that Varys used to describe Stannis Baratheon, a man with a strict moral code who can't possibly be bought nor manipulated by his enemies, and who inspires thousands of men to back his claim to the throne. He follows the law to the very letter, and he knows that "a good act does not wash out the bad, nor a bad act the good. Each should have its own reward". Although he can be quite a spiteful man, he does not want to be king out of sheer ambition for power, but because the law of realm states that he is the true heir and he must fulfill his duty.

Even though I don't think that Miquella can be described as a Stannis-type character at all, I can't help but wonder... Will he have a similar approach to justice and duty? Will he defend his Mother's will regarding the Tarnished, in spite of everything? Will he champion those who are lowborn but righteous (as Stannis did with Davos)? Will he stand for what is right, even if that puts him in danger?

And most importantly, has Miquella come to the realization that he was "trying to win the throne to save the kingdom, when I should have been trying to save the kingdom to win the throne"? (Stannis' words, not mine). Is that the reason he has traveled to the Land of Shadow?

Well, in any case, as beloved Ned Stark once said (when asked about Stannis):

"The throne is his by rights. I would welcome his ascent"

#elden ring lore #elden ring theory #asoiaf #grrm #miquella the unalloyed #elden ring shadow of the erdtree #elden ring dlc

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So, I smoked a new Placidusax idea...

Alright so uh... I've noticed at some point during that battle that Placidusax looked like he (?) had severed heads: three severed and two still remaining! It made me recall that there are also exactly three other -sax dragons in the story (Fortissax, Lansseax and Gransax). So like, what if these three dragons somehow grew up/evolved from these severed heads? BUT but but!!!! Turned out that a certain discovery from Zullie can explain even more on this:

(In this ( x ) Tweet)

So, guuuyyyys? We have: 1) Placidusax currently has two heads remaining, male and female one 2) Male heads are bigger than female ones 3) Original look suggests three female heads and two male heads 4) Gransax is bigger and we know is male 5) Lansseax is female and is a sister of Fortissax whose gender isn't stated

So based on this, I think that Fortissax would be female! And I think the idea about these other three -sax dragons somehow existing from the severed heads of Placidusax might work, at least the numbers and internal filenames fall into place 🤔

#awesome theory #elden ring #elden ring lore #elden ring theory #elden ring ancient dragons #dragonlord placidusax

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Miquella's secret disability?

Recently I've been working on a massive post about all the thematic parallels between Elden Ring and George R.R. Martin's A Song of Ice and Fire (books), in order to prove that GRRM's involvement in the story has been greatly underestimated.

Minor spoilers for A Song of Ice and Fire (books) ahead.

Specifically, I was thinking about Miquella and Bran Stark, and the concept of spiritual trees and blood trees in general (the Erdtree/Haligtree in ER and weirwood trees in ASOIAF). Those of you who have read the books know what I'm talking about: trees who are people, people within trees, trees whose sap and leaves resemble blood... (check out @miquella-everywhere's Blood of a Demigod post btw, fantastic stuff and very ASOIAF-coded to me, because I'm an insane person).

When we talk about Miquella, we tend to focus a lot on the whole Miquella is St.Trina business, which is super interesting indeed and goes on to confirm the intrinsic duality of Empyreans. However, this aspect of Miquella's character is so fascinating that we seem to be blinded to many other lore bits that may very well be hiding in plain sight.

While researching for my ASOIAF post, I've come to realize that every single depiction of child Miquella that we have seen so far is either sitting or laying down.

And the promotional DLC image is even more interesting. Miquella is indeed riding Torrent (or some other spirit steed) like a girl, that's true. But also like an albinauric archer. These ladies are seen roaming Ordina, the very gate to the Haligtree, and they ride because they can't walk...

I'm not sure if this has ever been discussed before (please let me know if it has), but it's honestly driving me insane.

Can Miquella walk? Or are there more Bran Stark simillarities than I previously anticipated?

#elden ring lore #elden ring #elden ring theory #miquella the unalloyed #asoiaf #grrm #elden ring spoilers #elden ring miquella #elden ring dlc #shadow of the erdtree #myloreposting

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Miquella Theory: The Blood of a Demigod

As I progress through my journey to catalogue the location of every Lily, Butterfly and any sort of connection to the young Demigod Miquella, I began noticing something very strange...

Whenever I encountered a Miquella's Lily, no matter where it may be, every-so often I noticed that there was an Arteria Leaf close by...

At first I brushed it off, didn't think much of it, but then it started happening more and more frequently to the point where it couldn't be just a coincidence.

This is Elden Ring afterall, and I'm on the hunt for Lily's to dig into the lore of a character with zero dialogue 😂 These Arteria Leaves being so close by definitely has some meaning.

So my first thought was of Mohg. The Omen bastard child of Queen Marika and kidnapper of Miquella. So that makes sense; wherever you find a Miquella's Lily an Arteria Leaf is looming close by, paralleling the twisted one-sided relationship between the two half-siblings.

Creepy... But lorewise very accurate.

But then I started thinking some more... And then it started to become more and more apparent to me that this goes even deeper than just Mohg.

Mohg proclaims himself as the so called "Lord of Blood" thanks to his connection to the Formless Mother, but what if he's not the only Demigod with a proficiency for blood? What if Miquella is a natural-born master at controlling the nature of blood?

The item description of the Arteria Leaf describes it as "exceedingly rare to find," Now we all have made jokes about how they are certainly not exceedingly rare to find lmao But this brings to mind only three other items that you can pick up that have the exact same description....

All items directly related to Miquella... All items that are exceedingly rare to find...

And then you dig deeper into Miquella's own lore and, what was it that they watered the sapling Haligtree with???? That's right.

Their own blood.

Not to mention the existence of the Sacramental Buds where Miquella has literally managed to cultivate their own blood.

And then you read the item descriptions of the only two items that call for Sacramental Buds in order to craft:

So then this means that Miquella's blood potentially has the ability to both heal and bewitch.... Intriguing 🤔

But then I noticed something else about Miquella that supports this blood theory even more: On the statues depicting Miquella they all seem to have very pronounced veins on their arms, indicating that they have an abundance of blood within them (and also that they may be left handed 🤷)

So at this point, with all the evidence layed out- to say that Miquella has an unspoken affinity for blood and the arcane isn't too much of a stretch. But unfortunately thanks to Mohg and his Sanguine followers, Miquella's Divine and Holy blood has been twisted and fetishized for their own purposes.

And now, this next part might be a bit of a stretch, but another theory I have about Miquella is about the origins of Unalloyed Gold... Well, perhaps Unalloyed Gold is actually derived from Miquella's blood?

I say this because the only item in the game that can alleviate the build up of Scarlet Rot(aside from the Needle) is the Preserving Boluses that specifically requires Sacramental Buds to craft, instead of, oddly enough, a Miquella's Lily, which is apparently made of unalloyed gold... a red herring perhaps? 🤔

And then there's this one item in the game that caught my attention, that really makes me scratch my brain, and that item is the common Beast Blood:

If simple beast's blood has small specs of gold within it then what about the blood of a higher being? What about the blood of Miquella the Unalloyed?

The ichor of the eternally young Demigod.

(Also the fact that the Arteria Leaf is described as having a faint pulse makes me think that maybe it's Miquella's pulse, proving that in the cocoon they are indeed, not dead, but only dreaming, with their heart beating oh-so slowly in their slumber :)

#elden ring #elden ring lore #elden ring theory #unbelievable #miquella the unalloyed #mohg #miquella-everywhere

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my favourite weapon designs from the elden ring artbook

#elden ring art #elden ring weapons #elden ring artbook

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Daenerys by Zacckiell on Twitter. Here's the artist's ko-fi.

#daenerys targaryen #asoiaf art

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Elden Ring ↳ Elphael, Brace of the Haligtree

#elden ring scenery #elphael #haligtree

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The last greenseer, the singers called him, but in Bran's dreams he was still a three-eyed crow. When Meera Reed had asked him his true name, he made a ghastly sound that might have been a chuckle. "I wore many names when I was quick, but even I once had a mother, and the name she gave me at her breast was Brynden." -- Bran III, ADWD

A Song of Ice and Fire Calendar 2024 || Brynden Rivers by Justin Sweet

#asoiaf #asoiaf art #asoiaf calendar #justin sweet #bloodraven #the three-eyed crow

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I fucking love grrm he was probably just like "hmm I don't think I'm writing this fight scene realistically, someone come punch me in the fucking face"

#grrm

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The Lands Between

#elden ring #elden ring art

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This is a fantastic theory. I've often wondered about the cleanrot knights' wings but it never crossed my mind that they might be a product of Miquella's cycle of death and rebirth.

Btw does anyone else remember how Malenia's knights and the kindred of rot are depicted in a strikingly similar pose in the official artbook? What do you guys make of that? Are the pests born out of the cleanrot knights' corpses somehow? Are they even connected or is this just a red herring?

To expand on later: I think we have successful examples of Miquella’s baptism-via-cocoon project.

#miquella the unalloyed #malenia blade of miquella #the haligtree #elden ring lore #elden ring theory #cleanrot knights

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I love how Tarnished Archaeologist's latest video touches upon two Elden Ring lore theories that I first read on @dragon-communion's blog: the Empyrean status is connected to the female gender, and Godwyn the Golden might have been Ranni's betrothed.

It makes me so happy that the the Elden Ring lore community as a whole is discussing increasingly bolder and more abstract topics and focusing on more obscure and unique interpretations of the game. It feels like, one year after the release, we are finally getting to the essence of the game together (or should I say togethaaaaa).

#elden ring lore #elden ring spoilers #tarnished archaeologist #elden ring theory #empyrean #ranni the witch #godwyn the golden