The Lore of Elden Ring is Cursed

Up until last week, we didn't know much about  the DLC. In fact, we knew (NIHIL) But now we  

know that the DLC entrance is here in Mohgwyn  Palace before Miquella's withered arm. I think  

it could be important to understand the  circumstances of Miquella's death here at  

the hands of Mohg. So let's dive in. As the age  of the Erdtree began, Mohg was born of the Union  

between Queen Marika and Lord Godfrey. Godfrey  was the first Elden Lord, and as such, Mohg is  

one of the oldest demigods alongside his siblings  who were Morgott and Godwyn. Mohg and Morgott were  

twins. Born together and born as Omen, placing  them in stark contrast to their brother Godwyn,  

who was the golden child, so to speak. Omen,  like Mohg and Morgott, on the other hand, were  

considered to be cursed. But what are the Omen?  Skip this chapter if you've heard it all before.  

But I think The Omen are born by chance, sprouting  these grotesque horns that are vestiges of the  

primordial crucible. So what is the crucible? The  crucible is a melting pot of life that existed  

before the Erdtree and its energies are actually  what became the Erdtree. It's here that there  

was this blending of many creatures, physiological  aspects like feathers, tail, knot, scale, fang and  

horn. What's truly noteworthy about these aspects  is that they would sometimes come to grow on  

creatures that weren't supposed to have them. For  example, kill a deer or sheep or even an ancestral  

follower in the Lands Between. And there's a  tiny chance that you'll receive a budding horn,  

which I think are not unlike the horns of the  Omen. The budding horn reads "This horn began  

to sprout on a beast that typically bears no  horn. Perhaps it is a vestige of the primordial  

crucible." According to the Crucible talismans.  There was a time when these aspects like horns  

were once considered signifiers of the divine. And  that makes some sense because these aspects stem  

from the crucible which did become the Erdtree. So  why wouldn't they be considered holy? And so it's  

during this time that we have to assume that the  ancient warriors known as the Crucible Knights,  

were knighted, serving Lord Godfrey and fighting  with many aspects of the crucible, including horn,  

tail, breath and even wing. But fast forward to  the current age and the Crucible Knights are lost,  

scattered all over the Lands Between fighting for  different causes or for no cause at all. That's  

because Queen Marika's Golden Order abandoned  them. The Crucible Gantlets reveal that "in time,  

the strength shown by these knights and even their  appearance came to be looked upon with scorn for  

having such close resemblance to chaos." This  matches a wider trend in Marika's Golden Order,  

where things were moving away from chaos and  the crucible and even the Erdtree and towards  

fundamentalism instead, as the age of the Erdtree  progressed, but the Crucible Knights got off easy  

All things considered. Take these creatures, for  example. Previously, they were seen as divine for  

having aspects of the crucible at birth. But  eventually they came to be called misbegotten  

instead. A word that really sends the vibe that  these were now seen as contemptible creatures  

bearing ill gotten gains. The misbegotten  became seen as impure, a fact revealed by  

the Spirit Ashes of Perfumer Tricia, who was  a healer who dedicated her efforts to treating  

misbegotten and The Omen as well. The Omen and the  Misbegotten certainly needed treatment, as many of  

them suffered these grievous wounds as a result  of their horns being cut off. Those responsible  

for these wounds in particular were the Omen  killers, a sect of Leyndell butchers, who had  

full authority to hunt the Omen and amputate the  horns. So, in my opinion, the tradition of cutting  

off omen horns would have begun because horns are  the offending part of The Omen as they represent  

their link to the primordial crucible, which is  something that became this accursed concept. And  

omen do bear more aspects of the crucible than  just horns. Mohg has a set of wings just like the  

Misbegotten and Morgott might as well, though the  only really raked in his animation files. Instead,  

Morgott has a tale just like The Crucible Knights.  All that said, the defining aspect of The Omen are  

definitely the horns. That and their brute  strength were enough to label them as omen,  

distinct from the Misbegotten, but still by  chance. Though many Omen were apparently born  

directly from the Erdtree's royal line, two of the  darkest items in the game are The Omen Bairn and  

the Regal Omen Bairn. The word bairn means child,  and these items are dolls, their fetishes that  

were fashioned to memorialize Omen children who  are dead or who might as well be. The Omen Bairn's  

description reads "Omen babies have all their  horns excised, causing most to perish," and those  

that survive live alongside those memorialized  by the Regal Omen Bairn, which reads "Omen Babies  

born of royalty do not have their horns excised,  but instead are kept underground. Unbeknownst  

to anyone imprisoned for eternity." So some  concessions were made for omen as opposed to the  

misbegotten. Two Omen children Mohg and Morgott  were, after all, a part of the Golden Lineage,  

So the royal omens weren't mutilated as long  as their horns were out of mind and out of  

sight. And speaking of sight, a horn seems to be  responsible for Mohg literally being half blind,  

as it has grown relentlessly into his eye socket.  Incidentally, there's a bit of a trend with blind  

characters in Elden Ring and in other Fromsoftware  games as well, and it's that those blinded are  

ironically able to see what sighted folk cannot.  For example, in Elden Ring it was the exiled  

prophets who accurately foresaw the Flame of Ruin  burning down the Erdtree, and it was the guilty,  

their eyes gouged by thorns, who glimpsed an Outer  God in the darkness. There are lots of examples.  

So I guess coincidentally or not, Mohg, half  blind and wounded, eventually did come to stand  

before an Outer God of his own as well, and he met  her deep underground. This outer God was called  

the Formless Mother and the Mother of Truth, a  fitting choice for The Omen, whose true mother  

had abandoned him we've talked about outer gods  in other videos. But long story short, that these  

cosmic Lovecraftian entities that are at once  extremely powerful but also strangely limited  

in how they could influence events in the Lands  Between instead of getting involved directly,  

they will often commune through envoys or  vessels. And in the case of the Formless Mother,  

her subject of communion, one of them at least,  was Mohg. The Blood Boon incantation describes  

Mohg's meeting with this outer god. It reads  "The Mother of Truth craves wounds. When Mohg  

stood before her deep underground, his accursed  blood erupted with fire and he was besotted with  

the defilement that he was born into." The text  also describes what happens when you cast this  

incantation. You "thrust your arm into the body of  the Formless Mother, then scatter the bloodflame  

to set the area ablaze." So there's a lot to break  down with this one description. But let's start  

with the fact that this outer god is at once both  the Formless Mother and the Mother of Truth. So  

what exactly do these titles mean? Let's start  with the Formless Mother, because I feel like  

that title is easier to rationalize. She is likely  "formless" because Liquid blood is her essence.  

And incidentally, the word formless is also used  to describe the Dragon Communion seal in Elden  

Ring, which is also made of blood. But let's cast  our net beyond Elden ring to Bloodborne, where an  

extremely relevant parallel to the Formless Mother  exists in the character of Formless Oedon, which  

is also an outer god of sorts. The Oedon Caryll  Rune states that "blood is the essence of the  

formless great one" Oedon. And while I absolutely  think that the universe is of Bloodborne and Elden  

Ring are separate, I'm confident that Fromsoftware  are reusing a concept from Bloodborne here in  

Elden Ring. So it is that I'm confident that blood  is also the essence of the Formless Mother. That  

said, the Formless Mother still has a body of  sorts. We thrust our arm cross dimensionally into  

it when we cast Bloodboon and when we rip our arms  out, we scatter not just blood, but blood flame.  

Thus, while I think the Formless Mother absolutely  has an affinity for any blood, I think her essence  

is more accurately blood flame. And she's not the  only outer god with a flame of her own. The Fell  

God has giants flame. Death has black flame  and ghost flame. Frenzy has Frenzy Flame. And  

you could even theorize that the Greater Will  has the golden fire that spews from the mouth  

of the Elden Beast and Placidusax. So flame is  commonly a sign of an outer god's essence. And  

I think the Formless Mother is no different with  a blood flame that continues to threaten rupture  

on those afflicted long after it touches their  flesh. The Formless Mother's other title is The  

Mother of Truth, and this title is a lot harder to  interpret. The Mother of Truth... What truth? The  

only character that we know of that the Mother  of Truth has appeared before, is Mohg. So we're  

kind of forced to judge her character through  his. And while I guess it's possible that the  

Mother of Truth venerates the absolute truth, a  broader truth, the fact that she chooses to act  

through Mohg is at least a little bit telling. We  know that she bestows power upon accursed blood,  

and I think this preference for accursed blood  might be a part of the truth that she represents.  

I think she might prefer to act through those who  are unfairly cursed. Like The Omen, like Mohg,  

and I say unfairly cursed because that's kind  of what curses are always in fromsoftware games.  

Curses are always the domain of the gods, and  they're always delivered pretty heavy handedly.  

Take Dark Souls, for example, where Gwyn, a  god, refused to relinquish his age of fire,  

opting instead to curse humanity with undeath.  So that they might fuel his fire until the world  

turns to ash. Pretty over the top, right? And  Queen Marika is actually very similar to Gwyn in  

that she's a God who arrogantly thinks her order  is perfect to the point where she'll do anything  

to try and preserve it. Her hubris is alluded to  in the Mending Rune of Perfect Order description,  

which states that "the current imperfection of  the Golden Order or instability of ideology,  

can be blamed upon the fickleness of the gods no  better than men." And it's the same hubris that  

led to the scorn of the Crucible and I think the  curse upon The Omen as well. To make things even  

more unfair for the Omen. Their curse appears  to largely be one of perception. Ff hate. The  

Omen Bairn description conflates these two things  and speaks from the perspective of an Omen child  

who pleads "Please don't hate me, or curse me.  Please." I also think this notion of curses being  

unfair is explored further in the Dung Eaters  questline where the Dung Eater goes around  

defiling others and spreading the Omen curse. He  calls this defilement his cursed blessing because  

if he defiles everyone, in the end everyone will  be cursed and therefore no one will be. Thus,  

in his ending, a sort of cursed justice is  restored to the world. Elden Ring has this  

consistent theme where characters turn their  curse into their strength. And I think the Dung  

Eater and Mohg are perfect examples of that.  And this is just my theory, but I think the  

Mother of Truth might bestow power upon the  accursed, because the truth is that curses  

of the gods are unfairly given. There should be  nothing wrong with being born with omen horns,  

Right? It's just this genetic trait, a vestige  of the primordial crucible that was once even  

considered divine. But thanks to the Golden Order,  these creatures are now considered omens instead,  

So I'd like to argue that this unfairness is why  the Mother of Truth bestows power upon accursed  

blood. But of course, this is just my theory, and  I welcome any challenges to it in the comments. I  

think challenging each other respectfully is how  we can get a bit closer to the truth. Speaking of,  

I saw arguments ages ago that stated that the  Formless Mother is responsible for the curse of  

the Omen. But I'd like to challenge that idea. I'm  not sure it can be correct. For one, it's stated  

that Mohg first stood before the Formless Mother  underground, and he was only down here because he  

was already banished here for being omen. So he  must have been omen before this meeting. What's  

more, when he did stand before her, it's stated  that his accursed blood erupted with fire. Thus,  

his blood was already accursed when it erupted  with fire. Finally, it says Mohg was besotted with  

the defilement that he was born into. Thus, he  was born omen, like all of the other Omen children  

born to be shunned in a wretched mire underground.  But I think there's a reason that people argue  

that the Formless Mother created The Omen. And  I think one of the arguments is that Morgott,  

Mohg's brother, also has blood flame attacks just  like his brother. So I think people reason that  

blood flame is therefore synonymous with having  accursed blood and that all omen have it. But  

that's not true because only Mohg and Morgott  seem to have blood that was set ablaze. It's  

clear Mohg's was set ablaze in item descriptions,  and it's clear Morgott weaponized his own flaming  

blood by recanting it. But no other omen fight  with blood flame. So I reckon they both received  

this blood flame from the Formless Mother. I think  the Formless Mother appeared before not just Mohg,  

but Morgott as well, even though that's never  mentioned. Only difference was Mohg embraced  

this power and Morgott spurned it. Indeed, Morgott  only uses blood flame against us in his boss fight  

as a last resort. Morgott's blood flame became a  curses sword that reads "Weapon of shifting hue  

used by Morgott, The Omen King. The accursed  blood that Morgott recanted and sealed away,  

reformed into this blade." For him to have this  I think, proves that it wasn't just Mohg that  

was approached by the Formless Mother. It was  Morgott as well. They were both underground,  

assumedly sealed in the same place after all.  So I think both of them had their accursed blood  

set aflame. I think the Mother of Truth,  like so many other outer gods, attempted  

to influence a demigod. And I think they failed  with Morgott, but succeeded with Mohg. In the end,  

both Mohg and Morgott weaponised their trauma.  For Mohg, We can look at the Cursed Blood Pot,  

for example, which you "throw at enemies to douse  them in accursed blood, causing someone's spirits  

to assail them with a rabid fervor." A childhood  memory of the Lord of Blood. It's basically saying  

that Mohg remembers being attacked for his  accursed blood as a child, and considering the  

blood specifically motivates spirits to attack.  It might be referencing Mohg's experience of  

being haunted by evil spirits. According to the  Omensmirk mask. Evil spirits haunt the Omen in  

their nightmares. So with this cursed blood pot  now, Mohg could give others a similar experience.  

The Mother of Truth craves wounds. She desires  bloodshed. Swarm of Flies, Bloodboon, Bloodflame.  

Everything to do with her is designed to let the  blood flow. So the Mother of Truth's base desires  

are quite simple. But does she want more? Where  do her goals end? And where do Mohg's begin? Well,  

beyond specifically wanting to empower the  accursed and beyond craving bloodshed, the  

Mother of Truth doesn't seem to want much. Take  Mohg's sacred spear, for example. It's called an  

"instrument of communion with an outer God." And  all it seems to do is pierce the Formless Mother  

coating the blade in her blood flame. That's it.  That's the communion. What's more, this sacred  

spear is a design that will come to symbolize his  dynasty, not the Formless Mother's dynasty. Mohg's  

Dynasty. The Formless Mother might enable this,  but at the end of the day, she is behind Mohg's  

dynasty, But she's not the face of it. So the most  you could say, I think, is that she has ambition,  

Yes, but she's not interested in being this god  That's worshiped. I think that's very fitting for  

an outer god, actually. Instead, it's Mohg's  ambition that we should talk about. And it's  

Mohg's ambition that led him to leave the sewers  long ago. Probably as soon as he could overpower  

the shackles that bound him here. This battle  you have down here with Mohg is actually with  

an omen illusion, not unlike the fight that you  have with Morgott's illusion. Omen Have this  

ability to conjure illusions. We can sort of infer  that from the soundtrack, which calls them omen  

illusions. Morgott uses his illusion to hinder  the tarnished. His is pretty easy to understand,  

but it's kind of hard to understand why Mohg's  illusion is down here in the sewers. Mohg's  

true location is a bit of a mystery, so maybe he  put the illusion here to throw trackers off the  

scent and sort of pretend that he was still in the  sewers. Or did he leave it here to prevent access  

to the Frenzied flame because his brother Morgott  does something similar down here. After all,  

this illusion of Mohg might even be conjured up  by Morgott, because I just noticed that it seems  

to erupt into golden particles when it's defeated.  Still, it's impossible to know for sure. Anyway,  

Nearby you can find an Omen Shackle. These  shackles have lost most of their power now.  

And indeed, Mohg has long escaped the sewers. And  not even the all-knowing knows where to find him.  

But he's here somewhere underneath the land of  Caelid, a so-called "Lord of Blood" who rules  

in the ruins of an ancient civilization, which  he has decided will be the seat of his coming  

dynasty. This place is drenched in blood, swarming  with Mohg's servants, and the crumbling palace  

itself is awash with the Formless Mother's blood  flame. But it was not always this way. The map of  

Mohgwyn Palace reads "In the lightless depths lies  the cave of an ancient civilization. It is here,  

Mohg, The Lord of Blood, is building his palace to  be the seat of his coming dynasty named Mohgwyn."  

So this ancient civilization existed long before  Mohg. What was this place? This ancient dynasty  

isn't given a name, but everything here should  look very familiar. The underground woodland  

evokes the one found in Siofra. The statues depict  the same bearded figure as the statues in Uld and  

Uhl. These are the remains of an ancient dynasty  that can be found all over the Lands Between. And  

Mohg has very intentionally started to build his  dynasty on the remains of their own. Mohg calling  

his rule a dynasty is intentionally evocative of  the ancient dynasty. We know about this ancient  

dynasty because of the Oracle bubbles, which  are the sorceries of the claymen who served as  

priests in the ancient dynasty. The description  goes on to state the claymen searched for lost  

oracles within their bubbles. and theres a whole  video to be had on this topic, So I won't go too  

deep into this for now. Especially since their  culture doesn't really seem relevant to Mohg  

at all. Because I don't think Mohg is intent on  reviving the old dynasty or continuing it. Rather,  

item descriptions stress that his is a new dynasty  and if there's anything from the old dynasty that  

he does use, like the architectural remains of the  palace or even possibly the antiquated Latin that  

he speaks, I feel he might be trying to evoke  the old dynasty because he might have envied  

how widespread the old dynasty was. And I think he  wants his dynasty to have this heir of legitimacy,  

something it sorely lacks at the moment. Mohg's  new dynasty is very different from the old. The  

Swarm of Flies Incantation sums it up well and  reads "the new palace of the Lord of Blood lies  

in a swamp of festering blood." These flies can be  cast as a blood oath incantation, which are spells  

directly linked to Mohg's own power. But aside  from the incantation, these flies also spawn from  

the blood tainted excrement that you can loot in  this area, which contain "dense colonies of tiny  

eggs of unknown but assuredly revolting origin."  The roped fly pot elaborates, stating "the maggots  

found in waste feed on blood and turn into vicious  flies that are pitiably short lived. Their fangs  

inflicts countless lacerations on the victim  while the grating sound of their wings assails  

their sanity." And specifically, these flies  spawn from the excrement of carnivorous beasts,  

of which there are now many in the new dynasty,  all festering with these bloody pustules and being  

even tougher than their kin on the surface.  So, yeah, not a great place. And yet many  

disenfranchised beings still seem to choose to  reside here. Soaking in the festering blood swamp.  

Which brings us to the Albinaurics here. In a way,  the Albinaurics themselves have accursed blood.  

Not unlike The Omen. The Albinauric Bloodclot  reads "Albinaurics are lifeforms made by human  

hands. Thus many believe them to live impure  lives untouched by the Erdtree's grace." Now,  

this is just my own speculation, but we know that  the Formless Mother bestows power upon a cursed  

blood. So do you think maybe it's fitting that of  all the creatures in this blood soaked land, many  

of the Albinaurics have found a way to weaponize  the blood. I think they've accepted Mohg's tainted  

blood quite well. The Red Albinaurics stand apart  from their silver kin, who sit dejectedly upon  

the cliff face. The red ones patrol the area and  fight with attacks that are actually unique from  

every other Albinauric in the game. Even their  model is a little bit unique beyond just being  

red. Look at their heads and you'll see these  tiny little omen horns sprouting. Personally,  

I believe this is because they've been soaking in  blood. Specifically, I think they've been tainted  

by Mohgs omen blood. We know from the seedbed  curse icon and the dung eater questline that  

it's possible to spread omen horns, or at least  that horns are an aspect of a defilement that can  

be spread. So I think that explains why they're  sprouting horns here. And there is also evidence  

that reveals Mohg was attempting to share his  accursed blood with others. This leads us to Varre  

and the war surgeons who were abducted by Mohg,  who wanted to see if they could tame the accursed  

blood as you enter the Mohgwyn Palace Grounds.  Three white robed invaders assail you, one after  

the other. These are the nameless White Masks and  the kind of have fascinating lore to speak of. The  

White Masks wear the War Surgeon Gown, which marks  them as war surgeons who were effectively mercy  

killers. The dagger talisman elaborates, stating  that "the white garbed field surgeons come to the  

aid of friend and foe alike, by dealing a final  deadly thrust to spare them from the prolonged  

agony of a mortal wound." So their name is  a bit misleading as there isn't really any  

surgery occurring here that could save someone's  life. Their favored weapon is the Miséricorde,  

a dagger with a name that translates to mercy. And  it reads" Dagger favored by military physicians  

in white. medicine is mercy, and mercy upon the  battlefield is ruthless." The White Mask's weapon  

is found in a storage quarter of Stormveil and the  Talisman is found in Volcano Manor. So it's kind  

of difficult to say which faction they served, if  any. After all, they delivered death equally to  

friend and foe, so they were probably a common  sight on the battlefields of the shattering,  

regardless of their allegiance. Their choice  of white clothing is curious as well. In war,  

white is the color of truce, which is appropriate  for these somewhat neutral characters. And  

incidentally, I think white also shows bloodstains  a lot more starkly. And maybe that's why the color  

was chosen as well. These characters definitely  got their hands dirty as they delivered their  

mercy, but constantly delivering mercy would  eventually cause them to turn depraved. The dagger  

talisman ends with the line, "a sense of mercy  is a catalyst for bloodlust," and the weapon,  

warns one, to "beware the killers clothed as men  of compassion." So the war surgeons inevitably  

developed this taste for blood, and it was  this very fact that eventually led to them  

being targeted and abducted by Mohg. The war  surgeon gown reads "of the surgeons that were  

abducted by the Lord of Blood. None were able to  tame the accursed blood. None but Varre. That is;  

though he was an exception" therefore the war  surgeons, These nameless white masks that assail  

you in Mohgwyn Palace, ended up here because  they were unexpectedly abducted by the Lord  

of Blood. This reveals that Mohg was searching  for potentates who might be able to control the  

accursed blood that he had been graced with.  It's more proof that he was looking to share  

his accursed blood with others and considering  these surgeons now invade on behalf of Mohg,  

it seems clear that they were happy on some  level to have this new violent outlet for  

their bloodlust. Though only one of their number  actually manages to tame the accursed blood as  

Mohg desired. And that's Varre. But what does that  really mean? To tame the accursed blood? Well,  

earlier we speculated that the Albinaurics are  growing horns because they've been doused not just  

in blood, but in Mohg's accursed omen blood. And  I really do think that there's a lot of evidence  

that Mohg is trying to find worthy recipients  who can tame his essence. Because instead of  

the phrase tame the accursed blood, the original  Japanese actually says something a bit closer to  

accept the accursed blood. Which brings me to this  interaction with Varre, where he gives you a wound  

and you accept what is assumedly Mohg's noble  blood. "Give me your finger. This noble blood will  

be an immutable badge of honor. Once it settles  inside of you. good heavens. Clench your teeth or  

something." The bloody finger item, which is your  finger, I might add, reads Glistening blood has  

been siphoned into the nail of this finger. Its  sickly pale skin feels nothing now, but the nail  

still aches with the sweetest pain. "Never forget  that feeling of agony, for it is what binds you  

to luminary Mohg. to all of us." And with a fresh  infusion of this accursed, noble blood, you can  

invade other tarnished and sate your bloodlust  materializing out of blood in other worlds,  

just like Mohg does. But that's not the only way  that you can invade with what is assumedly Mohg's  

blood. You can also do so with a festering bloody  finger. These are consumable items and their not  

your finger This time. And three of them are given  to you by Varre and he gives them to you as a test  

of sorts. "I have a gift for you. Something fit  only for the wise. A means for circumventing the  

draw of the Two Fingers. Give it a try, won't  you?" Varre is hoping that you'll use these to  

fuel a blood lust of your own, thereby distracting  you from the allure of the Two Fingers. Who have  

other plans for you as a tarnished. And  if you prove this blood lust to Varre,  

you'll be inducted into the order and you'll have  blood infused into you. Perhaps as he and other  

war surgeons once received. "I knew it from the  very start. You have a taste for noble blood" as  

opposed to the bloody finger. You can receive  these consumable, festering bloody fingers are  

blackened with blood congestion. And if you look  closely, what look like omen horns appear to be  

writhing at the end, reinforcing the idea again,  that it's Mohg's accursed blood that had been  

injected into these fingers before they were cut  off. The description goes on to state that these  

festering fingers "have been chopped off rather  unceremoniously." The lack of ceremony indicates  

a measure of disappointment with the owner of  these fingers, I think. And that's why I think  

these fingers once belonged to other inductees.  Just like the nameless war surgeons who failed  

to accept the infusion of Mohg's blood. Note  this dialogue from Varre. If you deny him,  

"you will die nameless without ceremony." So the  nameless war surgeons are likely also those whose  

fingers were unceremoniously chopped off It seems.  They're a warning of what could happen to you if  

you listen to Varre's speech, which is enticing  in its splendor but full of deadly consequence.  

Despite this harsh treatment of his subjects,  Mohg is different to the Two Fingers, according  

to Varre at least. And one of the key differences  apparently is love. In his dialogue, Varre  

laments that the Two Fingers have no love for the  Tarnished, but Mohg does, He says. incidentally,  

the Tarnished are kind of related to Mohg via  Godfrey In a way. We're all of the same bloodline,  

So I guess it is true that we are at least  somewhat alike, Varre really is very loyal Mohg.  

And indeed amongst all the war surgeons, Varre is  actually the only one that's capable of incanting  

bloodflame blade. The spell that coats his weapon  with what we know is the essence of the Formless  

Mother. Varre has been granted strength beyond any  other character in Mohg's dynasty, it seems, and  

Varre is no doubt eventually very disappointed in  you when you teleport to the palace early before  

the new dynasty has even begun. This is what leads  to an optional confrontation with Varre and his  

death. "Oh... Luminary Mohg Please grant the  strength you promised. I have given everything"  

you can teleport to Mohgwyn Palace early with the  Pure Blood Knights medal, which is something Varre  

gives you If you prove yourself to him. "I've  gone out of my way to provide one to you. But  

you mustn't use it just yet. The meeting must wait  until the Mohgwyn Dynasty commences. Luminary Mohg  

yet slumbers beside the divinity." Now that  we've been inducted, we start to see Mohg's  

Luminary Vision and can learn how Mohgwyn Dynasty  is supposed to come about. The Lord of Blood's  

exultation Talisman explains Reading "Render up  your offerings of blood to your Lord. Drench my  

consort's chamber. slake his cocoons thirst. His  awakening shall herald the dawn of our dynasty."  

So he's specifically saying that others should  make offerings to Miquella. And I think the ones  

he's telling to make the offerings would be his  bloody fingers. By invading and killing I think  

we might just be making offerings of others. And  I think also these offerings would be made by the  

sanguine nobles who are just as aggressive as  the bloody fingers are If you find them out in  

the open world. for example, this is one of many  sanguine nobles and you fight them here at the  

Rose Church in Liurnia. It's likely named after  the Blood Rose, which is an item deeply related  

to all things bloody. And the building itself is  a sort of parish. It's a church that operates in  

a foreign land. And it's no coincidence that it's  here that Varre attempts to recruit you. In fact,  

the enemy inside the church is supposedly a  recruiter as well, although I kind of question  

their recruiting techniques. The sanguine noble  hood is" worn by nobles who serve the Lord of  

Blood" and Reeds, "known to strike from pools of  blood. These assassins are missionaries come to  

share the gospel of accursed blood." just like  the red Albinaurics, the sanguine nobles have  

started to grow omen horns, and their rank  seems to exceed that of the Albinaurics As  

can be inferred by the Noble in Mohgwyn Palace,  who stands before a crowd of Ablinaurics. Again,  

rather than being true omen, I think this is  another instance where being infused with Mohg's  

accursed blood has led to their horns growing a  cursed blessing as The Dung Eater would say. The  

robes go on to read "The grand metallic pattern on  the shoulder is a signifier of the noble rank they  

intend to claim upon the advent of the new dynasty  they are working to install," and their weapons  

are designed to "rip the flesh with sickening  efficacy," suggesting that they really are working  

to install this new dynasty via the blood loss of  others. Making offerings for Miquella's cocoon.  

And again, I think the bloody fingers are the same  way. Yura calls the bloody fingers "tarnished held  

in thrall by excess blood zealots who stalk their  own." "If it isn't Nerijus, the bloody finger. The  

end is nigh for you." Yura is familiar with many  such bloody fingers. None more so than Eleanora,  

who is the one he loves. And she's the one who  he considers to be the deadliest bloody finger  

of all. I'm dying to see "Eleanora violent bloody  finger." In the end, though, Eleanora kills Yara  

here at the Second Church of Marika. And this  church is interesting because despite being a  

church of Marika, there's clearly been an attempt  by Mohg's adherence to usurp it. Note the blood  

roses, the sanguine noble who appears here, the  hound here festering with blood. And of course,  

Eleanora herself. Eleanora is one of Mohg's bloody  fingers, the most dangerous of them all if Yura is  

to be believed. Perhaps it's for this reason that  Mohg might have entrusted her with the purifying  

crystal tear an item that can nullify the effect  of Mohg's right of blood attack. Either that or  

she has somehow procured this purifying crystal  here because she has a secret plan to attack Mohg.  

You could definitely speculate in that direction  as well. I think if you wanted to. Eleanora wields  

a twin Naginata a weapon that's forged in the land  of Reeds, which is a place "locked in civil war  

that has become alienated from the culture of  its neighbors. Little Wonder. It is said that  

the entire nation has succumbed to blood soaked  madness." It's on this note that I'd again like  

to return to the description of formless Oedon  in Bloodborne, specifically the part that says  

"both Oedon and Oedon's inadvertent worshippers  surreptitiously seek the precious blood." Earlier,  

we established that Oedon and the Formless  Mother clearly have some overlap, and I speculate  

that this overlap could extend to Oedon's  inadvertent worshippers as well. Inadvertent  

means unintentional or accidental worship, In  this context. and I think that the Formless  

Mother might have many, many children because I  think you can make a good case for her having many  

inadvertent worshippers of her own. After all,  the blood soaked madness of the Land of Reeds  

has led more than one of their number directly  to Mohg, introducing Okina, who is a demon of a  

swordsman. His blood lust led him into combat with  Mohg himself, and his sword tells of this story,  

stating, When Mohg, the Lord of Blood, first  felt Okina's sword and madness upon his flesh,  

he had a proposal to offer Okina the life of a  demon whose thirst would never go unsated. So it  

was that Okina became a bloody finger of Mohg,  cutting down his enemies with rivers of blood,  

a cursed sword which has felled countless men.  Weapons like these are really powerful when paired  

with the Lord of Blood's exaltation Talisman,  which gives you an attack boost if blood loss is  

triggered in the vicinity. And one amazing little  detail is that this captain of Godrick actually  

gets the attack power buff whenever there's blood  loss nearby, hinting that he's actually carrying  

the Lord of Blood's Exaltation talisman and that  he is thus and adherent of Mohg. The weapon art  

he uses, Bloody Slash, also suggests as much, as  it is a "blood oath skill granted by the Lord of  

Blood." So it seems this Stormveil captain has  either defected or is secretly loyal to Mohg,  

or he has a dual allegiance. I love that it's  left open to your interpretation. The talisman  

itself is dropped by Esgar, a priest of blood  found in the catacombs below. Leyndell, the same  

place where Mohg first met the Mother of Truth.  He wears the robes of an adherent of Mohg, except  

for his great hood, which reads "a burial shroud  of sorts for those who discover at long last the  

truth they sought." I think this could be hinting  that Esgar found the Mother of Truth here below,  

but it's hard to say for sure. Speaking of which,  it's unclear if Mohg has ever shared the fact that  

he communes with the Formless Mother at all. Most  worship of her appears to be really indirect and  

bloodshed for the sake of bloodshed seems reason  enough for her and those that perform it as well.  

Perhaps it's for this reason that the all-knowing  casts doubt on Mohg's title, calling him the  

"so-called Lord of Blood." "so that's where the  so-called Lord of Blood was hiding himself."  

Perhaps this lack of clarity about Mohg's rule  is why even item descriptions cast doubt on Mohg,  

Who is "the reigning and high rank of the coming  dynasty of Mohgwyn. Or perhaps a raving lunatic"  

After all, can blood offerings really lead to  the awakening of Miquella? The Remembrance of  

the Blood Lord Does state that "no matter how  much of his bloody bedchamber he tried to share,  

he received no response from the young Empyrean."  But Mohg needs Miquella to awaken because Mohg  

doesn't just want to be a ruler. He wants  legitimacy in the eyes of the world. And since  

Miquella is an Empyrean eligible to be the God  of this world, he could give Mohgwyn a legitimacy  

that might match even the Golden Order, which is  structured in a similar way. It has a Lord and a  

God at the forefront. So it's time to finally  talk about Miquella. For if he does awaken,  

then it's very likely that this will lead to  the coming dynasty named Mohgwyn and whatever  

nightmares that may bring whatever nightmares  that may bring is an extremely ominous line,  

especially considering Miquella has a dreaming  alter ego. So to explain that quickly. Like many  

other characters in the game, Miquella has a  duality to his character. On one hand you have  

Miquella, the unalloyed who helped his sister  resist the effects of the Scarlet Rot, who grew  

a home for the low and the meek, and who is cursed  with eternal youth. But then, on the other hand,  

Miquella is also Saint Trina, a mysterious  character that has powers relating to sleep  

and dreams. The symbol of their faith is this  trina's lily, which "dulls the senses, preventing  

agitation." And it's no coincidence that this  lily is shaped just like Miquella's Lily, for  

the nascent Miquella is saint Trina, or they're  moonlighting as them in their dreams, so to speak.  

And whatever Saint Trina has been doing, it's  made a really good impression on a great many  

people. The Lands Between is a pretty harrowing  place after all, and to get relief it seems,  

some people have turned to Saint Trina whose  lilies helps them get away from it all. Priests  

of Saint Trina also exist crafting sleep arrows  to spread their teachings. "The sweet oblivion  

of sleep can become quite the habit." Another such  item is the sleep pot, which says "like a lullaby  

or a quagmire. Its light purple haze irresistibly  draws its victims down into sleep. Sweet dreams."  

Incidentally, the word lullaby brings to mind  another piece of cut content to do with Miquella.  

Where the red-eyed merchants were once taught the  song that they play in their tomb by a mysterious  

figure and fittingly, Saint Trina's full cut name  is Saint Trina of the Cradle Song, which connects  

them to the merchant's song. In cut Merchant  dialogue It's stated that the one who sang for  

them now sings no longer. The singer is missing,  just like Saint Trina, because the one who sang  

was Saint Trina. And we don't really have to just  rely on cut content to tell us of that fact. An  

item called Fervor's Cookbook suggests that Saint  Trina is missing, as well as it is "a record of  

crafting techniques left by a man who was utterly  captivated by Saint Trina. He continued the search  

for her in his slumber." So he was searching  for her because Saint Trina went missing. Also,  

Saint Trina's Sword reads "Saint Trina is an  enigmatic figure. Some say she is a comely young  

girl. Others are sure he a boy. The only certainty  is that their appearance was a sudden as their  

disappearance." So Saint Trina went missing and  returning to cut dialogue We also learn about a  

character called Rhico, a cut NPC who claims to be  Miquella's humble servant and who we believe finds  

Miquella's body at Mohg's palace. Here, Rhico  states "Finally I have found it. Saint Trina's...  

No, Lord Miquella's cadaver. I have partaken  of untold secrets such that I may aid you,  

O Lord. So, please, I hope you welcome your humble  servant, Rhico, into your dream. The world of your  

heart." So Rico believed that he was finally going  to be able to aid Miquella and enter his dream now  

that he'd found him in the physical world before  the DLC trailer was revealed. I would have said,  

Yeah, I reckon the DLC will take us to Miquella's  dream world. It sounds like the perfect place for  

DLC, right? But now with the recent trailer,  it can't be that simple because the interviews  

featured in my DLC video make it quite clear  that Miquella's cadaver will instead take us  

to the Land of Shadow, a place that was once  physically a part of the Lands Between before  

it was veiled and obscured by Queen Marika.  In that video, we speculated that the Land  

of Shadow might be a place where the dead go. We  speculated that it might be a kind of afterlife,  

or at least it might have once been a sort of  afterlife before the Erdtree sort of took over  

that role. We reason this because Miquella is  said to have divested himself of his flesh to get  

there. The poem reads, "It was to this land that  Miquella departed, divesting himself of his flesh,  

his strength, his lineage of all things golden."  Of course, we don't yet know the true nature of  

the Land of Shadow, but it is kind of fitting  for Saint Trina, of all people, to have died  

to arrive in this place. Because death in Elden  Ring has long been linked to sleep. For example,  

when Rogier succumbs to deathroot. He says this.  "Lately I feel I'm on the precipice of falling  

into a deep fathomless slumber and I have an  inkling it could spell trouble for you." Somehow,  

Rogier is almost hinting that he might be a  threat in some realm beyond sleep. And he's  

kind of right, because later we do find Rogier or  a part of his vitality, at least, which has been  

weaponized by Fia. We do this inside of Godwyn's  deathbed dream, a phrase that obviously has sleep  

connotations as well. So I wonder, with death  being so linked to sleep, could Miquella have  

planned this death in his own slumber so that he  could travel to the Land of Shadow? One piece of  

evidence for Miquella's death being a sort  of deep sleep, could be the slumbering egg,  

which is an owl egg that will never hatch. Prized  as a symbol of the most sublime slumber, The egg  

is this powerful parallel to the situation with  Miquella's cocoon. Miquella's cocoon was taken  

by Mohg before it was ready to hatch. Just so this  egg is looted from killing an owl and thus is also  

taken before it was ready to hatch, perhaps before  it was even ready to be born. The owl inside will  

never hatch. It's essentially dead. And this  egg's description reminds us that this state  

of death is the most sublime slumber There is. So  I conclude that there's a strong parallel between  

the slumbering egg and Miquella's Cocoon, touching  the arm that extends out of the cocoon will bring  

us to the Land of Shadow, where Miquella traveled  long before us. As per the IGN interview,  

Miyazaki states that players will be following  in Miquella's footsteps in the same way that they  

followed the blessings of the sites of Greece in  the Lands Between. And of course, the player is  

not the only who is curious about Miquella. There  are several other characters in the world and NPCs  

who have been following Miquella as well, and the  player will encounter them on their journey in the  

Land of Shadow. And they will make new friends and  enemies, we hope. Fittingly, Miquella does have  

many followers. So does Saint Trina. And while no  one seems to know for sure where they disappeared  

to, it is rumored. Gideon's dialogue reveals that  he suspected Miquella was with the Lord of Blood.  

And there's even a phantom in the consecrated snow  field who points towards Mohgwyn Palace's waygate.  

And they died knowing exactly who took Miquella  as well. And then, of course, there's Rhico,  

that cut content character who senses their master  needs their aid. Indeed, Saint Trina and Miquella  

seem to live on beyond the death of their flesh.  And while the Land of Shadow might not literally  

be the dream world that many expected it to be,  there is evidence that Saint Trina's presence  

has been felt here. For example. This is Saint  Trina's Lily in the base game. It looks a bit sad,  

right? It only has a tiny hint of purple left.  So this is why I wonder could this lily in the  

background be a true lily of Saint Trina. It does  appear to be more whole, and it appears in a sort  

of quagmire of sleep here. There's that signature  purple sleep hue, and there's a masked character  

who is slumbering in this place. Incidentally,  another thing I missed was that you can actually  

spy some lilies in the background of this fight as  well. So perhaps this boss linked to Saint Trina.  

But I digress. Miquella's actions are becoming  clearer to us, but that still leaves Mohg. First  

up. How did Mohg manage to abduct Miquella? Well,  earlier we talked about how Mohg abducted the war  

surgeons, presumably to test the accursed blood  on them. So already Mohg has a bit of a history  

of abduction. And if he can materialize from  blood anywhere, like this cutscene suggests, and  

like his sanguine nobles and bloody fingers seem  able to do, well that would certainly explain how  

abducting Miquella was relatively easy for him,  especially if Malenia was away fighting Radahn at  

the time. So during Miquella's abduction, he was  ripped out of the tree. There's clearly a large  

gap here in the tree like woman's form, almost  as if this figure was pregnant with Miquella and  

indeed Miquella sits atop a giant pelvis bone in  Mohg's palace, showing just how wholesale he was  

ripped from the Haligtree itself. The Mother of  Truth desires a wound. Indeed. So we know what  

happened. But why? Why did Mohg think abducting  Miquella was a good idea? going to get demonetized  

for that one. Mohg believed Miquella could have  transitioned from Empyrean to god, maybe even  

Miquella believed that he could. And I think Mohg  wanted to take advantage of this process and take  

advantage of the new god that would soon rise. The  Remembrance of the Blood Lord reads, "wishing to  

raise Miquella to full godhood, Mohg wished to  become His consort, taking the role of Monarch.  

But no matter how much of his bloody bedchamber  he tried to share, he received no response from  

the young Empyrean." The wording of Bedchamber is  appropriate considering Mohg is trying to consort  

with Miquella and become his Lord, So to speak.  And it being a bloody bedchamber is appropriate  

too. As items state that Mohg slumbers beside the  divinity and the cutscene seems to be suggesting  

that Mohg slumbers inside of Miquella's blood.  Also, it's very fitting that they use the word  

slumber here. "Dearest Miquella, you must abide  alone a while." So if Mohg becomes his consort,  

then Mohg will become a lord of sorts. Not unlike  the dynamic with the Elden Lord that has existed  

throughout history, where they become consort to  their god. But the real question that remains is  

how exactly does Miquella become a god in this  situation? Considering Miquella's positioning  

in the womb of this giant tree like woman, it's  easy to assume that what he was attempting was a  

sort of rebirth. Here And this brings me back to  Rhico's dialogue, the final part, where he says,  

Indeed, I beg you, Grant my wish, that when you  transcend from Empyrean to god, allow me a place  

by your side. I wonder what if the cocoon was  part of this transition? It reminds me a lot of  

Berserk which Miyazaki is endlessly inspired by.  And spoiler alert if you haven't yet seen it, but  

a certain character here also achieves a similar  transition inside an egg, turning from human to a  

god of sorts. To become a part of the Godhand in  this moment and achieve his dream, Griffith has  

to make a sacrifice, and in the end he chooses to  betray his companions, branding them and sealing  

their fate. In my Miquella video, we draw a  few parallels between Miquella and Griffith,  

and if Miquella is inspired by Griffith as much  as I think, then that could be quite concerning  

as there is a part of Malenia's storyline as well  that also seems to be setting up some betrayal to  

come, although that is of course just speculation.  This is probably a good time to talk about the  

fact that Miquella does have some very ominous  overtones to their character. For starters,  

Saint Trina has an adult form and it's a one eyed  creature with this spooky mass of elevated hair  

that is carved upon Saint Trina's torch. What's  more, remember Saint Trina's Sleep fog draws  

others down into sleep against their will. Sleep  is a weapon. St Trina's sword makes that even more  

clear, as does cut content, which states The Saint  of the Cradle song has become the very symbol of  

lost repose and the feeble of heart were Powerless  to resist her kindness even upon the battlefield.  

So in cut content, at least, the Saint of the  Cradle song actually fought in certain wars  

with kindness. So that description mentions Saint  Trina's weaponized kindness, and so does this line  

from the trailer. "Pure and radiant, he wields  love to shrive Clean the hearts of men. There  

is nothing more terrifying." Malenia also calls  Miquella the most fearsome Empyrean of all. And  

lastly, the common soldiers of the Haligtree  discovered a bitter truth as they awaited their  

Lord's return to the Haligtree. They discovered  that Miquella's sacred light would trigger them  

to self-destruct in their final moments. But  even so, they remained loyal. And I quote, May  

the flesh of our deaths guide Miquella's return.  So in conclusion, it's for these reasons that I'm  

a bit concerned about this scary dreaming demigod  and about the nightmares that might be incurred  

by Mohg's ritual with him inside the cocoon. A  part of me wonders if the Formless Mother was  

supposed to be a part of Miquella's ascension to  God. Considering the ritual happening in Mohgwyn  

Palace, that would fit because a few gods we see  in Elden Ring do have an outer god as a patron of  

sorts. Malenia has the Outer God of Rot, and she  is destined to become the Goddess of Rot. Marika  

becomes a vessel for the Elden ring, and she  is the God of the Greater Will, who is almost  

certainly an outer god as well. So all of that  sort of answers how Miquella might become a god  

as best we can. Considering how abstract the game  is with these terms. My next question is though  

did Miquella foresee any of this happening? The  bewitching branch is an item that can pierce a  

foe and turn them into a temporary ally. And it  reads. "The Empyrean Miquella is loved by many  

people. Indeed, he has learned very well how to  compel such affection." The wording here is kind  

of sinister, right? The fact that Miquella is  capable of consciously compelling affection in  

order to get what he wants is very manipulative.  And if Miquella is capable of masterminding others  

affections. Who's to say he hasn't done the same  with Mohg? Mohg's Infatuation with Miquella is  

very obvious and very cursed, Considering  Miquella's eternal youth and the fact that  

Miquella is technically Mohg's half brother.  Again, I'm reminded of this scene with Griffith  

from Berserk, where Griffith spends a night with a  powerful, perverted older man for money, which he  

needs to achieve his own goals. The man, Gennon,  is obsessed with Griffith. But to Griffith,  

Gennon is nothing more than a stone lying on  the side of the path he walks. And Griffith  

eventually discards him as such. In my Miquella  video, we talked about just how much overlap  

there is between the characters of Miquella and  Griffith. And so I just can't shake the feeling  

that Miquella might be using Mohg here. But if  that's true, why, what would Miquella stand to  

gain from masterminding this entire situation  where he ends up dead and defiled? Before the  

DLC trailer dropped I had imagined that Miquella's  arm would take us into Miquella's dream world, and  

so I thought that Miquella might stand to benefit  or suffer thanks to Mohg's actions upon his  

slumbering form. I thought he might have even been  co-opting the Formless Mother for his ascension  

into a god. But now, from what we understand about  the DLC trailer, the Land of Shadow is a place  

distinct from Miquella. So the answer becomes  different. We know Miquella divested himself of  

his flesh and grace to get here, so it's harder  to imagine that the bloody rituals happening in  

Mohgwyn are having any effect on Miquella's self.  Mohg really might not be getting any response from  

Miquella. For good reason. So I'm going to present  one new theory on why Miquella might benefit from  

being here. Based on the information we have  from the DLC trailer and it's this. So we know  

Miquella divested himself of his flesh before  reaching the Land of Shadow. Right. And we know  

that he also divested himself of his grace To  get here, he divested himself of his lineage,  

of all things golden. Divesting yourself of your  flesh is hard enough, but divesting yourself of  

your grace is also difficult. Ranni has difficulty  with this in her questline she divests herself  

of her flesh finally. But even then, she's still  linked to the Two Fingers and has to kill them to  

be freed completely. So what if Mohg instrumental  not just to the process of Miquella dying,  

but the process of Miquella losing his grace as  well? What if by being doused in accursed blood,  

Miquella was defiled to the point that Grace left  him fully? We know that those doused in Mohg's  

accursed blood start to grow Omen horns and the  Omen are graceless. And we know that being defiled  

is something that many people in the Lands Between  fear. The Dung Eater Is proof of that. We talked  

earlier about how they defiled people and how  those people are terrified of what this means for  

them And their rebirth. So it is that I think that  Miquella might have wanted to die in this manner,  

to fall into this state of sublime slumber and  also to be defiled to the point where Grace leaves  

him. But that's just a theory. And of course,  we don't have all of the pieces of the story  

yet. And I think it's impossible to say for sure  which direction his story will go. I think this  

state of speculation is very much exactly where  Fromsoftware wants us to be at this point. Even  

the all-knowing doesn't know what's going on here.  "So Miquella was with the Lord of Blood after all.  

That is some fine intelligence. Indeed. While I  wonder what comes next, if he continues this long  

within the cocoon, all will be well. But perhaps  it will be safer to destroy it. Miquella is The  

one thing that remains a mystery to me." So, what  do you think? Did Miquella anticipate being taken  

from the Haligtree? Will he be affected  by the Lord of Blood's machinations? Mohg  

certainly believes so. In fact, Mohg believes  this even beyond the very moment of his death.  

"I can see it as clear as day. The coming of a  dynasty. Mohgwyn." Before I go, let me tell you  

a little story about a game that was scheduled  to release on June 21st. So this is Enotria,  

A souls like title inspired by Italian folklore  and history, which gives it an extremely unique  

vibe. For example, this is Quinta, the game's  opening area rendered gorgeously in Unreal  

Engine five here. I love the verticality in these  scenes. I think there's going to be so much level  

design they can play with there. And I was very  excited to explore this Mediterranean world. But  

then Elden Ring announced its DLC for the same  day as their release. Oof! Luckily, however, I've  

heard they're announcing a new release date soon.  Now, I don't usually take soulslike sponsorships  

unless it's something I've played and loved, but  since the devs for this game weren't strict on  

what I had to say here, I decided to take this  one because they're clearly happy for their  

product to speak for itself and I think that kind  of confidence is awesome. Their gameplay trailer  

mentions huge skill trees, spells buffs, passives  and a special type of equipment called masks,  

which are at the center point of each loadout.  They've also said that they've spent a lot of  

time getting the motion capture for animations  right, which is potentially the most important  

thing for a soulslike for me. And the gameplay  system also builds in something called Chainable  

Parries, which reminds me a lot of Sekiro,  which I love. So if you like what you see,  

consider following some of their pages or even  pre-ordering. You can learn more over at Enotria  

the last song slash preorder Or you can click  the links in the description. Thanks guys.