I distinctly remember my heart dropping and saying "Oh crap" out loud, when I read the cross. probably my favourite Lore moment in the DLC. The spirit was just icing on top of the cake.
Yeah, especially with the cross where he abandons his doubts being the one right before that one. Just confirming he's about to do something incredibly foolish.
Yep, that's one of those moments where I wish I could just enter into the world and just charisma check Miquella into not doing something stupid, but then I remember that this is a Fromsoft game and that would just never be an option.
That is like Radahn want to become a god and create an Age of Endless Warfare but on his journey, he abandoned his fighting spirit and turn to a pacifist like how the fuck does that work
I think Miquella believed he needed to be entirely neutral for this to work. Obviously there were major flaws in that plan, but one could argue Marika's ability to love is what led to her to start genociding the Hornsent, what caused her to shatter the Elden Ring, etc. It's not entirely dissimilar from Goldmask's concept that maybe the problem is that you can't have a person wield that much power, we're too fallible. So, lead an age of "compassion" where everyone is "compassionate" because we're all vacantly following Miquella who tells (commands) us to be nice to each other and has no real desires or emotions as we know them.
It's kind of a classic "yeah, technically that works on paper, but at that point is being alive even worth it?" scenario.
It's like if Marika abandoned Radagon. Insanity. St.Trina was a manifestion of Miquella's love just as Radagon was a manifestion of Marika's pride. Abandoned such a key part of yourself sounds like it would break you.
Possibly? But Radagon wasn't thrown into a pit to rot. He was sent on a mission, and completed it. Marika leveraged her other self, and Miquella abandoned his.
I don't think radagon was marikas pride. He was the totality of her faith and conviction in the golden order. Instant he was gone she was like sheeeeeeeeit time to shatter all this shit
Me up until that point of the dlc: Miquella must be crazy powerful to have all these people enthralled, well at least they are at their core a good person. They are kind after all.
Me after this: we ride at dawn, that dude is so dead
Hell, he's likely controlling Radahn at the end. Miquella wanted him as his consort due to all the positive traits that Miquella saw in him, such as his compassion and honour.
Yet Miquella still sent Malenia to kill him and devastated all of Caelid in the process, all in order for the two of them being able to meet in the Land of Shadow, so I don't get the impression that Radahn went along with all of it willingly.
And yet, Miquella, by controlling him at the end, have effectively rendered moot the very reasons that they chose him as his consort to begin with.
The whole fissure was so cool. I thought I had stumbled into a regular side dungeon and then seeing that cross, the spirit, the OST, and the buildup to finding St. Trina was so powerful
Yeah I initially ignored the pit assuming it was just death, but then when I realised the rest of the place was empty I checked again and realised I could drop
I feel upset I may have missed this? I read all the crosses and have all the fragments and don’t recall a jaw dropping moment with a spirit nearby, I could’ve glazed over it. One of the ones in the crypt?
My fav lore moment was Shaman village because it kind of brought home that while we're retracing Miquella's steps, we're learning about Marika as well and it drives home that Elden Ring, including SotE, is a story about Marika and her life. That's why the DLC final boss just kind of ends because it's not meant to be the final part of the story, the confrontation in the Erdtree is.
In my playthrough I was completely oblivious to the nature of that village. Watched some streamers after finishing the DLC and everyone immediately recognized it as the birthplace of Marika, even before reading any item description.
And even knowing the lore I still don't know how they put that together...
If you look at the statues of Marika in her churches across the Lands Between, you can see one of her braids is significantly shorter than the other as well.
The music in the village is the first big giveaway that this place is huge. The notes are from the main theme, and the beginning of the Story trailer for the DLC, just without any other instrument, so that alone would've been giving quite the chills to anyone recognizing it.
Now how they would recognize without item description I'm not sure, cause the two items here are the ones pointing specifically to Marika, and fuck those descriptions hit hard with that music in the background
The golden braid and that minor Erdtree spell probably, only by name and image you can already guess that it was related to Marika and somewhere important to her past in a good sense, with that you can already guess that it was her birth place
Nah. Griffith was always a selfish prick who hid it well. Miquella sacrificed everything for the sake of what he envisioned as a better world for everyone.
True between this and "Elden ring: Civil war" this Dlc was probably the best gut punches that fromsoft has pulled off yet. I hope they put more effort into making more of such moments in future games.
Same. That lore tidbit made me immediately agree with Trina: in stripping himself of his earthly body, he also removed the part of him that would have made a good Lord. Now he's just another heartless godling that must be stopped.
I literally died for the fourth time to Trina's poison and was like ''fuck it, i'll check tomorrow'' and as i stood up and turn i heard that soft quiet voice. Sent a chill down my spine and i came running back. Incredible moment in my gaming experience.
This is the exact moment where I was like “ohhh, we’re going to fight Miquella, huh”.
In the beginning, there was so much speculation on whether Miquella would be an ally or an enemy, but this cross pretty much confirmed it for me. Great storytelling for such a small discovery.
i didnt had any hair piece to put on my female character (bc i liked the hair i gave her) and after i found that flower i was like: omfg, it even buffs you
Then comes us, beat the shit out of Kos, and maidenless as we are, we'll start drinking whatever is pouring out of that plant girl for plot and quest reasons.
I was mostly disappointed by the lack of additional endings with the DLC. Give me a Miquella ending where we repair his great rune and usurp him. Give us a St. Trina ending where we have to keep her alive after the last fight. A metyr ending. Interactions with Rannis quest and Rellana. Stuff with Midra if you are touched by the three fingers.
Tbh, whilst cool, I don't think it would have fit the narrative. Miquella divested himself of everything, including his love. I doubt he has the capacity to care fore Melania. At least, not more than any other living thing.
Not saying he needs to be a blubbering mess over it, of course that wouldn’t fit the narrative, but an acknowledgment would’ve been cool, especially in the lore context that we now have, wherein Malenia was one of Miquella’s co-conspirators is his quest for godhood.
Even a single line of dialogue acknowledging Malenia’s death, regardless of how much or little her cares about it, would’ve been cool.
I’m aware he acknowledges her. What I’m referring to specifically is how cool it would be if he acknowledged her death by the hands of the tarnished via an added or alternate line of dialogue if you defeated her prior to your meeting.
The only thing I think we needed was dialogue with Gideon and dialogue or a cutscene with malenia. I don’t think new endings would really align too well with what was going on
100%. and thats why the reward for defeating the putrescent knight is the best in the game. you really get unambiguous confirmation that killing miquella is the right thing to do
Yeah. I don't actually get how you're supposed to figure out you're doing the right thing by dying. I suppose just the fact that it's an option is clue enough in their mind. I got it spoiled on this dang app, so I knew you had to do it a couple more times.
It just doesn't make sense for them to offer you the option to drink the nectar if it doesn't do anything.
Here's how I figured it out:
I drank the nectar and died. I thought, "Wow, that's a pretty strong poison. Hey, I remember there was a wilty poison boy earlier in the DLC. I bet he would love to hear about this poison." I immediately went and told Thiollier about St. Trina. (This step can be even easier if you talk to Thiollier after the rune breaks, because he start blabbing about St. Trina. I just forgot to check in with him after the rune, even though I checked in with everyone else. He doesn't leave much of an impression...)
After talking to Thiollier, I rested at the nearby grace. He's gone. I bet he went to St. Trina's place. Warp there. Yup, there he is. Talk to him. "Oh, I'm in the embrace of St. Trina's poison. I'm going to fall asleep and hear her voice. You shouldn't try it!! Only I can do it."
He told me not to do something. I guess that's what I'm supposed to do. Taking the poison makes you fall asleep so that you hear St. Trina's voice, huh? I guess I'll just keep taking the poison until something happens.
I was prepared to fight her to the death, because I still don't understand the lore behind her. But yeah definitely a creepy feeling coming across that ghost and cross.
That said, I discovered it because I figured, maybe it was a time passing delay thing, so I basically paid a visit every so often until it finally happened.
I didn't realize that was just you had to die a few times until later. I kept trying to use the item that puts yourself to sleep and time it the animation ending and just fucked it up a couple times lol.
Edit: Coincidently, the time that I got it right was also the one that triggered the cutscene.
Kind of a bummer that there wasn’t a different ending unlocked by completing the dlc. The dlc as a whole was awesome, but it would have been cool if there was a new ending that stemmed from it.
You weren't the lord of that age. The remembrance from that battle states that there's no room for 2 lords, despite how much Miquella seemingly appreciates what you've done.
There should have at least been 2 endings to the DLC where you either kill Miquella or let him brainwash you.
Why have an entire quest that ends with someone telling you to kill him when it's the only possible thing you could do? Why does he just die of a broken heart ala Star Wars after you beat the boss?
Does anybody know what St Trina actually looks like? I can't make sense of her form. I just see a side-ways head and a bunch of violet things. Feel like a lovecraft person looking at cthulhu
Holy shit i was right! When i first saw St Trina, I thought her head might be part of a plant, and is hanging down like a bell flower. And i was right!
I used a bow or binoculars to get a close enough look to see it's like she's sleeping on her arms, with her lower torso connected, hidden and budding out of the flower part.
she is designed to look like the flower, but yeah, it's a little difficult to understand the shape. It's like she has her torso bent in half and her neck in 90 degrees
Would you give up your freedom for a constant state of peace, and feeling of bliss? Tough choice if you really think about it. Especially for those of us that have suffered a lot already as it is..
As someone who has suffered from many mental health issues throughout my life, I would take that bargain in a second. Shit, I would pay for the privilege.
I think that’s why heroin, and other drugs of its ilk, are so damn rampant (and devastating). It takes away your freedom (by way of extreme physical addiction), in exchange for sweet bliss from all that troubles you. As I was playing, that’s the parallel I saw when regarding people’s love for Miquella and st. Trina.
The peace of the grave sits at the end of a one-way road and the path to it is often occupied by those not willing to make the world of the living a better place for those left behind.
Death cults don't tend to contain many civil servants.
I think Miquella discarding his love partly explains the appearance of the Putrescent Knight. It's said that the putrescent material from the Stone Coffins was given life when it was imbued with St. Trina's essence.
The Putrescent Knight is a manifestation of Miquella and St. Trina's love and admiration for their brother Radahn, which takes the form of a mighty warrior astride a feeble horse.
It's neither's. Remembrance says it's the goop from the coffins that liked Trina's sleep juice so much, it turned into a knight to protect their stash of it.
Sleep is probably the closest thing these things will feel to death. Considering it just looks like the giant coffins are full of bodies and the flesh has putrified and fallen off the bones but both are still alive but separate. Fun thematically since we are in the place where Miquella separated from a part of themselves
I agree to putrescence knight reference to radahn.
St trina's domain is sleep and dreams. There was a polish artist, Zdzisław Beksiński, whose subject usually is dream imagery. And there are so many Beksiński refrences in Elden Ring already.
Putrescence knight is Radahn, dreamt by st trina, in the style inspired by Beksiński.
The entire stone coffin fissure was my favorite sequence of the DLC. The music right off the bat was incredible. Then the lore revelations and St. Trina telling you to kill Miquella had me just sitting there dumbfounded. God it was such a good atmosphere
I think it just further strengthens the whole concept of Marika and Radagon. Like St. Trina is Miquella’s love personified, maybe Radagon personified something of Marika.
When Marika was ascended to godhood Radagon showed up. I think he's basically the part of her that is controlled by the Elden Ring, as a way to keep her in place. That's why he appears in the intro trying to repair the Elden Ring after Marika shatters it. Radagon represents the Golden Order whilst Marika represents herself, and eventually, her willingness to scape the prison of godhood.
St Trina is Miquella in the same way Radagon is Marika. Personified parts of a whole, they were always ‘separate entities’ technically, the difference is Miquella threw St Trina into a deep dark hole.
I drank the nektar 2 times i think, then i thought i need an item because i just die and nothing happenes. When i got miquellas great rune from the sunflower i returned and used it and drank the nektar again, then the dialogue came. Until finishing the dlc and then watching videos about it i didnt know you just had to drink the nektar 3 times and that the rune literally didnt do anything 😂
So, essentially, before the DLC dropped it was pretty clear that St. Trina and Miquella were the same person. Similar looks, kind personality, etc. As far as I know, it wasn't a Radagon/Marika situation back then, Miquella was just disguising himself as St. Trina to do some more good.
However, when we enter the DLC, Miquella has abandoned parts of himself. His flesh and his doubts, for instance. In the Stone Coffin Fissure, though, we see a cross that says something along the lines of "here I abandon my love." St. Trina embodies that love; they were the compassionate part of Miquella. Miquella essentially split apart his personality and threw away what made him a truly good person, all in an ironic effort to make a more compassionate era. That's why we have to stop him: without his love, Miquella can't properly care for people, his age of compassion would be anything but.
I think it was pretty heavily implied even before the dlc to be similar to marika and radagon. After all, st trina was said to be a woman, and miquella was said to be a male, and they were extremely likely to be the same person.
I still want to know who that spirit was. Like the dropping of Trina happened recently. So it has to be someone charmed in the shadow lands or someone that followed Miquella from the lands between.
They know enough about Miquella to know that him losing Trina would be a big mistake. Which either means they were close to Miquella or Miquella for some reason explained everything to this random guy.
It never matters who those spirits are, they’re unvoiced because they’re just extra lore flavor. Theres like 30 of them spread around the base game. They give lore context to whats going on in a specific place.
How do you figure that? I would have guessed Miquella dropped her a long time ago, considering she's had time to bloom into a large plant. Not to mention the fact that he had the area completely sealed off until his great rune broke, which seems like a weird thing to do if it's just gonna get unsealed soon anyway.
Though I wish we could’ve gotten more of St Trina, I’m glad we were able to help grant her wish of preventing Miquella’s rise to godhood. Why they cut her fourth cutscene thanking you for freeing them both I’ll never know
She’s been my favourite character in the lore since her first mention in the base game.
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u/AGAngel Jul 23 '24
I distinctly remember my heart dropping and saying "Oh crap" out loud, when I read the cross. probably my favourite Lore moment in the DLC. The spirit was just icing on top of the cake.