Elden Ring Lore | Maliketh and the Shadowbound Beasts

Maybe Torrent is Miquella's shadow (or former shadow) ?

A part of me thought Maliketh was a ferocious monster with a dreaded past and Marika came to him to redeem him, becoming the beast clergyman, Gurrnaq. But when Marika disappeared, clergyman Gurrnaq lost his way and the fight with the tarnished reverted him back to the monster, Maliketh.

How Fromsoft makes a game; give a sword to a dog, give it a sad story, make all the money.

Did anyone wears Blaidd armor to honor him to go through Ranni route.

What would Serosh the beast regent be? Is he a shadow or is he more like the bloodhound knights?

Holy shit, the Traitor using a Blaidd mask is officially Canon to me now.

Do we know for sure that Ranni sent the Black Knife Assassins to kill them?? Pidia/ Selivis os killed by puppets, and Black Knives killed Iji and attempted to kill Blaidd'

Well Serosh was the king of beastmen. Doing to the fact they aren’t created but molded to their bodies by the greater will determines size/power/determination to either the greater will because if they go against the greater will causes madness. But you got some of this right. Very nice.

As I do do 😂 why am I like this. Excellent video hope to see many more to come

dang, after hearing that voicline makes me want to give malaketh a big hug

You missed one empyrean and wolf. Radagon became Marika and which means he became a god. To do so, he had to be an empyrean, and indeed, we do see that there is a boss named Red Wolf of Radagon defending Rennala, for whom I believe Radagon still has feelings.

There are similar red wolves near Radagon's children. One is on Ranni's plateau. One is in the Consecrated Snowfield. It could be that these are distinct wolves, or the first wolf had pups, or that you're right and slaying a shadow isn't always final.

Maliketh’s lore is what brought me to my “god-slaying build”
Destined Death build is my absolute favorite

1. they are shadowbound "beasts". Just because the ones we see are lupine doesn't mean they have to be wolf-folk.
2. Malenia and Miquella already have plenty of Canon "half brothers"
3. They have canonical half brother twins.
4. Said half-brother twins are considered subhuman and kept as a secret shame
5. One brother is said to be one of the hardest skillchecks for his point in the game
6. the other kidnapped miquella

all im saying is we've never heard mogh and morgott SAY they're not the perverse, shadowbound slaves of the auspicious twins, a deep shame repurposed to help herald their new era

Should be said that if ppl are just watching this for the 1st time now, Smough has since changed his opinion about Ranni being behind the Black Knives assassinating Iji and Blaide. He now believes that the Black Knives did this is retaliation/revenge for her leaving them high and dry after the Night of the Black Knives.

Hope ppl can see this bc it changes a lot imo. Originally I hopped around to the topics I found for interesting, but I've since gone back and listened to all his lore videos in order which has given me more context on many topics and references in later videos but also allows me to see how Smough's opinions have changed over time and why they have. Cheers?

My theory is that the Godskins want to kill gods, and Ranni wants to become a kind of god, so they would want to kill those that allow her to accomplish this goal. This can be supported by the fact that a Godskin Noble stands between you and the Divine Tower of Liurnia, possibly assuming that the allies of Ranni might seek her Empyrean body in order to elevate her to godhood. It doesn’t really make sense for it to just be guarding the Cursemark of Death, as acquiring it is necessary for the Duskborn ending, which as far as I know accomplishes everything they want i.e. the end of eternal life.

Ranni didn’t send the black knife assassins to kill her companions. The black knife assassins were aiming to kill Ranni and her companions were protecting her. Now why you may ask? Without typing up several paragraphs Ranni basically doubled crossed them because her end goal was to become the new god in the age of stars.

Now how Ranni double crossed and used them and why the black knife assassins wanted to kill Goldwyn in the first place I’ll leave that up to your imagination but it’s not hard to piece together.

Is this a Sekiro reference?
He's called wolf and it's also a shadow for his master...

Vargram: I will be the greatest warrior.
Dariwhil: every dog has his day.
Blaidd: protect Ranni
Maliketh: 🎶 Let me do it for you. 🎶

So, I'm sitting here thinking "Who's behind it all and why is Melina and Ranni The only 2 spirits with 1 eye closed? And who is this Gloam Eyed Qween? More importantly, who has more at stake?" Ranni! I'm starting to seriously think that Ranni and Melina are one and the same. Just pulling our character in a certain direction but also letting us think we are doing it for "Good". Neither Ranni, nor Melina mention each other even though they both are very familiar with Torrent. Furthermore, she hides 1 eye, each apposite, like she's being 2 faced. Melina knows Destined Death and Ranni also knows Destined Death.
I think they are the same person...the Gloam Eyed Queen. Side note...Torrent has scars on his left side, did anything catch that? Torrent is a spirit, the only thing I can think of that would hurt him like that would be Deaths flame

I got the impression that Blaidd didn't fall to the two fingers- he protected Ranni to the last, defeated the BKA sent to kill her. I think that Blaidd, in overcoming the control of the Two Fingers, drove himself into a berserker frenzy, unable to tell friend from foe.

What if Miquelas shadow is Torrent, it’s possible if it’s Miquela on the dlc Twit pic (lmao who looks for lore there)

By the time of Blaidd's death, the Black Knives were no longer under the influence of Ranni. Quite the opposite, they were in a state of direct opposition.

Confirmed. Shadow of the erd tree will be about the creator and it’s purpose

Late to the party, but why do you think the baleful shadow’s blade has the black flame? I wonder if the baleful shadow’s black flame is what is responsible for the black flame we later on see Iji consumed in

I’m not sure how I feel about this theory because it fucks with the timeline too much, however if we say Milena and Malenia were both empyrians around the same time, and pledge themselves to Miquella, would their Beasts obey him. I say this cuz one of the few statues we see of Miquella has him surrounded by 3 wolves. These wolves could be His own beast, plus his two siblings.

However if Milena is an Empyrean that’d mean she’s probably the Gloam Eye, and I’m of the opinion that the Godskin Debacle happened long before Radagon was 2nd Elden Lord, meaning Miquella and Malenia wouldn’t be born yet, so she couldn’t have pledged to Miquella.

I think this Theory does have legs when it comes to Malenia’s Shadow beast, as it’s entirely possible Miquella has control of both his and his sisters, however I’m really trying to stretch to get the 3 shadow beasts in there cuz it fits with the statue of Miquella.

I don't think Ranni killed Blaidd and Iji, given the assassins are now probably at odds with her, what happened might've just been revenge for the entire.. invading their cities.

The shadows always felt like the feeling of guilt that is meant to keep people believing in gods. He always blames himself for everything that happens to marika and the greater will. I think he was so desperate to do his duty buried the rune of death and became one with the rune of death. He takes the name of gurranq to signify his the consequence of his crimes. Even when he attacks us he regrets it.

I'm not one who thinks Ranni can do no wrong, she did Godwyn dirty after all, which also was the likely catalyst for the shattering. That being said, I don't think Ranni sent the BK assassins. In fact, I beleive the BK assassins we're there for Ranni, and not Blaidd or Iji. I have no concrete proof, but it seem likely to me that Ranni is the one to have Alecto imprisoned in the evergaol, because it is in Ranni's territory afterall. Plus we see BK assassins all over the place, none of which seem to be connected to Ranni. I do think she killed Seluvius though, but he was plotting against her, so he had it coming. It just seems unlikely that Ranni would even want Blaidd and Iji dead. She tells us to tell them both that she loves them, and there is no real benefit to killing them at this point, except maybe killing Blaidd out of self preservation under the assumption that he would go mad after Ranni killed her Two Fingers. But her killing Iji would make no sense at all imo.

Cinquedea = “chiŋkwə̇ˈdēə” “chin-kwuh-dee-uh” (according to Merriam-Webster, so probably still not quite accurate to the original Italian).
I always assumed it was from middle Spanish (having once seen a Spanish example of the weapon) and also pronounced it wrong, but no, it’s renaissance Italian. But it’s definitely not “sink-dee”.

Amazing work as always. I know it’s a pretty damn late comment, but I’ve been going back through your old videos again. You’ve always done excellent analysis, and it’s been grand to go back through your body of work. Thanks, mate.

Miquella's Needle should be able to protect Blaidd. You should be able to guide him to Farum Azula and use the needle on him severing the control of the two-fingers.

Wait... are you telling me that shadows die twice?

Call a destined death, but not for me!

So, Blaidd can be fought at 3 different points? Because i first encountered him at the base of Ranni's tower at the moment Ranni goes to sleep, the second run he appeared before me in one of the underground city's where i defeated him right before the place you find Ranni's doll, pissed as all hell, and apparently he's also in an evergaol locked up by Iji? Also Iji never died in my first run of the game. He just helped me with smithing and was sad about Blaidd dying. Maybe they changed it in an update like a lot in the game, but it's pretty lore heavy so i don't see FS doing that 3 month's after the game released.

I am envious of the dogman, he can smell Rannis armpits from a far.

With the release of the image for SoTE, is it somewhat plausible to assume that Torrent could possibly somehow be Miquella’s shadow? Given his strange nature and almost Rebis like quality that Radagon and Marika share, could his shadow maybe not be a wolf, and something different that allows him to transfer between realms more easily, asleep or not? Torrent is a spirit. But can exist, corporeally, in the material plane. Probably a stretch, and not likely, but interesting to think about.

I think it’s very interesting what it says about champions on maliketh’s armor, knowing that the gargoyles have corpse wax holding them together from champions. Seems pretty clear that maliketh is using the bodies of fallen champions to make his black blade kindred

Just had a random thought after the dlc picture announcement… could torrent be miquella’s shadow?

A very strange question I dont seem to get an answer on is why Malenia and Miquella dont have Shadows of their own if Shadows are rewarded to Emperyans who are meant to take Marika's role. You would think all 3 would have a shadow especially after Ranni discarded her body. you would think one would be fashioned for Malenia or Miquella just to save grace. the twins could have step twins unless the Shadowbound beasts were denied unlike Blaidd who got accepted by Queen Rennala

Shadow of the erdtree dlc

Give Maliketh a big hug for this one

I may be playing the devils advocate here, but what if Blaidd never really resisted the two fingers?
What if he had to get some form of signal from the Two Fingers before he killed his Empyrean?
What if the Two Fingers believed Ranni was salvageable up until the very point she killed one, and only then they triggered Blaidd?
What if the only reason he could fight back against this is simply because Ranni wasn't there to kill and that if she had been in front of him, he would have been unable to fight against his nature?

Wait so do Miquella and Melania also have shadows?

Say it with me "Chink-Way-Day-Ah" Cinquedea.

I absolutely love watching your videos, I've become such a huge fan of elding ring, dark souls and demon's souls.