It may be notable that Yui Tanimura, the director of Dark Souls II, was also the co-director of Elden Ring. The idea of a troublesome character design hitting a point where they just decide to rip off its head worked out well enough in II and who knows if it may have had an influence here. When Elden Ring finally gets a design works, maybe we'll be lucky enough to see the Sanguine Noble concept art and get some more insight on the situation.

For the Black Knives, it feels more like their cloaks and armor render their physical selves invisible, than that they're headless. The description for the Black Knifeprint mentions that their cloaks obscure the truth, and unlike the Sanguine Noble (where you can see their hands and feet) they're covered head to toe in armor except for the face.

I assumed that the Black Knifes had a thick veil over their face, and I almost didn't realize the void in the noble's hoods was literally just a missing head.

I love how creepy all monsters related to Mogh are: from the giant blood slimes that can't hit shit to the red roly poly Albinaurics, the giant blistered crows and dogs, these headless dudes and the creepy White Mask invader we all love to hate. Special mention to the "suicide" giant crow who helped us all get an insane amount of runes to become OP

The gag with the faceswap towards the end put a smile on my face. Zullie you may not make jokes often as you used to, but I'm happy with the rare bits I get.

We also see an instance of the character being headless when it comes to the Frenzied Flame ending: It might be insinuating a theme in Elden Ring that the head (traditionally revered in religions as highly important because it's symbolic of worship to the gods) may be lost when one strays from the path of the Erdtree, 'losing one's head to madness', as it were.

Sort of related to the headlessness of these enemies, was Mergo's Wet Nurse in Bloodborne ever meant to have a head/face or was she always headless/faceless? Given her ties to the Great Ones and being the one caring for Mergo, it makes sense that she wouldn't have a face/head at all, but the complete lack of one comes to mind when looking at the Nobles in Elden Ring.

The idea of the "formless" mother, as her name even suggests, I think, relates to her coming into this world through blood, which is formless. Or, more specifically, takes on the form of whatever body it is in. This also explains why Mohg comes out of a pool of blood directly coming out of Miquella's body. Miquella's body seems to host a whole realm inside.

I remain dedicated in the belief that the character and monster designs of Elden Ring bear immense similarity to the style of bordeaux-style medieval tapestry art and such art may have served as inspiration based on taking those insane and unartistically distinct designs and then just running them straight into the engine as "realistic" as possible. If you took one of those paintings and made everything in it look real, it'd look like a brightly lit horror show. It'd look like Elden Ring. or Demon's Souls.

I was not prepared for the background music's ominous vibes.

It's crazy how I drop anything I'm doing when I see a notification for a new video.

I think it might be just like Gideon void helmet where the hood covered head is supposed to be dark or invisible just to make it look cooler.

Zullie's jump scare game is progressively getting freakier

This song is always so nice; last time I remember it being used was for the wormfaces. It fits the vibe so well And then Manikin Head jumpscare.

i wish mogh had an ending, and the tarnished also grew horns, kinda like how your eyes change depending on the ending

Wow! I didn't expect that Zullie face reveal at 2:21 !!!

This music choice is just incredibly subversive alongside the information being presented. Your work is impeccable.

Interesting detail that may link to the omen horns: The description for the "Bloodboon" Incantation states that Mohg's accursed blood erupted with fire, not the Formless Mother's blood (I'll copy paste item descriptions below). Which is weird because it's definately Her bloodflame that you're throwing around. Also Morgott's Cursed Sword is supposedly made of Morgott's accursed blood and It's weapon skill appears very similar to Bloodflame Talons (though doesn't apply the bloodflame effect). I'm not entirely sure what the relationship between the Omen Curse and the Formless Mother is, but there is definately a link and I like to think that the nobles and the red albinaurics are turning into omens simply by exposure to Her. Bloodboon: "Sacred incantation of Mohg, Lord of Blood. Thrust arm into the body of the Formless Mother, then scatter the bloodflame to set the area ablaze. This incantation can be cast while in motion. The mother of truth craves wounds. When Mohg stood before her, deep underground, his accursed blood erupted with fire, and besotted with the defilement that he was born into." Morgott's Cursed Sword: "Warped blade of shifting hue used by Morgott, the Omen King. The accursed blood that Morgott recanted and sealed away reformed into this blade."

I can really appreciate the constant usage of King's Field 4's music. It feels both nostalgiy and eerie

2:19 I wasn't ready for that

This is sooo awesome looking!!!

Kings field music always means a banger video

They got dem omen feet

I love to think that eventually we might get a DLC like the Untended Graves where all these heads are stored, with an executioner hoarding them or some sort of...benign gravetender looking after them

Just damn I love your breakdowns and others like them. I like your quick fire style with lots of info and still open for interpretation. Then there's dudes like illusionarywall with really wicked technical details (not that don't sometimes offer the same ofc). Idk just love these games and love to see how they work and the possibilities for cut content and the like . You're awesome Zullie!

Always happy to see Max Slider PC show up in a video.

I always figured the nobles used Margit's animations/skeleton based on their dagger throws

Seeing this got me thinking, since the Sanguine Nobles don't really have the large proportions common in Omens, I wonder if they're in any way related to the thorn sorcerer dudes who hang out with the Flame Monks. They're both very gaunt, they both use their weapons to aid in walking, and they're both obviously tied to blood and flame. Maybe some of the exiled sorcerers, with their self-wounding briars and knowledge of the Blood Star, found their way to Mohg's side and took up new noble positions under the Formless Mother.

It might be coincidence but there's quite a few instances of headless characters in the game, a bit of a theme. Other than the ones mentioned in the video, the Mausoleum soldiers are all headless (even their horses) and supposedly they decapitated themselves in order to guard the mausoleums forever. The bodies preserved inside the mausoleums are also missing their heads. I wonder if there's some lore explanation for this.

The Manikin mask from DS2 be lookin like Varre

I love how the cane gives away their stride earlier as they're rising out of the ground, it's such a good combination of details

the horn high heels YASSSS DIVA SLAYYYYYYYYYY ✨

The amount of research and dedication in each and every single one of those vids is absolutely astonishing and beautifully awesome... I love it! Please keep it up Zuzu ^~^

We've already seen that Mogh used to be a regular enemy, so maybe they used to have Mogh's head (or a head very similar to Mogh's) and it was removed when Mogh became a unique character?

They lost their heads is the perfect description of all soulsborne enemies

Usually details like this are intentional and have lore implications, such as the mausoleum knights and black knives, but this one just feels like an oversight.

Formless mother being an outer god that favors blood really reminds me of a line in bloodborne "..the oozing blood is a medium of the highest grade, and the essence of the formless Great One." This line comes from the formless oedon rune

Another painful reminder of the mask we lost out on in Ds2.

These videos are such a great way to start the day. Thabks!

I’ve wondered since launch why Mohg would forsake his Omen kin entirely and not even invite any to his new nation of blood. While there’s definitely a possibility that these headless dudes are Omen, it doesn’t really match the body type of the Omens we see in the sewer.

The sanguine nobles are probably one of my favorite enemy types to encounter at the ruin farm but it really makes no sense why they don’t have a head, since they have a physical form and it makes very little sense why the head is the only thing that doesn’t have a form.🐱

Another fascinating video, thanks for your work Zullie !

King's Field 4 has an absolutely amazing soundtrack.

For those of you that are having trouble finding it the song is called "King's Field 4 OST - The Ancient City Entrance" here on KZfaq.

Good job with the camera work and footage gathering for this one, the spin around reveals and emoting were pretty amusing

I wish Mogh had more of a role... I think he and his nobles have some of the best designs in the game (Mogh himself is particularly terrifying when you look at how deminic he is compared to his brother). that, and who doesn't love a Bloodborne throwback (I thought their colour palette was very close to that of Cainhurst knights). I'd say the horns on the nobles are more to do with the Mother than being an Omen, though - perhaps we'll find out more in a DLC?

I don't know how people notice this stuff without these videos. I'm too busy trying to avoid getting my ass slapped to ever even notice they didn't have heads lol

The moment at 2:20 was pure gold

one of the best videos yet

Man that music really makes we wanna try Kings Field one day.

I absolutely love the style of these videos

its been awhile since ive had time to look at your videos, the editing is amazing.

I’m almost convinced that the formless mother is the same god as the one that controls the crucible since she gives them horns and wings

I would love to see you get a chance to interview some of the animators from the project on questions like this, just to learn some of the difference between our deductions and reality. I think it would be super interesting.

At least as far as Elden Ring, I'm convinced it's a sign of devotion. Assuming all three "headless" enemy types truly headless, the types of devotion would be as follows: Devotion to duty for the mausoleum guards, who carry on their duty stripped of identity. Devotion to a higher power for the sanguine nobles, who as followers of Mohg and the Formless Mother conceal or erase their identity as a sign of fealty to their god. And finally, Devotion to a cause for the Black Knives, who hid their identities both to prove that anyone could have done what they did, and to make sure that nobody would know their identities, possibly not even each other.

my initial thought about all the headless enemies is that it had something to do with the cut dream mechanic, to hide secrets that person knew in life, sort of like a speak with dead spell not functioning on a headless/jawless corpse

They were forced to fight Mogh right after finishing Varrés quest, that would make me lose my head too ...

So no head?

I didn't know they did not wear shoes, I thought they were wearing those silly Stilleto shoes. But no, it's just horns growing out of the bottom of their feet? That's strange.

pretty solid method to making characters more mysterious, just ripping their heads off

Thank you for making the headless video!

I always watch your videos with such focus on the subtitles that I didn't realise how damn funny 2:20 really is! 😂

Sanguine Nobles: "So no head!?" *smashes phone* *breaks cane by jumping on it*

“Those who have blind faith have no head, they have no eyes to see and no mind to think. They exist to follow and die.”

I know I'm in for a treat when spooky music is used.

Likely a development oversight but I'm gonna run with the idea of them taking on "Formless" traits since that's cooler.

Thank you for blessing us with more quality content Zullie. :D

Kings field had some bangers ngl

"So - no head?"

If we do want to go the lore route and not the model-error route, taking on aspects of the Formless Mother sounds rather neat. And it would mean a difference between *surrendering* yourself to the Outer God, and trying to control it. Mohg is the latter, as shown by him stabbing into it to scatter blood all the time, compared to the Nobles doing things like climbing out of spontaneous blood pools.

Very Nazgul in concept and execution In concept and on paper, the invisible lords with robes and crowns over nothing is pretty deamn cool In execution and onscreen, it's much cooler to have a void of black or full coverings. Much less awkward and looks a whole lot more sinister

I always found the parallels between The Formless Mother and Formless Oedon interesting. Not just the "Formless" bit but also the theme of bloodletting being central to the worship of these respective entities.

From software may be the only devoloper to re use assets and people celebrate them. Best devoloper.

Not gonna lie, that sudden close up was nightmare fuel.

It's actually extra believable for me to say it's reused Bloodborne asset as much to do with Mohg and his practices seem like a Bloodborne throwback. In fact most concepts that touch the topic won't stop sounding Bloodborne if you compare it to Bloodborne's plot and Oedon being a formless Great One. At first I started selling the idea for crossover memes until I realized I was believing what I was selling. I physically cannot talk about Mohgwyn Dynasty without thinking Bloodborne. Healing practitioners experimenting blood. Only one could handle the blood differently for ascension. Blood horror realm. Cut dream content that could have been a dead Miquella dream to wake him up. Infant Great One for sacrifice. Miquella was literally in a womb, expected to awaken a god. Cursed blood. Outer gods. Floor birds. Even Mohg's attacks are a bit Bloodborne inspired if we remember Lady Maria's super blood moves and Laurence bleeding lava we don't want to step in. Even his boss track theme. Blood transfusion is also in their practices, and puts Albinaurics to sleep in the waiting effects of the process.

still love that bigfoot face in ds2 every time you show it lol

Your intimate knowledge of the Souls games never ceases to amaze me.

I like the idea that they became formless themselves. That would explain why their hood just floats. Because you can't visibly see their head because it's formless but it's still there

A (supposedly) cursed lineage of horned beings is giving me major ICO vibes now that I'm thinking about it - I wonder if Ueda's work had any influence on Elden Ring?

I remember reading back in the day that they changed the Manikins mask because it looked a lot like the mask of Obito from Naruto. But no idea if it's actually legit but it did look similar.

The most important thing Zulie’s videos have taught me is how banging the King’s Field score is

Is it possible to apply their skeletal animations to a model with a face so we can see what those animations look like?

great content, and always the best soundtracks

Man why was the King's Field OST so godlike.

kings field music is on another level

love how its slow motion but the grass still sways normal fps

Elden Ring is Dark Souls 2 II and you can't change my mind.

Feels like this game was so close to ready, then some new starter came in and clicked the randomize spawn button.

Youre one of the few KZfaqrs that I watch every new video. You do an excellent job investigating, even if we are left without answers by FromSoft. Great vid!

Formless Mother makes me think of bloodborne too actually, either because of Kos or if you assume the Moon Presence was female. So fun that these games can interconnect so much.

It’s a shameful thing, they lost their head Careless nobles who will wind up dead

One of my favorite parodies of Dark Souls content has the faceless giants with a tiny tiny smiling face in the middle of their face hole. It is simultaneously adorable and very very creepy.

Every video I begin to think more and more that elden ring is what dark souls II was expected to be and now it is but with another name.

"So this design's been giving me some trouble---" "Off with it's head!!!"

The eerie Zelda music is a great choice too for this video! Spooky they choose to behead themselves, yet knowing this won’t necessarily kill them becasue of the just-won’t-die curse…can’t be fun though…

I think it's interesting to note there is an Invader Sanguine Noble in Consecrated Snowfield who is a Player NPC, and Nerijus has Sanguine robes on

That turn around at 2:20 got me lmao

They'll never be the head of a major corporation

And here i thought that the sanguine nobles just had a clothing covering their faces, and for the black knives to just have a shadow that didnt make their faces visible... the more you know...

More questions than answers. I actually like they were way more ominous and vague with Elden Ring than their other games. Because it leaves a lot of room for future installments. A d answers to questions. Similar to how Dark souls 1-3 worked out. Givin 2 seemed more like a filler episode. But I enjoyed it all the same.