I always imagined that there’s a cosmic law defined by the Elden Ring. The reason the players are transported to Farum Azula is because the natural order has been broken causing them to naturally be imprisoned. Those who exist in evergaols have committed sins not considered cardinal but definitely heretical. A cardinal sin is required to be sent there.

There is also a interesting motif between water and flame. Rot has a water theme and Blood a fire theme. I consider these twin deities. The greater wills creature the Elden beast has a water theme, while the frenzied flame is obviously fire. Destined death is fire while in undeath as shown through Godwyn and certain undead enemies has a water theme.

As many have pointed out, I believe the Godskin Blackflames and Destined Death flames are one and the same. The Blackflame’s power was “sealed away” and lost its hue. All of the uses of the red Blackflame are using shards of the Rune of Death, so it’s pure and un-distilled. Which made me realize something badass: Since the Godslayer’s Greatsword claims that ALL sealed Blackflame is channeled from this sword, I’m betting it used to cradle the Rune of Death within its helix-shaped blade.

One interpretation i have is that burning the Erdtree is not necessary to reach Farum Azula, but just the sacrifice of a finger maiden. We see Bernahl in Farum Azula, and know that his maiden burned herself in the flame of ruin (this making Bernahl feel scammed and turning him into a recusant). As Enia says, "For the flame to burn the Erdtree, a sacrifice is needed. Of one who envisions the flame. And can lead you to the Rune of Death." My point is that burning the Erdtree is something only Melina the "kindling maiden" could do, because she is unique. Gives more weight to that being her purpose,since it's vital to you becoming elden lord. But sending you to Farum Azula could have been done by another maiden too. I might be wrong though. Regardless, it's clear that Melina was the one who sent you there using some teleportation. She asks you to take her hand, you fall unconscious, and when you wake up you find yourself in Ohio.

The way I see it, this could mean one of two things: 1. There was a lot of internal debate over whether to make Farum Azula mandatory or not. They decided on not making it mandatory and then changed their minds last second, but forgot to reinclude the line. 2. There were originally three ways of burning the thorns: Sacrificing Melina, Using the frenzied flame OR going to Farum Azula and using maliketh's flame to burn it down. I always thought the area's inclusion was a weird break in the pacing, like if after you kill 3/4 of the lords of cinder in Dark Souls 3 you were forced to go to Archdragon Peak before going to lothric castle. But then they spent so much time and money on Farum Azula that they didn't want you to miss it. Originally, you would have gotten a slightly unique cutscene for Farum Azula (differently colored flames and the extra line), but the the ripple effect (different flames mean different lighting) would have been too much to deal with and so they decided to scrap it. Both of these are just speculation, but it always was a part of the game that made me wonder what the intent was. Edit: Fixed Spelling

Considering the frenzied flame, fell flame, black flame, and how one of the themes of this game is fragmentation and division, I can’t help but feel like the three flames are cast off aspects from the greater will, making the flames a sort of “kindred” which is why the frenzied flame can interact with the fell flame before transporting you to the black flame

The Magnum Opus of Alchemy, or the process by which to make the Philosopher Stone had 4 "steps" which were denoted by color. First was nigredo- black, second albedo- white, third citrinitas or yellow, and lastly rubedo which was red. We have the black flames of death, yellow flames of madness, and red of the giants and then possibly ghostflame as white.

i always thought that you needed to unbind the rune of death in order to kill the elden beast. the player is many times told that no human can kill a god and therefore i think the player needs to unleash the rune of death and its god-slayling power to kill the elden beast and become elden lord.

How come when Iji died surrounded by Black Knives, his corpse was burning with black flame instead of the black/red flames the Black Knives use. Was that an over sight?

My interpretation of these events is that the Erdtree is somehow keeping Farum Azula sealed away from the world, in order to prevent anyone from unleashing Destined Death. When the Erdtree is burned, while it cannot die without Destined Death being unbound, it’s magic is weakened, and that is what makes Farum Azula accessible. I imagine that Farum Azula works similarly to the Roundtable Hold, as they are both inaccessible without warping due to existing outside of space/time in some way, and both are affected by the burning of the Erdtree.

I believe Destined Death’s Flame(red and black) and Blackflame(white and black) are actually the same thing. The reason they are different colors is because as Scouring Blackflame tells us, Blackflame lost its original power when Destined Death was sealed away. It seems the designers wanted to keep this secondary burning of the Erdtree more ambiguous and thus cut that Blackflame line from the final product, but I think this is very valid use of cut content in this case. For Farum azula, I have always believed that Melina sends us there because she knows we need Destined Death to enter Erdtree/kill Elden Beast, OR because Farum Azula has been repurposed as a prison by the Golden Order. Consider that Maliketh was betrayed - and we find him in “prison.” Consider we find banished knights in this prison. Consider we find Crucible Knights in this prison. Consider that we (and Alexander) are sent to “prison” for committing a cardinal sin. Farum Azula would make for one darn good prison, wouldn’t it?

This clears up the puzzle of Farum Azusa and provides more evidence for Melina being the gloam-eyed queen. It would be awesome if the godskins’ black flames changed to the flames of the rune of death after you release it.

I always assumed it's either Melina that transports us (given how she puts us to sleep, too) as a last feat of strength before burning completely, or if you were scorched by the Flame of Frenzy, the Three Fingers transporting you to ensure you get into the Erdtree and become Lord of Chaos. It would be a lot more interesting if there's more to it, though.

Now that all these cut contents are being revealed little by little, I really feel like the game could have been so much deeper than it is right now. It feels weird that such amazing characters as the Godskin people don't have a bigger role to play in Elden Ring. You just don't design such compelling characters and don't give them any profound lore.

In addition, there's a lot of references to alchemy in Elden Ring. On Ripley's Scroll (from which we learn a lot about historical ideas of alchemy), the Philosopher's Stone is depicted as three orbs, colored black, yellow, and red. Perhaps this inspired the flames in the game. But in addition, the three orbs on Ripley's Scroll look very similar to the Elden Ring. Perhaps the idea is that the flames were once part of the Elden Ring and were removed. The "gods" could all have been part of the "One Great", as described by Hyetta. Perhaps Marika's goal is to unite the Elden Ring again in all of its shattered pieces, including the splintered off gods.

I just assumed that Melina sent us there as a last act, she already shows the ability to teleport us to strange places like the round table hold.

I always just assumed that you need to unleash the rune of death so the god you were trying to kill would actually die, but now that you mention it the flames definitely look more red/black than just orange.

Elden Ring simply had too many different people working on it without direct communication of potential lore mishaps

I honestly believe you weren’t originally gonna immediately teleport to Faram Azula after the fire giant. I think the original path was gonna be through Dragonbarrow, and you’d teleport at the church at the top. It would’ve given a reason to go there, which at the moment there isn’t much of one. It’s also closely related to Faram Azula.

I don't see how rekindling the giants' flame has a sole purpose of teleporting you to Farum Azula. I feel like the giants have been majorly left out in the world building, and the entire story could've functioned if they and their flame were never mentioned or shown, unless i missed something major. Maybe each discovery of a flame was supposed to directly lead to its respective ending, but it would cut the game really short and would cause many players to not see the rest of the game, and that's why the devs made the trip to the giant's flame and Farum Azula mandatory, in order to streamline the game completion process and secure some playtime in which they can show off parts of the world to the player that in many other playthroughs would've never seen the light of day. Just a guess tho.

I'm a little bit late to the party here, but your idea at the end makes a lot of sense tbh. Pretty much anything involving fire or pyromancy is tied to faith in Elden Ring, and though it is initially described that the burning of the Erdtree was a heretical (though common) prophecy, it would make a lot of sense for the various flames to have connections to faith beyond grim prophecies, given what you've brought up. I would like to actually add to your theory, and mention that the cursed blood of the omens burns like fire as well, and we could even consider the slightly different death magic of the death birds to be their own flame, though one closely tied to death, of course. With that, we would have the orange flames of the Fell God, the black flame of the Godskins, the black and red flames of Destined Death, the red blood flame of the omens and the Formless Mother, the yellow flame of frenzy, and the black and blue-ish flames of the death birds. Interestingly, undeath has a particular attention to the lack of fire... we see this with the mariners and their connection to fire's natural opposite, which would of course be water. Likewise, death blight exists as smoke, which is interesting because it would imply that somehow there is smoke without a fire... though, it could also be a way of signifying that there is smoke *after* fire, which would fit the theme of life after death when it comes to Godwyn and those who live in death. I would also like to point out that some of the Golden Order incantations seem like you could consider them a golden flame of sorts, but is more potent than your typical fire and so it is almost closer to pure energy. It would be an interesting choice, because this would mean that the developers intentionally designed the yellow flame of frenzy and those of the Golden Order to both mirror and contrast each other. The color choice being very similar is important, I think, because yellow and gold are very similar, but not the same... likewise, as the frenzied flame sought to burn all, and was a flame that would spread to take everything so that it could return them to what everything once was (as the frenzy's goal is to make everything whole again, returning the deities back to one being). This is an important thing to consider, because it directly contrasts the idea of the Golden Order, in that it seems to want to be part of just about everything itself, rather than wanting to return to what it was, and it's fire is so potent that it doesn't spread, it's just pretty much the holy magic equivalent of a laser I guess you could say lol... but that's important. To add to this, we have confirmation of the incantations basically being fire after fighting Placideusax, especially considering that he was, at one point, an Elden Lord. The Golden Order's fires are very controlled, and so they seem more divine than being just fire, which fits with its idea of order, and goes well with the theme of the Golden Order seeking to both spread and rule, hence it's name... and the flame of frenzy seeks to spread to everything, and seemingly unmake it with it's yellow flames, seeking to destroy everything and return it back to what it once was. In case you haven't picked up on it yet, the Golden Order and the frenzy are practically personifications of the ideas in game that are referred to as the Law of Causality and the Law of Regression. The idea of gold and yellow serving as eaual opposites that parallel and contrast each other adds a really interesting bit of depth to the artistic choices this game boasts, and I hope that after reading this, it helps deepen your appreciation of their design choices too :)

I kinda thought being sent to Farum Azula was like being sent to prison for the sin of burning the erdtree. Until you find a site of grace you can't fast travel out (otherwise you'd get soft locked) but I sort of see it like those trap chest you can find, and how you need to rest at a site of grace so you can free yourself of the trap.

My guess - the switch from black flame to an unnamed (presumably Giant-related) one is because a player intending to become Elden Lord would have no reason to burn the *whole* Erdtree, and they can't know the player's intent. With Black Flame being specifically Rune of Death stuff, and the player being *in possession* of the Rune of Death at that point, it wouldn't make sense. The trip to Farum Azula is definitely just a band-aid, though. I wonder if it used to be optional for some endings, given that lore-wise you can get a new rune of death and a new source of flame all on your own. At some point, they'd put too much work and too many bosses into Farum Azula to let it be optional the way the Frenzied Flame Proscription and Deeproot Depths are.

A friend once pointed out to me that since there's these fallen ruin parts everywhere across the entire map, it seems Farum Azula is moving above the world, even though it may seem stagnant in the far east on our map... conventional paper maps can't really display moving masses of land very well and so I came to think that eventually, since the mountaintops of the giants and especially the giant's forge is pretty much the highest place you can go, Farum was maybe close by as we burned the tree and kinda picked us up from there. (Maybe Melina helped us get there while asleep)

I have an interesting take: What if Radagon and Marika are already dead? And we just need to unbound the Rune of Death to finish them off? Seems a bit crazy? Well, we never actually see Marika or Radagon move on their own. They only begin to Move when the Elden Beast starts helping out, the thing is straight up the entire left side of Radagon because his arm kinda broke when we walked in. This would explain why the thorns finally burn when they didn’t before, because Radagon was still alive keeping them in place. Now he isn’t, and the thorns suddenly burn. Marika also had a spear in her that bears a resemblance to Destined Death empowered weapons, so this isn’t as far fetch as it may seem. If this is a DD empowered spear, it should just straight up kill them.

Remember that the black flame was once the Death flame, these powers were one in the same and the Black Flame is the depowered version of the Death Flame. With Ranni and Godwyn we have a precedent set for multiple aspects or side of one being/thing, so it's possible all these different flames are just aspects of one original flame. When the three fingers burn the fire is not just orange, it is orange and GOLD.

Grasping at straws, miss-translations and every single letter in every single sentence is the only way to figure it all out. We didn't realize the full story of the previous games without even looking at proper translations, not localizations, of the original japanese lines. I think you're doing an amazing job with this and you're on to something.

Very interesting. That certainly would have made for quite the sight if the Erdtree was enveloped in black flames. But we also need to be careful when dealing with cut content. While it can help give context to some things, it can also lead us down the path-not-taken. Things were cut or changed for a reason. I do love looking at these 'what might have been' though.

Theres a greatsword made of a piece of a piece of azula, its item description describes how a knight u can summon was transported to azula by sacrificing his maiden to the flames, i think a lot of people miss that detail.

Reminds me of something in sekiro. When you give the sculptor the cloudy sake, he talks about how isshin cut off his arm “for his sake” if you don’t have the volume turned up, you’d think isshin cut his arm off for his drink lol

I interpret the various fires like compounds made from elements of fire. The Fell God is Red-Red and perhaps the closest thing to "true flame" having existed in the Lands Between long before the Erdtree. The Frenzied Flame is Yellow-Red and burns both the physical and metaphysical i.e. it breaks down ideas as well as physical matter. The Ghostflame is Black-Blue and burns the body and spirit but as one half of the cycle of birth and death hence why it is white too and not entirely black. The Black Flame is Black-White and burns in totality including fate and thus allows it to kill gods. The Bloodflame is Red-Crimson and burns as a method of harvest.

Interesting thing to note: There are also three great souls in Dark souls that must be collected- Gwyn's, The witch of Izalith's, and Nito's (the others - the three kings' and seath's - are fragments of Gwyn's). Similarly, they correlate to these three- a flame of death, chaos, and life.

What about the brown flame of the dung eater?

Consider the erdtree and the rune of death to be magnets, north and south. You can pull these pieces apart, if you have the strength as Marika indeed did. But the flame of the fell god (literally: dead god) is extra electric charge in this case. It substantially increases the attraction between the two pieces. So if the charge (flame of the fell god) is applied to one half of the magnet (ertree) the attraction to the other half (rune of death) increases substantially. Either the tree goes to the rune, or the rune goes to the tree. If neither condition is met, the resistance holding the two large objects in place will cause one half or the other to begin splintering. Forces can be mitigated, not ignored. Tarnished therefore function as tiny, tiny pieces of the tree. NPC's in Faram Azula are either those who belong there from original time, tarnished in the form of the player and bernahl, and Alexander (who ingested pieces red-haired champion, and receives a god-pass to be a jar wherever he pleases).

what I'm not really sure of is, why are there flames representing some gods/runs/aspects of the world? Where does the inspiration comes from? Is it falling back to some old habits or is there some meaning behind this? I mean it isn't dark souls and the age of fire ... At least I guess so. Why does eldenring comes back to this? Does Fromsoft want to troll the people who played older titles? It feels weirdly cramped that a colored flame, a god and an aspect of the world are used so synonymously that sometimes you feel like they couldn't decided with which they want to go. Also it's also worth mentioning that the erd-tree isn't really burning down in most endings. It's just getting a different typ of hue depicting the aspect you added to the elden ring. So maybe the fire is just an analogy to prepair the smithing of a new elden ring? Maybe at some point in development you where supposted to collect different types of flames and throw them into the giants forge to mix them and adding the black flame of the godskins with the red flame of the giants to have the black and red flame of the death rune.

Great video!! The cut content is vast and curious in this game as well, thank you for sharing! At the beginning I thought you were gonna mention the "Faraam" instead of "Farum" typo xD

in the age of ancient, the world is unformed shrouded by fog. a land of gray crags, archtrees, and everlasting dragons. But then there was fire. we all know whats going on after that

well, this would have been imo 10x more interesting and beautiful then a normal looking flame.

2:59 an important distinction can be made here, because the Black Knives (the weapons) were forged from the Rune Of Death, so they wouldn't be drawing their power from the God-slaying Black Flame the same way the Godskins do.

I think originally it was the cardinal sin of kindling the flame of ruin that gets the player banished to Faram Azula. Faram Azula seems to be a sort of prison outside of time that is used by the golden order or at least earlier in development it was. Zuli the witch discovered that the worm faces in the code were originally called the banished or the displaced and the fact that their association with rot could prove a threat to the safety of the Erdtree could have gotten them banished to Faram Azula. Additionally the godskin duo and the rune of death, other threats to the Erdtree are present in Faram Azula. Lastly, the banished knights are found there which could explain their name.

What might be interesting is if the rune of death and the god of the giants might be connected abit more. Like that the flame of the giant god might not be fully empowered yet, and the rune of death was once linked the fel god in someway that gave it the power to burn the tree.

If by your theory that unleashing the rune of death upon the land is what allowed the erdtree to truly burn, it would make sense why Melina would send us to farum azula. She is kindling for the flame, thus allowing the giants flame to catch onto the erdtree, and to truly burn it she needs us to unleash the rune of death. Which is why we are transported there as that’s where the rune is held, with Maliketh.

Maybe there was supposed to be a black flame / godskin route/ ending??

It has been pointed out that the giants mountaintop are probably an add-on later on the development process. It feels incomplete, empty, there are little to no missions nor a lot of exploration to be made. I belive that the initial forbiden lands were not giants mountaintop but farum azula.

I think it's important to remember that the Black Flame is the white+black Godslaying Black Flame. this is NOT the red+black visual effect of the Rune of Death. Maliketh's weapons, or the Black Knife assassins, are never referred to as using the Black Flame, or even flames of any kind. Nor do any incantations and weapons arts which use Destined Death show the Blackflame sigil. In fact, the Destined Death incantation is categorized alongside the Erdtree incantations. Furthermore, the Black Flame is never stated to BE the Rune of Death. All that's said is the Black Flame the Godskins use is channeled from the Gloam-Eyed Queen's sword. And, the Godskins once served Destined Death. But, once their Queen was defeated by Maliketh and Destined Death was sealed into Maliketh's sword, their flame's true power was lost. based on all those facts, here is my conclusion: the Gloam-Eyed Queen had the Rune of Death, and created the Black Flame using its power. This Black Flame was then shared with the Godskins. But, Maliketh defeated the Queen and took the Rune of Death, using it in his own way. But he did not take the Black Flame. Thus, the current reduced state of the Black Flame, as well as the Black Knives, are both based on the Rune of Death, but distinct from each other. It's like there was an evolutionary split. So, what does that mean for this cut line? (getting into speculation without any proof here) I think it's likely they intended you to be able to burn the Erdtree with multiple types of flame. You can already do it with the Flame of Ruin and the Frenzied Flame. Probably, you were going to be able to burn it with the Godslaying Black Flame as well. And presumably, you'd see it burning the appropriate color, and get the appropriate line of dialogue. And no matter what, you'd still need to go to Farum Azula to unseal Destined Death, regardless of which flame you use - because NONE of these flames are Destined Death. However, they seem to have backed away from that plan, and thus in-game you only have two choices of kindling, the Erdtree always burns with the Flame of Ruin, and you get unspecific dialogue.

I always had the impression that Melina is the one who teleported us there to Farum Azlua to unleash destined death (she said two things in relation to that, first she said "This land is in need of death indiscriminate" and then she also said something like "The one who seeks the flame of ruin gets to destined death" or something like that). Making me think that she either is the Gloam-Eyed Queen or very closely related to her, as she would know very well how to get to the rune of death since it was originally in her possession until Marika and Malekith killed her and sealed it away, that's emphasized further by her different deamnor and menacing appearance in the Flames of Frenzy ending. It seems burning everything to the ground while Melina is still around restores her to her original form/power, and she says she will deliver us -the Lord of Frenzy- destined death, that leaves little doubt as to who she really is.

One thing I find interesting is thorns. Thorns connect to blood and roses and the formless mother. But you also have thorns and red glintstone in the fire monks who also practice self inflicting wounds as religious empowerment. And thorn spells and fire monk spells even share similar casting sigils. And the burning of the erdtree is even seen it it’s prophets sometimes, but is a cardinal sin. You also have Maliketh who also sealed a god, arguably the twin bird, and sealed the rune of death in is blade and later in his flesh. And when finally breaking down to unseal it he stabs into a red stone, and he to feels that he has sinned so eats death roots as penance almost. You could also bring up how the Fingerslaying blade seem to be a sign of sin, and is the body of a god. So thorns and “sin” could be heavy ties in the slaying of outer gods or atleast vassal beast as a means of sealing them. Thorns even seal Radagon/Marika and thus the Elden Beast in the Erdtree.

I've noticed something about the various kinds of flames in game: nearly all come from Destined Death, the only exception being Frenzied Flame. Hear me out on this but take what I say with a healthy amount of salt, I don't have even half the item descriptions memorized. Let's start with what brought me to this theory, that being the colors of the flames. Destined Death is shown to be a black and red flame that hits pretty hard and eats away at targets (shown in game as the lingering damage). Destined Death is connected directly with the Rune of Death, it is kept by Maliketh but the power of the rune isn't only his - the Black Knives use it but so too does another group, even if only a fraction. The Godslayer Flame is a black and white flame that eats away at targets (lingering damage) while hitting pretty hard too. It is connected with the Gloam-Eyed Queen but also with the Run of Death, the power of the legendary black flames was greatly weakened by the sealing of that rune. The Giants' Flame or Flame of the Fell God is a special fire that seems to burn for ages while also being remarkably strong (guesswork, I haven't used it but it had to be controlled by monks....that fell to temptation). The Flame of the Fell God is a primarily reddish orange. The Ghostflame is a cold fire that is stark white, it appears to be connected to death and is used to bring souls to the Erdtree roots (it not only inflicts frostbite, Death Rite Birds build up death status, it also is in catacombs). Finally regular flames burn orange and seem to be the overall weakest. My guess is that all the different forms of fire - except the Frenzy Flame - are derived from Destined Death. Destined Death specifically appears like a flame, it has no reason to look that way in particular but it does. The Godslayer Flame is the closest to replicating the power of the Rune of Death, being capable of felling gods when in the hands of a capable user - it was likely part of why the rune had to be sealed. The Gloam-Eyed Queen probably had some knowledge of Destined Death and taught her followers something similar to it. Probably an offshoot that developed around the same time or even before that was the Flame of the Fell God, it was given to the Giants for their forge and so they could survive (the Fire Giant looks cold). A strong flame that instead of drawing power from the Rune of Death, it instead has its own power that can be ruinous to others - granting them strength or just burning them harshly. From either Destined Death or the Godslayer Flame, the Ghostflame was born and still draws power from death but not directly from the rune. The Ghostflame probably is meant to be what souls follow to reach the Erdtree again or it may instead put souls to rest - it'd explain why it's so common among places where the dead are. Regular fire could come from the Fell God's influence, a weaker version of the fire it gave to the giants, one that would power forges and could still be ruinous to others but was much weaker yet controllable. If you wanted to argue it, perhaps the Frenzied Flame could fit in there too - it shares red flames with both Destined Death and the Fell God, it could be it was far less controllable instead of being easier to use. Anyway, if anyone read this far then thanks for reading my crazy ramblings. I personally like this idea that all the kinds of fire in Elden Ring are related but I wouldn't be shocked if some lore contradicts that.

So it's just another case of FromSoft rewriting their games few months before release into a total mess, just like what happened with Dark Souls 3. There was probably a Godskin/Gloam-Eyed-Queen/Blackflame ending associated with Farum Azula. Probably different for Godfrey fight etc. but at the end they just decided to put them all together.

Ok but seeing the erdtree covered in black flame sounds cool as hell, probably less visually grating than the reddish one we ended up getting

It's interesting how basically everything in opposition to the Erdtree is fire. The Flame of Frenzy, the Blackflame, the Ruinous Flame of the Giants, Rykard's Blasphemous Flames, Mohg's Bloodflame, even Dragonflame and Ghostflame in their own ways. What more fitting opponent to a pile of kindling, eh?

Also what confuses me is why Melina's skin is scarred and messed up even before we set her alight

I believe that Melina is heavily implied to be the Gloam Eyed Queen, who was the master of black flame and taught it to the godskins. It's possible that in an older version when she burned the Erdtree, because she is the Gloam Eyed Queen, and the master of black flame of Destined Death that she uses blackflame to burn it. However they probably changed this because the true power of black flame was sealed away with the rune of death, and it would probably make more sense for the rekindled fire of the fell gods, with the giants to be able to do it, since we hadn't yet reached Farum Azula and unbound the rune of death, so the true power of her black flame would still have been greatly diminished.

Recently there was cut content discovered involving the dream realm, further exploring sleep magic, miquella etc. Anything in the dream realm could be described as "existing outside of time" Certainly existing outside of time would open up unconventional methods of travel. I am very much reminded of when we mediate in ds3 and travel to the Nameless King's paradise lost. If you don't interrupt the experience in Faram Azula with traveling to other graces, it plays out like Melina sends you to sleep to locate and retrieve the death rune, whilst using her remaining strength to transport you back to layendell once the job is done.

In the intro cutscene as you wake up in faruum azula you can hear footsteps walking away from you as if someone was with you

I believe the guidance of grace brought us to Farum Azula, and the reason why it couldn't before is that queen Marika used Erdtree magic to block the way, and burning the Erdtree breaks the magic, similarly to how the Roundtable hold, also created with Erdtree magic, is set aflame.

The Rune of Death is represented by a T-pose... Hilarious

Makes me wonder what other purpose St. Trina's flames may have served, and so on

in my headcanon the one that transports you to Farun Azula is Godfrey. He is like you nothing more a tarnished that tries to become elden lord ( for him he tries to become it again though) after he sees your potential and the sacrifice to reach the Erdtree, that basically failed since the roots still block the entrance, he knows that this flame isn't strong enough to burn them away, so he sends you to the only thing he knows that can burn them away. Afterwards he goes to Leyndell and waits for your arrival to see if you are a better candidate as a lord and challenges you to a duel.

It does feel strange that you burn the tree then go unbound death to, after doing it, make the burning do anything at all. In fact when you finish with Morgott the story becomes spotty about what you are about to do. Melina tells you to go to the kiln multiple times, but doesn't tell you about the rune until the last moment (even then she only mentions Destined Death, which is clarified as a synonym elsewhere). Despite this, Enia says: "And you say you seek the power of the Rune of Death, too?" - no, I had no idea I'm doing that. Personally I think we had multiple options to burn the tree (Giant's flame, Destined Death flame, Frenzied flame), but that angle was cut.

Great vid. I appreciate cut content. Keep up the great work!

I always just assumed That... the woman who teleports you everywhere throughout the game... who is still conscious despite her Self-immolation... and who wants you to find the rune of death at farum azula... teleported you there...

My assumption has always just been that Melina is the one who transported us to tornado land. This is after she discovers her destiny at the erdtree, so she could just know it’s the right place to send you to unleash the flame. Additionally, she’s the one who took us to the roundtable hold so she is able to teleport us places, physical or not.

The in game explanation to why you go to Farum Azula after linking the flame is that the flame just does that to whoever gets near it. That's the way Alexander says he got there, he just fell into it and woke up there.

The VA's said in an interview they're taken back to the redo some voice lines, guessing we can replace the black flame for the red on this one or make it ambiguous since both the color red for the fire giants and black are seen in the burning erd tree. Either way it's awesome!

this video brings up such a jarring continuity error I had not through about. very interesting stuff

I would say that, as it was cut content, we might as well assume that the Erdtree could have been burned by all three flames. And that one particular storyline featured the black flames.

so 4 great runes are needed to reforge the Elden Ring. 2 Demigods great runes, The Rune Of Death, and technically Radagon’s great rune. This makes way more sense than 2 great runes

I always thought melina brings you to Farum Azula considering you loose consciousness as she burns the tree.

i think, we were originally meant to burn the erdtree with black flame.. as described in the black flame incantation, the black flame is weighty, and continously sap the foe's HP for a short time. and there's no other fire that do that kind of dps damage. so i think, due to this special characteristic, the black flame was needed, as it latch on to the target longer than any flames. because the way i see it, flame of ruins, and flame of frenzy. both are pretty much a regular fire, just different in colour. when the black flame is strong in quality, but it lacks quantity. it doesnt make sense right? where we can find an abundant source of black flame to completely engulf that huge ass tree? our puny black flame sling? that's not gonna be enough. yet, there are other flames that has the quantity, tho they lacks the quality to burn the tree. the flame of ruins is the first option, since even marika is afraid of that she literally massacred every single fire giants and leave on alive to guard it. and the flame of frenzy, given a lord to control them, can go way out of control. so... based on this, i think they retracted the idea that the tree only has to be burn by the black flame. instead, they use another fire and then enhanced it with the rune of death, so it has a similar property as the black flame.

my headcanon is that Melina is the former goddess of death, the Gloam Eyed Queen, disembodied and depowered after losing to Maliketh, and she uses the Forge of the Giants as an energy source to power the Rune of Death enough to nuke the Erdtree. The black flame line that was cut would really lend weight to my wild ass hypothetical.

So Melina turns back to the Dusk/Gloam-Eyed-Queen after being burnt? It explains her appearance in the Lord of Frenzy ending. In that ending, Melina strongly resembles the puppet inhabited by Ranni, which is modelled after her master, the Snow Witch. So, Ranni's master, the Snow Witch, is also the Dusk-Eyed-Queen, who taught Ranni about Destined Death and set in motion the events that lead to Godwyn's Death. Ranni stole part of the Rune of Death, the Great Rune of the Dusk-Eyed-Queen, of which the location was only known to Marika, Gurrang and the bearer of the Great Rune herself - Melina She brings us to Farum Azula to reclaim what is rightfully hers and once we obtain the Rune, that's when Melina regains her memories as the Dusk-Eyed-Queen. Her mother, Marika, sealed away Melina's left eye so she cannot pursue Destined Death anymore. Once Marika was imprisoned by the Greater Will, Melina slowly regained her senses and found a Tarnished warrior to help her find herself again. Melina is the big sister of Malenia and Miquella, as depicted on the statue where we fight Loretta at the Haligtree. This ties perfectly into the trio's themes: Miquella - Abundance/Rebirth Malenia - Rotting Melina - Death

Farum azula is just so confusing to me. It seems to be a temple wholly dedicated to Placidusax, and the beastmen seem to be tending to it somehow, and yet maliketh is here. Furthermore he is disguised as the beast clergyman, which makes me think that Gurranq is also somehow connected to the dragonlord. Is he just here because of Farum Azula being a place out of time and everything being outta whack? I could be missing something totally obvious, but the fact that we find maliketh in a broken temple once dedicated to the dragonlord seems strange. As far as I can tell they don’t have any connection. Maybe not maliketh per se, but is there something about gurranq?

I always figured that Melina transported us there just before she fully died.

Another kind of potential flame is Scarlet Rot! Visually many elements of Scarlet Rot are seen in botanical rust diseases: splotchy discoloration, vibrant red goop, fungal growths. Rusting is the same chemical process as burning, i.e. oxidation, so I can imagine that Scarlet Rot is a sort of subtle flame that rusts rather than burns.

My theory has always been that committing The Cardinal Sin by burning the Erdtree is what sends us to Faram Azula to be imprisoned and killed in the one place where true death exists, but as we are way more powerful than our Warden (Maliketh) it also coincidentally brings us exactly where we need to go to get the Rune of Death

If you look at the Erdtree at 1:52 there is the Black Flame of Destined Death mixed with the Flame of the Fell God. I'm assuming the audio was removed because of the Flame of Destined Death and Godslayer's Flame both being called "Black Flames." It's hard to see Destined Death on the Erdtree in the first place so maybe it's possible they cut it for clarities sake, or you know, beacuse alot of story beats were changed last minute.

The Frenzied Flame ending had an intimidating feeling to it

This is awesome! It actually fits really well into this long theory I have regarding Maliketh, Melina and the Gloam eyed queen. This might sound random but any chance that you want to talk about it? I feel like you can do more with the theory than me right now.

My initial interpretation of the transport to Farum Azula was that the giant's flame itself blasted us there as a side effect of burning the Erdtree. Now though, I feel like being sent to Farum Azula may be a "punishment" from the Gods for committing the cardinal sin. Farum Azula is trapped in an eternal maelstrom beyond time, and is the kind of place the Gods would send someone as a punishment, and a lot of the enemies you face there are from races or factions that opposed Marika, the Erdtree, and the Greater Will (the Dragons, the Godskins, the Beastmen, and technically even Maliketh himself being a victim of Marika's betrayal)

interesting then that the Rune of Death's powers, these being Black Knife, Blade Blade, and Maliketh's Black Blade, now deal holy damage as opposed to their supposed fire origins

I think it means that the black flame originally had an entire ending that was eventually cut. If it had remained, there would have been three paths to Faram Azula, one for each flame. Following Marika and claiming the flame of the fell god; following the Gloam Eyed Queen and corrupting the flame of the fell god; or following the three fingers and usurping the flame of the fell god with the frenzied flame.

Damn this makes a lot of sense now. I wonder why they changed it, I think black flame would've been a great contrast to the once golden glowing erdtree.

If the tree was not to be set aflame until Farum Azula, it's possible that Marika's sacrifice was added late in development. They may have decided that the story flowed better this way, spreading out major events rather than clustering too much into the final hour of two of the game. Alternatively, Farum Azula wasn't originally in the game, or was meant to be optional content, with the Erd Tree available right after the Fire Giant.

even mogot mentions your own flame after beating him.

This line, to me, just confirms Melina as the Gloam Eyed Queen. She's the kindling maiden, meant to burn the erdtree. And the Gloam Eyed Queen was the leader of the godskins, seeking to kill god. She always wanted to ensure Marika's death. That was her ultimate goal, and her purpose. The GEQ was only stopped by Maliketh, who obviously couldn't let his master die. And Melina literally doesn't have a body.

1. The Giant's flame is the thing that lets you burn the Erdtree 2. Destined Death needs to be unleashed upon the world again in order for 1 to happen. 3. Melina just teleports you to Farum Azula, as she knows thats where Maliketh (and the Rune of Death) is. She uses her magic to teleport you at least two other times in the game.

I'm digging this multiple flames theory. Something I found just the other day though, is a dialogue by Maliketh defeated apologizing to Marika that the Order cannot be repaired. Behind Maliketh in his boss room was an odd depiction of the Elden Ring to likely when the Dragons held a stronger rule as an in touch of the status of being Elden Lords such as Placidusax. In that playthrough I killed Placidusax before Maliketh, but idk if that's related to his choice of dialogue. But it's confirmed worship of dragons coincides with worship of the Golden Order. One guess I had was that perhaps a dragon brought us there either acknowledging our work, or mistaken us for a different circumstance that just ends up us being brought there into Farum Azula. Godskin Black Flames are still strong/weighty flames, but they're lacking Destined Death they once held in servitude of the Gloam Eyed Queen, and she's currently one of 3 figures that catch our attention that we want more answers for. I figure that got left aside for possible DLC content ending options, topically at the very least.

will Melina still hate you if you light the Giant's Flame with the Flame of Frenzy then undo the 3 Fingers influence with Miquella's unalloyed golden needle before going back to Leyndell

Great video, thank you! Certainly there seem to have been a lot of tape left in the editing room…maybe one day we’ll get the director’s edition of Elden Ring! 💍

I liked this extra line and the idea of exploring the Black Flame more. A god killing flame would probably be a big deal but it barely gets some lines of item descriptions. With this simple extra line they would tie the Black Flame to the aspect of Death and would explain that stupid Godskin Duo boss and why we have to clear Farum Azula for the thorns to burn. Granted...the burning Erdtree would be much less imposing in greyscale.

Assuming that it is Melina who sends us to Farum Azula, it is odd that she never mentioned the Rune of Death in her plan to burn the Erdtree, and only ever the Forge of the Giants. That is, until she burns. "The one who walks alongside flame, Shall one day meet the road of Destined Death. Good-bye." Is the last thing she tells us, which definitely shows that somehow the Giants' Flame and the Rune of Death are connected, but for what reason or by what means is still unknown.

My theory: All deities in Elden Ring know each other and just wanted to see who could get more followers.

A lot of signs show that melina is the gloam eyed queen (the leader of the godskins) so maybe the story took you taking after melina and returning the rune of death to the black flame by defeating maliketh to kill the gods and burn the erdtree

I always imagined that arriving at Farum Azula was simply a matter of Destiny. Farum Azula is a land outside of time; so far outside of time that it's forever in the future. Unreachable to almost everyone except those with a pathway to get there. Maliketh is probably there intentionally, so Marika could ensure almost nobody could reach him. Melina acts as our pathway. She's inherently tied to Death given her Gloam-eye, access to Destined Death and relation to Maliketh (through being Marika's daughter), so by burning herself she can act as a bridge to send us there. The Godskins are connected through the God killing Black Flame and it's connection to Death. Once Melina burned the Erdtree, it allowed us to cross to Farum Azula, at the cost of her life. 'Destined Death' is a very vague thing but I imagine it means that certain things are destined to die, or at least it's the action of imposing Death upon something so it has no choice BUT to die. So when Melina acts as our bridge, Destiny is guiding us to Maliketh. We are the Tarnished who becomes Elden Lord; it is our destiny to claim the Rune of Death simply by nature of our existence, and we end up in Azula simply as a matter of course. Now that the Erdtree burns and the path is open, there's no other place we COULD go except to Farum Azula. We arrive in Azula simply because we were meant to be there.

My theory is that: When Godfrey and such got control over the flame of ruin they tried to quench it, but with it being a divine flame and all it didn't completely work but massively lessened its intensity, so when our tarnished tried to use it the fell god saw it and went "hey, it's time to shine!" and send our tarnished to Farum Azula where the rune of death would be used as a spark/fuel for the flame of ruin to consume and grow strong enough to burn the Erdtree. But that's just what I think.

I think the reason we get to Farum is because we actually create a rift in time, let me explain The Lands Between are supposed to be eternal, same as the Erdtree and the Elden Beast, this was done via eliminating death of the equation of the Golden Order, which made reincarnation only possible through the tree and nothing else If the flame of the Giants is supposed to be strong enough to burn it all down, yet it can't without it's immortality gone, the tree is therefore trapped in a cycle of burning and regenerating because it can't die This causes some sort of time alteration, which send us to the place where time and space are frozen, everything in Farum is happening yet frozen It's like a Paradox, similar to how we get to Placidusax If the Black Flames can burn the gods, if the Flame of Frenzy can burn the essence of things, then maybe the Fell God can actually burn time, hence Bernhal getting there through his maiden, Alexander as well after we defeat the Fire Giant

To burn the tree, the giants flame. To end the trees life, destined death.

I’m pretty sure the godskins’ fire is just Destined Death with the Death removed and sealed away.

Whats the flame that can cook a hotpocket all the way thru without leaving the middle cold?