thanks man haha i like to think vaati was his way of explaining lore and i have mine

This completely changed this video for me midway through, lol.

@@TheHonoredMadman Vaati isn’t exactly perfect. I find his voice overly performative. It’s like listening to lore from someone behind a cash register. I like your more laidback style, but I think you could get a lot more pull if you perked up just a tiny bit. I loved the video, but in some sections it does sound like you’re falling asleep xD Overall, great content dude :)

This is how I explain Dragon Age lore to my 70 year old coworker who told me he liked Lord of the Rings once.

I like it too but damn he makes me tired

yeah that would explain the lake of rot at the bottom of the haligtree as well, i almost want to make an amended version because someone else said that as well

@Jacob M the remembrance doesn't say that, the scarlet bloom incantation does, which could still be proof that she's only bloomed twice by the time you got the incantation, but it could also just be flavor text written to sound like text that was written long ago. After all, her remembrance is literally called "Remembrance of the Goddess of Rot" so I think there is definitely proof to the contrary. I actually think the scarlet bloom next to malenia's boss room was her first bloom, and the fight with radahn was after Miquella made the haligtree. but that's just m

@@billfox847 I’m pretty sure the remembrance is called rot goddess because that’s what she is known as by her followers and she’s been called that since she first bloomed fighting with radahn righ?

@@TheHonoredMadman Could be related to the abduction of Miquella

that one is not from her, as you pick up clothes from a "traveler" from that bloom. gowry mentions that Millicent and those of her kind can also bloom, and Millicent herself blooms if you choose to invade her, that one outside of Melania's boss room is completely unrelated to her

ive definitely considered it due to the title goddess of rot but i just couldnt find anything about it happening prior to radahn but ive only been looking thru in game descriptions and my resources are rather limited

@@TheHonoredMadman the first bloom is located next to her boss room, in a hallway to the left of the grace just before the fight, the second was against Radahn, the third was against us.

@@ajackass5950 exactly

Yeah it only makes sense that the third bloom is when you fight her considering there is another Scarlet bloom in the room before her boss fight, and the second being Caelid. As a matter of fact, depending on your fight she becomes a triple goddess if she keeps spamming that scarlet aeonia attack.

Her first bloom is when she nuked Caelid, the second is in the bedroom area next door to where you go down to the roots of the haligtree (you can see the Aeona Bloom in there with Aeonian Butterflies all around not sure what caused the second one probably just time or could be noticing miquella was taken) the third time is when you kill her and she blooms the final time into the goddess of rot with wings and etc.

yeah and in our fight she only uses it only after shes basically dead

yeah i believe that he resents malenia and how complacent the other pests have become as they just await her return and he accurately assumes shes never coming back and is actively working to bring them a new god

He's something that can posses pests and use them as temporary bodies - make a new character and go kill him a few times, listen to what he says.

Yeah i believe hes some sort of sage of rot that can take form in the pests. If you kill him he dematerializes into a dead pest... but then will be right back at the abandoned shack the next day after waiting and tell you just to forget about the whole incident. Gowry and the rot cult is very mysterious.

Him unphased at dying because he can choose from others feels very similar to shibiri if you kill him. He says "shibriri is chaos incarnate, i cannot die" taking in this person. Perhaps each outter god has a essence that lives on. And maybe there are more for other outter gods. Something another video brought out was that you can read map discriptions and the rot lake underground, "It is said that the divine essence of an outer god is sealed away in this land." Only counterargument is that the difference between this and frenzy flame is the fingerprint shield says it's from a tomb of an ancient god. Not sealed just a dead god.

​@@muninrob His something similar to shabribri I believe, an entity or force that uses a host to further their own plans or that of their respective God.

Or, since miyazaki is behind it, her toes~ uwu

Bruh I didn't really think it through but that makes total sense, and since I'm guessing millicent was based off of malenias arm where her prosthetic currently is, I'm guessing the body part of origination degrades the fastest

Problem is there's lots of two fingers, dead on every tower.

This is exactly what i was thinking, and just like cutting buds off a plant, cutting part of it off and planting it elsewhere to grow a new plant

@@Anenome5 What? he's talking about Millicent and her sisters. You even read the comment?

yeah when i made this i didnt have as complete of an understanding of the pests as i thought i did, but ive covered some theories on the rot outer god on my blind swordsman video

this is why i love the lore i always learn something i didnt know by making these.i didnt even know abot the blind swordsman. but i dont think jus because her title is blade of miquella means that she bloomed prior to it, miquella grew the haligtree before the shattering though didnt he? and Malenia was Born with the rot already affecting her and he was kidnapped during the shattering and after malenia bloomed she was carried back to the haligtree where miquella was already gone. its funny tho i had never tried to kill gowry before but holy shit it reminds me of the collectors from mass effect "assuming direct control" id say yeah its highly likely that they worship a outer god of rot that will sometimes take over the bodies of its followers to get shit done and that possibly means gowry wants milicent to be the vassal for the rot god since malenia fucked off and refused to bloom a third time til her fight. i admittedly missed every single bit of lore about the blind swordsman

but yo comments like this are why i started posing videos

I think Gowry is more like Shabriri. Shabriri has somehow separated his spirit or soul or consciousness and can manage to even possess the bodies of the dead. Gowry is obviously doing the same with the Pests. I am curious if it will ever be explained why, as Hyetta also appears to be one of these individuals with Irina.

I think malenia serves more as a manifestation of the rot God, so the pests still worship her. Like how the normal society worships the greater will and it's manifestation in Marika. Of course Marika played ball with the outer god a lot more than malenia is

well i agree to an extent. he mentions that he dedicated himself to malenia after she bloomed in the swamp

thanks i appreciate it, and yeah i lack the fancy accent and i get kinda stoned before recording audio

@@TheHonoredMadman lmao I can’t unhear it now, especially cause I’m high too

@@TheHonoredMadman Haha I'm subscribing 😂

@@TheHonoredMadman Ha based

@@TheHonoredMadman just for this comment im subscribing lol

yeah i noticed that after, i figured she either cut it or it legit rotted off but either way, great catch

im not entirely sold on either side of it being her third or second bloom, i figured she bloomed on the battlefield cuz of that promo clip but i think the scarlett aeonia implies she still hasnt bloomed a third time so i honestly think it could go either way, and the thoery that it wasnt her third bloom in our fight could seemingly be verified by the fact that milicent doesnt reborn as a scarlet valkyrie like shes supposed to if we help her sisters and then kill malenia, which could possibly indicate that she hadnt bloomed a third time yet. that mystery bloom in the room could also be a previous attempt of gowrys to replace her but theres not much to back that other than the armor set found at it

She blooms in the fight versus the General in the opening, in game cutscene. So I’d say that counts. Also, all prior Formsoft games the CS’s were canonical lore. No reason to discredit it.

no sensationalising clickbait like " I have the correct answers to everything, i have it ALL figured out!!!1 "

that bloom isn't from Melania, gowry mentions that Millicent and others of her kind bloom, and Millicent herself blooms if you invade her. knowing that, and seeing as you pick up a dead travelers clothes off of that bloom, we can come to the conclusion that this is another sister of Millicent

It's one of millicent sisters you get the same clothes millicent wears

this is very insightful, i didnt know he took out farum azula on his way down

isnt he hemmed in by the lake of rot? somehow thats got to play in to it

game theory the outer Gods are actually the chaos gods and eden ring takes place in the warhammer 40k universe

@@billfox847 warhammer Fantasy more probable

@@noahfranke467 how would that work? They don't fit on the Warhammer fantasy map which is one planet vs being a planet that exists in 40k as there are many planets with medieval or less advanced level of society

@@jeambeam3173 warhammer Fantasy has magic, gods and aliens. No guns or tech tho, just like Elden ring

@@noahfranke467 you didn't even listen to what I just said. With that logic it make just as much sense that Elden Ring exists in the Lord of the rings universe. I will reiterate since your brain dead it makes more sense that Elden Ring is a Planet in 40k with a medieval tech level society which does exist in 40k and can exist without any tech influence from the wider galaxy which makes way more sense then Elden Ring being a continent that some how no one in the Warhammer fantasy world knows aboutb

I'm with you on that, especially Millecent stating she has something to return to Malenia during her questline. Wishful thinking. I'm hoping the dlc is related to Miquella in some form and would lead to an alternatative to killing Malenia.

i have such a scatterbrained memory sometimes i knew there was some reason that i thought that wasnt her bloom but thank you for reminding me you find the traveler set there and it could have easily been a previous attempt of gowrys I.E possibly from a previous iteration of "adopted" sisters by gowry

Actually no. The rotten wing insignia specially mention that the other sisters can't bloom. ''The Four sister were born in the swamp of Aeonia, and came to the Haligtree under the aegis of Gowry. And yet, those buds were doomed to never blossom. ''

Yeah the daughters of aeonia they were bred expressly for the purpose of one of them ascendeding. That one being milicent the others needing to be the ones to hunt her down seems to be apart of the ritual, sort of like a sacrifice so that milicent can ascend when the person who she trusts most betrays her which also seems to be part of the ritual, judging by what gowry says.

@@MidnightatMidian If the other sisters can't bloom then why does Millicent leave behind a flower when you kill her? clearly the other sisters can bloom as she does so at the end of her quest upon betraying her. In fact the lore even states that in order to bloom they need to be betrayed or fucked over somehow, basically they can't bloom until they give up all hope and give in to the power of rot.

@@MidnightatMidian Millicent literally blooms into a scarlet aeonia flower if you team up with the sisters to betray and kill her at the end of the quest. Clearly the description of that item was mistranslated or misunderstood. I also recall reading a descrip that mentioned how they can only bloom once giving up all hope or being betrayed.

damn thats a deep cut reference, ive only played nier but drakengard is the same series right?

i was super curious about that flower too i couldnt find any explanation for it but that sounds like a possibility

Very likely

i know exactly where youre talking about i totally forgot about that. that definitely seems likely, could explain the mushroom hollows too

If you get their hat (the mushroom people in that tomb sitting poison at you) it says they were "great lords" who served the scarlet rot. You can find the mushroom crown(there are two versions incase you look up the wrong one) in the underground lake of rot hanging off some ruins above death frogs. Mushroom lords must not all have died when the blind swordsman "sealed away the rot god" (odd enough an outer god is sealed 'somewhere' in the underground rot lake, my guess where the bugs are worshipping) since we see them around poison and those tombs you mentioned. Maybe trying to rebuild what they lost. Very convenient for them the queen of the golden order has a child who was cursed with rot and could just randomly nuke an area with rot just like that 🧐🧐🧐

Do you? I killed him for the talisman and didn’t learn this. I did one shot him… does he like, transform or something?

@@piedpiper1172 yes after you kill him he turns into one and says there are many vessels to choose from

if you kill him after the quest he just dies regular and drops the talisman

yeah her blooming there would both explain the massive waterfall of rot down there at the base of the tree near the area wheres shes resting. because we know her bloom is akin to a nuke going off in that in literally changes the region it happens off and leaves seemingly permanent lingering rot.

I think it's more that Caelid was where the seat of Gravity magic is and the Scarlet Rot moved in after Malenia fucked everything up.

The Alabasters look nothing like centipedes but they are the ones Radahn learned gravity magic from, in turn Radahn summoned Astel in the form of a falling star to take out Nokstella for the greater will, and as a result (whether intentional or not) Astel collided with Farum Azula on the way down smashing it to pieces and preventing further communion with the dragon lord. The Godess of rot was sealed away prior to this, and it wasn't until then that Malenia was chosen as the next vessel. Rot is a natural part of the world, nothing would have happened if the greater will hadn't sealed it away in attempt to remove it from the world completely, upsetting the natural balance of life/death/decomposition/rebirth

@@TheCnicus Radahn learned magic at Sellia when he was younger.. and had nothing to do with astel crashing through faurum.

Looks like that rot outer God we hear about occasionally, likely the one sealed in malenia that will come out after the flower blooms 3 times. I'm kicking myself in the head for not mentioning

It is a scorpion snake something something. I believe the god of rot is insect related, probably a scorpion

Is that Marika?

It has a beard 🧔‍♀️?

That statue is actually kind of disappointing. It's of a man holding what appear to be tablets or maybe books. He looks like he has a beard but because the statue is covered in rot fungus it's hard to make out. The good news is this same statue is right in front of Mohg's boss room and is all over the the blood cocoon room too. The one where the blood noble and albinaurics are standing in front. We can see that the beard is not actually a beard but appears to be tentacles that run down through the robes and down by the legs. The disappointing part is that for the life of me I can't seem to figure out why these two locations would have the same statue. Do the Blood cult peeps worship the same outer god as the scarlet rot bugs? I'm pretty sure they don't so it looks like they just reused the asset.

You get Millicent's Armor from it, I reckon it was one of Millicent's sisters who bloomed like Gowry wanted for Millicent.

could definitely be a previous attempt of gowrys

i can respect that

thats how im looking at it too, it could be hers but im pretty sure when she leaves a flower like that shes inside it so when she comes out of it the flower like retracts kinda. i think its a previous version of millicent or something

i figured they were worshipping whatever the stinger dagger used to be apart of

They'd be facing towards astels direction if they were worshipping astel, so no.

@@SevenPr1me that’s not a debunk. He’s the boss of the area. He’s an insect from space, just like they’re insects worshiping an outer god in space. There are other mini Astels underground that shoot rocks at you, with more of the locusts near by. They’ve invaded this architecture spaces following the astels that invaded the same areas to destroy the ancient city. The antspur items like the rapier buildup rot, showing the ants that lead to nokstella are also connected to the rot. There is undoubtably a connection between all the insect fauna, and the Rot outer god from space. The locusts pillgramiged all the way to the haligtree just to follow Malenia because she’s becoming a vessel for the Rot outer god. If no one has noticed the Rot is terra morphing the environment to be more suitable for insects and creatures of the Rot. The influence of the rot outer god is terranorphing the environment. The same way the erdtree crashed down in The royal capital and started terramorphing the area around the royal capital to make it yellow, as you see seams of yellow all through the ground near the tree. It terramorphijg too make an environment that’s suitable for the elden beast and greater will, the same way the scarlet rot is terramorphing to make an area more suitable for the outer god of scarlet rot.

@@trnrred489 I disagree

@@SevenPr1meyou’re more than welcome to. It is baseless because there’s no reason, but you’re allowed to your opinion :)

idk the fact that the bloom is smaller and has millicents fit seems like its implying a swamp sister bloomed in that room, i made a fun video on how it couldve been malenia though, and i think scarlet aeonia, which you only get from defeating malenia implies she has yet bloom a third time, we know shes sprouted wings before as well

best comment

its possible. my personal favorite theory is that the first was with radahn and then after finlay took her to the haligtree, her old mentor the blind swordsman caught wind of what she did in caelid (red chernobyl), and promptly decided to try and hunt her down but when they fought its said he gained wings, we know from her fight that she gets wings when she blooms, so its possible the second bloom is from a fight with her mentor, it could also be reversed and be her first bloom if you want to go with the theory that she killed her mentor before she fought radahn, which is just as likely, and its also likely that since she gains wings every time she blooms and our fight could indeed just be the second bloom as the one in the room next to her has millicents set and could just as easily have been a previous attempt of gowrys to replace malenia. none are confirmed and theres a case to be made for all of the possibilities

@@TheHonoredMadman that definitely probably true never know with fromsoft games for 100% but I'd agree. I just had to mention that she in fact did already bloom twice before the players fight with her. I love that mentor theroy

lol

miquella grew the haligtree but was kidnapped before it finished and malenia was brought to the haligtree after the radahn fight, and rested "until her brothers return" which would never happen because we kill her. i cant find anything that suggests she bloomed after radahn besides in our fight

@@TheHonoredMadman her scarlet aeonia spell says it's already bloomed twice and it's said if it blooms a third time she'll become a goddess, then in our fight it blooms and her title changes to "goddess of rot" this implies that was the third blooming. The fight with radahn would have been the second blooming since she slept until we meet her. So there would have been one other time before that.

@@thedeathofreason well yes she does become the goddess in P2, but gets slaughtered by tarnished hero = player character "you". So essentially, we never let her recover full strength and at same time allow her to become goddess of presumably scarlet rot (similar to Marika goddess of greater will), in essence we also probably fight the strongest version of her in comparison to Radahn battle with her. Tl;dr we stop her before she becomes envoy of whatever outer god is trapped in lake of rot, for good.

If you look at that flower outside her room there's an item right next to it that is the traveler's garb armor set. This is the set that Millicent and her sisters wear. Item placement is very important in Soulsborne games so it's likely just a bloom from one of the daughter clones of Malenia that have made the journey to the Haligtree to see their mother. Scarlet rot seems to be kind of fungus related. So the "daughters" and Millicent might be spores that Malenia spread around in Caelid when she nuked it.

@@thedeathofreason maybe the first blooming was during her birth? Could be why she's so fucked up and decripid

that movies such a classic, i actually saw it in theaters fucking forever ago

you're right it looks exactly like the cursemark but inverted, i wonder if theres any significance to that

ive revised this in another video

And now I notice the typo

got a video im going to finish today that addresses this and the blind swordman and other stuff i missed in the rot vid

Not true. There's no proof of a 3rd bloom in game. We have 2 flowers and the lore states that she has only bloomed twice so far. No idea where people are getting the idea that her fight with the player is her true form when everything related to her in the game infers otherwise. The flower you are referring to is from her fight vs Radahn she was carried back to the tree in it by Finlay since it put her into a coma. The 2nd flower is in the arena after defeating her. Where's the proof or argument that she has bloomed 3 times?

@@TheCnicus One bloom vs Radahn. One bloom in side corridor near her boss fight. One during boss fight. 1+1+1 = 3. Pretty simple math. The only issue is if the bloom in the side corridor isn't her's. Which is possible if it's Millicent's somehow. Also, perhaps the lore is 2 blooms before you fight her. Her name changes to "goddess" after all.

Leonard do be fasting doe

its definitely possible i was just going off the chunk missing from radahns armor but now im not as convinced because the armor could be damaged from morgott and radahns fight

yeah this seems highly likely, im working on a follow up about the blind swordsman, ill address this in that

@@TheHonoredMadman The Aeonia flower in the room prior to her boss fight IS the flower from when she bloomed fighting Radahn. Finlay carried her all the way home in it since the attack left her in a coma. There's no hard proof that Melania has bloomed a 3rd time and i'll tell you why: The main reason people think her 2nd phase vs the player is her 3rd bloom is because she sprouts wings and the name changes to Goddess of rot. However, the ghost in Aeonia swamp mentions that Melania was seen flying with wings in her fight with Radahn, meaning her 2nd form we see isn't special or unique to our fight alone, it has happened before. i personally think an npc ghost is more reliable for piecing together lore than a 15 second trailer clip that was made to promo the game. Just because Melania wasn't seen with wings in the trailer doesn't mean anything, i'll take the ghost's word for it instead. Also Goddess of Rot is an actual great one read the scorpion tail weapon. Melania is just a vessel for her she's not THEE Goddess just a host for the Goddess' power. TLDR: Idk why people say she has bloomed three times when there's only two Aeonia flowers in the game, and Melania is confirmed to have been seen sprouting wings prior to our fight with her. Meaning her "Goddess of rot" phase has happened before... in her fight vs Radahn specifically.

@@TheCnicus I havent been able to find that spirit. Only a spirit mentioning that he would love to see her fight one more time

@@TheCnicus yep and the incantation we get after killing her says she bloomed twice, Im not sure if its me being dense but I cant see how this specifically is a point of contention

i think its entirely possible for it to have been the third time, i just couldnt find anywhere that confirmed whenher first bloom was. i do however think you are correct about not needing destined death to kill her but im not entirely sure how destined death works as we can kill several demi gods who appear to stay dead outside of morgott and rykard who leave behind a type of remains of sorts, without the rune of death. im far from an expert on any of this though

"Her form changed" If you mean the wings, there's an npc who states that she has been seen with wings many times before and that she has been known as the goddess of rot for a very long time that's why she's worshiped. Her 2nd phase with the player isn't the first time she has sprouted wings and changed form, it's just the first time we see it as the player. Melania has been the goddess of rot for a long time and sprouted wings before, that means what we seen in phase 2 wasn't her true form, she literally does that every fight. Also if that was her 3rd bloom why is there only 2 aeonia flowers found in game? it's heavily implied that the flower in the room prior IS from her fight vs Radahn and that the other is obvs after we fight her ourselves... So if your theory is correct then where's her original flower and what's different about her 2nd phase that hasn't been seen many times before according to the npc? Because according to the worshipers she pulls that 2nd phase shit almost every fight it wasn't special or her true form.

@@TheCnicus Shouldn’t the flower from the fight with Radahan be, well, in Caelid? If we are to believe she bloomed for real during the fight with Radahan, and we are treating the big flowers in game as evidence of her blooming, then we are short one flower. There are two in the Haligtree. One beside her room, and one left after her defeat. There are no flowers in Caelid, particularly not in Radahan’s boss area, which is precisely where the two fought (this is visually clear from the cinematic and also told to us, as he goes mad and is left wandering the same battlefield). Also, presumably, we are the only entity aside from her to possess the incantation-which is pulled directly from her soul. To me, this means the incantation’s description is temporally located after her death. Perhaps composed by the finger crone? Two flowers in game, she only bloomed twice. Once at some point in the past (possibly the first flower in the Haligtree if it even is hers, and not a prior attempt by Gowry), and once upon her defeat. I suspect we can’t really rely on the flowers themselves to locate her blooms. Rather, I think the fights with Radahan and with us are the two bloomings the incantation refers to. She did not live long enough to bloom a third time. Also, I think her casting the incantation and truly blooming as separate events. She clearly has the ability to use it repeatedly, yet in Caelid she was left unconscious-and it Chernobyled the entire region rather than the like, 20 meter circle the incantation produces. In summary: I suggest that we cannot definitively locate her two “real” bloomings, but fighting Rahdahan and the Player Character seem to be the most likely examples. More, the incantation she uses during the fight and the one the player later acquires is merely an echo or minor manifestation of the same power. The real second bloom is during her phase transition, and is visibly bigger than the incantation. She also herself states “the scarlet bloom flowers once more.”

dont trip my spelling is abysmal sometimes and i agree that thats a possibility but ive seen credible arguments for both cases, because theres no doucmented evidence of her blooming before or after her fight with radahn, the flower to the left of her arena could be hers but it could just as likely be one of gowrys previous "daughters" attempt at becoming a valkyrie, as you find a set identical to milicents at the flower site. i think it could go either way

man now im thinking that they procreate like them too given the weird relationship with the dudes with mushroom growin on em