How a Typo Helps Solve a Huge Elden Ring Mystery

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.

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.

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

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.

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?

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.

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.

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.

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

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?

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

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.

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.

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.

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.

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 :)

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.

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.

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)