The Eclipse | Elden Ring Lore

“Hear me, Demigods. My children beloved. Make of thyselves that which ye desire. Be it a Lord. Be it a God. But should ye fail to become aught at all, ye will be forsaken. Amounting only to sacrifices...” - Melina, quoting Marika at the Capital Outskirts

The near-complete absence of the sun in Elden Ring is probably the strangest aspect of the setting, and imo provides the strongest thematic evidence of the Elden Beast/Erdtree being an alien/foreign invader. Why else would it have essentially supplanted the role of the sun if it didn't see it as a direct competitor?

- Trees love sun - Erdtree is a Tree - Stop the sun from reaching the Erdtree - Erdtree’s influence stops - Miquella and Malenia stop the meddling of outer gods Ranni also wants to stop the outer gods meddling, but she and Rennala relied on the two moons. Her ending was a lot more successful. Curious about how it all ties together and why…

Very rare to find such a gigachad lore youtuber

Yoyoyo, there's a bunch of stuff that relates to the imagery of eclipses that's a bit hidden in the Japanese. The term for eclipse comes from 蝕 shoku*, which is the same kanji for 蝕む *mushibamu which means "worm-eaten; corroded; deteriorated; etc." This comes up a lot in Dark Souls to describe the way curses and the Dark eat away through things, like in "Gnaw," "Dark Fog," "Wolnir's Holy Sword," "etc. In Elden Ring, the term also comes up with items attached to Godwyn (the "Weathered" Dagger, the "corruption" of Fortissax, etc.) This all ties into the Eclipse Shotel which is described as being a sun "drained" of color. It might imply that there is or was a connection between the sun and the grace of gold, and might coincide with the Sun Realm Shield or how Warming Stones say the Erdtree was "as warm and gentle as the sun." I know that's not a ton of tangible information, so I apologize for that. One thing I've wondered about Dark Souls specifically is how "Darkmoon" Gwyndolin was also called the "Dark Sun." With the kanji for it being "陰の太陽," it may be that rather than just being "dark," the sun was "shaded" i.e. a sun in eclipse. Is this meant to coincide with the "dark moon" of Elden Ring? It's hard to say, but it is notable that the "Dark Moon" Ranni was responsible for Godwyn's death.

I always interpreted the dead demigods in the mausoleums to be the descendens of Godwyn the golden that came before his line ended in Godrick the Grafted, since we know there where other people in that family line like Godefroy. And it would explain why they are linked so tightly to undeath if they are literally related to Godwyn.

if you look closely at Seluvis hat, you'll see a representation of the elden ring solar system. One of the planet has a WTF orbit that go all over the place even leaving the solar system. I think that's why the sun is so small, we are very far away from it. I think Radahn gravity power displaced the rotation of the earth. During the scene when the meteor falls, it seems the whole earth goes hyperspeed lol.

That the sun is metaphorically "past it's zenith", meaning that it isn't as important as we see the Moons being (but the Full Moon and the Dark Moon, as well as the stars), is fitting considering its purpose in our world. The sun is the life giver, nearly all life forms need it, and those who don't had to adapt to be without it. It gives life, but it also burns, taking it away. However, in a world where that process had been stopped by Marika (one could even say that it had stopped orbiting, coursing in it's natural path, if we did not know there are other lands where death is still the rule, not an exception) nothing can die so nothing can be born. Death is sealed, so all the "life" we encounter is recycled through the Erdtree, instead of dying and new forms being born. Thus, the purpose of the sun has become redundant. You could even argue that the Erdtree, in this way of "recycling" supplanted the Sun, doing the bastardised version of its actual function. In part, Ranni's ending feel like finally true "death" being delivered to the entire lands, a long night if you will...after which it is certain that the Sun will raise again (new life being born). Those at Castle Sol failed not because prayer was insufficient, but because the rules and law of the land (the Rune of Death being removed from the Elden Ring) did not allow for an Eclipse to occur and give new life. We see the suffering this halting of death has caused others. it also impacted the spreading of the Scarlet Rot (had Melania simply succumbed to the illness, she'd have simply died like Milicent, but in attempting to prevent the natural course of the disease, instead she became a Goddess of Rot, infecting the world).

I think you can talk a bit more about the Sun Realm medium shield, item description says; "Shield of honor depicting a city crowned by the sun. It has seen better days. Much like the wear upon the shield, the Seat of the Sun is long faded away." Imo this is evidence that the sun we see in game has been altered in some major way by the time we get to it.

Yo u had the balls to cover something as vague as the eclipse lore mad respect bro

Untouched here, it's very likely that the the true Eclipse is the Frenzied Flame ending. In it, your character becomes headless, and in it's place is an Eclipse. In the following scene, the Eclipse is in the sky, at the center of the Frenzied Flame. I suspect that the reason the worshipers of the Eclipse failed is because they didn't understand the nature of the Eclipse at all. In true Dark Souls fashion, the Eclipse doesn't just bring new life, but also an end.

This is another one that ended up taking longer than expected due to a combination of a storm knocking out my power, a couple of family occasions, and a collaboration I recently did with The Ashen Hollow (go watch his most recent upload!) I tried adding a bit more personality to this video, so feel free to let me know which parts were a step in the right (or wrong) direction :)

9:25 I love the irony of this moment. In the Elden Ring world, we're likely experiencing what it's like to be a character in a world that sits somewhere between the Dark Ages and post-Renaissance technologically. Therefore, it would be logical for the world to be designed in a manner to make us CONVINCED that the celestial bodies orbit our planet, not the other way around (over-simplifying, I know that the planet orbits a sun that orbits other stuff yet the moons should orbit the planet separately). It's unlikely that this was the design intent, but it would be pretty great if so. It's more likely imo that everything else does genuinely surround the terrestrial world in ER. The Outer Gods literally live in unfathomable deep space, which is far removed from the terrestrial (singular) World. The underground is vaster and goes deeper than the diggable crust of a real planet possibly could. The spirit world is literal and separate. Etc.

I feel like the context of old death would really help contextualize a lot of Elden ring.

Description of the Warming Stone: "It's said that the Erdtree was once as warm as the gentle sun, and would gradually heal all those who bathed in its rays." Sun Realm Shield description: "Much like the wear on the shield, The Seat of the Sun is long faded away." Both of these suggest that Leyndell was once called the Seat of the Sun for the brightness of the Erdtree's glow during the Age of Plenty. It's no wonder then to think that the Erdtree would have supplanted the real sun since it could do you one extra aka heal you (showing that it's better).

This is the only video I found that actually addresses the eclipse when exploring the lore of the mausoleums. By far the best vid on the matter!

Interesting subject mate, really enjoyed your presentation

The second moon could be the presence of the outer god of the moon, and thus not a physical object, while the primary moon could follow an orbit that makes it tide locked with both the planet and the star, resulting in an orbit that never forms an eclipse. Alternatively, both moons could be following one another in this tide locked orbit parallel to the star, which would have the same effect.

There's a guy on Reddit who put forward a few theories, one of which was that the Sun is the Greater Will. Since the gods all seem to be stars, it would make sense for the "biggest" star to be the top god. Since those Who Live In Death supposedly rise due to a flaw in the Golden Order, and the Greater Will is effectively considered to be the Golden Order, an Eclipse would be a moment when the Golden Order's power would be negated. Just a thought.

great video! one thing I thought is interesting is that miquella is pretty much the closest analogue to Griffith from Berserk that FromSoft has ever made (which is pretty huge considering how influential berserk has been on them) and he was the one trying to bring about an Eclipse in the game. I'm not sure if this has any larger implications with Miquella (probably not) but it's definitely a cool detail.