Elden beast godhood?

[True Spino]

one thing thats confused me in the game is how come the elden beast is said to be a god but is also said to not be a god. for example the elden stars incantation says its just a beast sent by the greater will to be a vassal, but when you kill it it says "god slain".
is this just bad writing or is there a clarification somewhere in the story

[nfinite.recursion]

Greater Will creates for itself a body.

That body is reminiscent of a Dragon.

Dragons are beasts.

Greater Will occupies this body.

[True Spino]

Originally posted by nfinite.recursion:

Greater Will creates for itself a body.

That body is reminiscent of a Dragon.

Dragons are beasts.

Greater Will occupies this body.

the elden beast isnt a vessel though its a vassal (like its its own thing but it carries out the will of the elden beast) and even if it were a vessel i dont think that makes the vessel itself a god

[Norm Macdonald's Ghost]

Originally posted by True Spino:

one thing thats confused me in the game is how come the elden beast is said to be a god but is also said to not be a god...

Originally posted by Enia:

Queen Marika is the vessel of the Elden Ring, carrier of its vision.
A god, in truth...

Jesus Christ was the son of God, but also God himself, but also just a dude.

Don't try to logic it, my dude. You'll drive yourself insane.

[True Spino]

Originally posted by Norm Macdonald's Ghost:

Originally posted by True Spino:

one thing thats confused me in the game is how come the elden beast is said to be a god but is also said to not be a god...

Originally posted by Enia:

Queen Marika is the vessel of the Elden Ring, carrier of its vision.
A god, in truth...

Jesus Christ was the son of God, but also God himself, but also just a dude.

Don't try to logic it, my dude. You'll drive yourself insane.

so it is just badly written basically (not trying to be rude btw)

[vamirez]

Try a RPG system approach. The Elden Beast is a "god" type/class creature. The smith's duty is to smith a "god-slaying weapon" for you.

[Norm Macdonald's Ghost]

Originally posted by True Spino:

Originally posted by Norm Macdonald's Ghost:

Jesus Christ was the son of God, but also God himself, but also just a dude.

Don't try to logic it, my dude. You'll drive yourself insane.

so it is just badly written basically (not trying to be rude btw)

Well, if that's your conclusion. I don't see it as bad writing. The term "god" just doesn't mean what you think it means. The way it's used is relatively consistent internally. You have 'outer gods,' 'gods,' and 'demigods,' all of which have certain differences.

[Kobi Blade]

Elden Beast is the Elden Ring, if you consider the power of each shard, I would say it's a Godly as it can get.

Being a vassal doesn't mean anything, even Gods have hierarchies, so it was never stated anywhere the Elden Beast isn't a God.

[BK-BERKE]

Elden Beast = Greater Will

[Elymnir]

I have some pretty convoluted theory that happen to answer your question. And it is supported by another theory of mine. In other words, it's tinfoil hat time. And there'll be spoilers, even though I think everyone knows the "great twist" by now.


I'll give you the tl;dr right now if you want to skip the explanation: the Elden Beast is a vassal to the Greater Will, but it's possessed by the spirit of Marika, hence why it says "god slain".


So, the explanation. There are two items in game, the soreseals, one of Marika and one of Radagon. Marika's soreseal focuses on "spiritual" stats, like faith and intelligence, while Radagon's focuses on "physical" stats, like strength and vigor.
We know that Marika and Radagon are one and the same, or two faces of the same coin. We also know from the Godwyn/Ranni situation that separating a body from its spirit (and vice versa) is possible.
I believe that Marika and Radagon are in this situation, with Marika only living in "spirit" and Radagon only living in "body", as examplified by their respective soreseals.

Now, my second theory is that Empyreans are special in the sense that they can be turned into great trees under the influence of an outer god. The Greater Will's erdtree is golden. The aeonia tree in Caelid (well, the husk where you fight Commander O'Neill) is rotten-looking. Miquella's tree is... another story entirely.
Marika's spirit is now the edrtree's spirit, while the body, Radagon, houses another spirit, the Elden Beast.

Finally, when you fight the Elden Beast, two things seem odd. First, it's a beast that fights with a sword, like a human. And secondly, there's a "crack" on its tummy, exactly where it glows when you posture-break it and go for a critical.
My take is that Marika, wanting to flee the erdtree, literally broke into the Elden Beast, hence the cracks. And I think that the golden rays inside the Elden Beast are actually Marika (golden lineage, golden rays...), manipulating the beast like a self-governing skeleton of light.
And so I think that's why it says "god slain". It doesn't refer to the Elden Beast but to Marika's spirit that we vanquish alongside the beast.

If you read this far, whoever you are, you sure like reading random ramblings (but I thank you anyway).

[Michael]

I think people are overthinking this, to be honest. "title of enemy defeated" is something that shows up at the end of a fight. The Elden Beast fight is a continuation of the Radagon fight. Radagon/Marika is the god that was defeated. That's how I interpreted it, anyway.

[True Spino]

Originally posted by Elymnir:

I have some pretty convoluted theory that happen to answer your question. And it is supported by another theory of mine. In other words, it's tinfoil hat time. And there'll be spoilers, even though I think everyone knows the "great twist" by now.


I'll give you the tl;dr right now if you want to skip the explanation: the Elden Beast is a vassal to the Greater Will, but it's possessed by the spirit of Marika, hence why it says "god slain".


So, the explanation. There are two items in game, the soreseals, one of Marika and one of Radagon. Marika's soreseal focuses on "spiritual" stats, like faith and intelligence, while Radagon's focuses on "physical" stats, like strength and vigor.
We know that Marika and Radagon are one and the same, or two faces of the same coin. We also know from the Godwyn/Ranni situation that separating a body from its spirit (and vice versa) is possible.
I believe that Marika and Radagon are in this situation, with Marika only living in "spirit" and Radagon only living in "body", as examplified by their respective soreseals.

Now, my second theory is that Empyreans are special in the sense that they can be turned into great trees under the influence of an outer god. The Greater Will's erdtree is golden. The aeonia tree in Caelid (well, the husk where you fight Commander O'Neill) is rotten-looking. Miquella's tree is... another story entirely.
Marika's spirit is now the edrtree's spirit, while the body, Radagon, houses another spirit, the Elden Beast.

Finally, when you fight the Elden Beast, two things seem odd. First, it's a beast that fights with a sword, like a human. And secondly, there's a "crack" on its tummy, exactly where it glows when you posture-break it and go for a critical.
My take is that Marika, wanting to flee the erdtree, literally broke into the Elden Beast, hence the cracks. And I think that the golden rays inside the Elden Beast are actually Marika (golden lineage, golden rays...), manipulating the beast like a self-governing skeleton of light.
And so I think that's why it says "god slain". It doesn't refer to the Elden Beast but to Marika's spirit that we vanquish alongside the beast.

If you read this far, whoever you are, you sure like reading random ramblings (but I thank you anyway).

i dont know much about ER, but from the limited knowledge i have i think this is a valid theory which probably checks out

[True Spino]

btw thanks for the responses im starting to understand a bit

[Theta]

Originally posted by Michael:

I think people are overthinking this, to be honest. "title of enemy defeated" is something that shows up at the end of a fight. The Elden Beast fight is a continuation of the Radagon fight. Radagon/Marika is the god that was defeated. That's how I interpreted it, anyway.

+1

[Señor Brown]

Originally posted by Elymnir:

I have some pretty convoluted theory that happen to answer your question. And it is supported by another theory of mine. In other words, it's tinfoil hat time. And there'll be spoilers, even though I think everyone knows the "great twist" by now.


I'll give you the tl;dr right now if you want to skip the explanation: the Elden Beast is a vassal to the Greater Will, but it's possessed by the spirit of Marika, hence why it says "god slain".


So, the explanation. There are two items in game, the soreseals, one of Marika and one of Radagon. Marika's soreseal focuses on "spiritual" stats, like faith and intelligence, while Radagon's focuses on "physical" stats, like strength and vigor.
We know that Marika and Radagon are one and the same, or two faces of the same coin. We also know from the Godwyn/Ranni situation that separating a body from its spirit (and vice versa) is possible.
I believe that Marika and Radagon are in this situation, with Marika only living in "spirit" and Radagon only living in "body", as examplified by their respective soreseals.

Now, my second theory is that Empyreans are special in the sense that they can be turned into great trees under the influence of an outer god. The Greater Will's erdtree is golden. The aeonia tree in Caelid (well, the husk where you fight Commander O'Neill) is rotten-looking. Miquella's tree is... another story entirely.
Marika's spirit is now the edrtree's spirit, while the body, Radagon, houses another spirit, the Elden Beast.

Finally, when you fight the Elden Beast, two things seem odd. First, it's a beast that fights with a sword, like a human. And secondly, there's a "crack" on its tummy, exactly where it glows when you posture-break it and go for a critical.
My take is that Marika, wanting to flee the erdtree, literally broke into the Elden Beast, hence the cracks. And I think that the golden rays inside the Elden Beast are actually Marika (golden lineage, golden rays...), manipulating the beast like a self-governing skeleton of light.
And so I think that's why it says "god slain". It doesn't refer to the Elden Beast but to Marika's spirit that we vanquish alongside the beast.

If you read this far, whoever you are, you sure like reading random ramblings (but I thank you anyway).

I remember reading this theory last year on these forums. It's still pretty good. Re-reading It now, it reminds me of both Death Stranding (with the BTs and the Ha/Ka stuff) and the Nier games (with Project Gestalt). Coincidentally, all three of these series have prolific Japanese directors (Miyazaki, Kojima, and Taro).

EDIT: wording