Godrick The Grafted - Blog Posts

A piece for Souls Zine III that I drew a long time ago

This totaly isn't very accurate to my and my friend's convergence co-op playthrough no whyever would one think that?

Elden Balling (DLC characters ahead, veiw at own risk)

Various Elden Ring characters with GUNS

🦅🦅🦅🦅

Several characters from Elden Ring

I'd post all of them at once but Tumblr only allows me to add 10 images maximum

This is my head canon now

It's just perfect

The truth about the Golden Lineage

Ok sooo I've just had a MASSIVE realization about Godfrey's children with Marika and I need to share it with the Elden Ring lore community. I have no idea if anyone has already put this theory forward, but as soon as it crossed my mind I knew I had to write it down before I forgot about it.

ELDEN RING SPOILERS BELOW.

I had always kind of assumed that Godwyn the Golden was Godfrey and Marika's firstborn child. This is not stated anywhere though, it was no more than an assumption on my behalf. So I began to wonder... what if the omen twins were actually older than Godwyn? What if they were Marika's first children with Godfrey? The Crucible predates the Golden Age of the Erdtree after all...

Once again, I had always assumed that Morgott and Mohg were thrown into the sewers of Leyndell as soon as they were born, which doesn't really make any sense considering:

- They are both quite well-spoken. They don't act like they were brought up by giant slugs and rats with no contact with the outside world. They are not like the feral omens we fight in the sewers.

- They had to use special shackles in order to keep them down there. As if... they would try to escape. To go back home. Someone had to make sure they never got out.

- They brought at least one doll with them. Newborn babies don't play with dolls, children do.

- Godfrey's words towards Morgott ("It's been a long while...") and the way he holds his son's dead body imply they once knew each other. They once had some kind of relationship. And I'm inclined to believe that Morgott remembers and loves his father too: as SmoughTown points out in his latest video, the magic seal from which Godfrey's golden ghost appears is the exact same Crucible seal that Morgott uses when he "teleports". Morgott created a spectral protector of the Erdtree in the image of his father (I'm about to cry).

So, if Mo & Mo once lived in the surface, why were they shunned? Well, here comes the crazy part. Once upon a time, in the Age of the Crucible, horns, scales, wings and other beastly parts were considered sacred, divine. They were the manifestation of the power of the Tree, from which all life begins, where all life is blended together. With Godfrey being a man from the Age of the Crucible (his knights are the Crucible Knights), it is possible that his first children with Marika, Mo & Mo, were actually revered when they were born.

However, at some point, something motivated Marika to change the dogma. The conquest of the Mountaintops of the Giants gave way to the Golden Age of the Erdtree. All things Crucible were suddenly frown upon. Lord Godfrey and his warriors were exiled from the Lands Between. And the omen twins had to be forsaken.

LUCKILY the royal couple had produced another child, one more in line with the religious ideals of the new age: Godwyn, a perfectly built golden boy, without any Crucible in him. A strikingly handsome prince, with a gorgeous set of long, androginous, golden hair, who we've only seen wearing a beautifully embroidered skirt. His looks and his fashion sense always reminded me of a certain red-headed champion of the Golden Age of the Erdtree...

Has anyone else noticed that the items related to the Prince of Death require both Faith and Intelligence? I'm talking about the Prince of Death's Staff (allegedly made out of a fragment of Godwyn's corpse) and all of the Death sorceries (which said staff boosts). You know which other items also require both of those stats, right? Well, as far as I know, only Rykard's Magma sorceries and the Golden Order incantations need both Fai and Int to be used. And the Sword of Night and Flame, yes, a Carian heirloom hidden in their Manor.

HUH. I wonder what the Carian royal family and Golden Order Fundamentalism have in common... OH, I KNOW. They are both connected to Radagon, the champion who aspired to be complete by dominating both sorceries and incantations.

My point is... What if Godwyn is not Godfrey's? What if he's Radagon's? What if he was Marika's first attempt at having descendants by herself? She was devastated by Godwyn's death because he was her favorite, her perfect golden boy, a personification of the Golden Order and a living proof that she was the One True God.

Now let's have some fun with this theory. We all know about Miquella's obsession with Godwyn ("O brother, lord brother..."). Some have speculated that the statue of the older figure embracing young Miquella and Malenia in Loretta's arena in the Haligtree might be Godwyn, because it doesn't sport Marika/Radagon's signature braid and the asset is apparently flat-chested (according to Vaati's Miquella Lore video).

Did either Miquella or Godwyn know the truth? Was Godwyn particularly protective of the Empyrean twins because they were more than just his half-siblings? I honestly don't know, buy it's not hard to imagine what they felt after their older brother's murder...

I obviously don't have all the answers, but if all of the above was true, it would mean that the whole Golden Lineage is built on a lie, because the firstborn male heir of Godfrey was not only not the firstborn at all, but he was also not Godfrey's! This would be so GRRM it's insane! Even Godrick's pride and his fondness of Lion iconography becomes all the more ridiculous!

Am I going too far with this? Please let me know if I'm losing my mind over this game.

(Oh and link me to any similar theories if you know of any, because I can't be the only one crazy enough to have thought about this).

Here’s an odd post but I am a language student and Irish so here’s what I’d name ER characters with respect to the game’s Celtic inspiration in world & design. (With my notes and rambling.)

"Margit" - "Cairbre" (Chariot Rider - Irish)

> Not for the meaning, but this was an incredibly common name in medieval Ireland. Given Morgott's incredible skill in coming up with an alias (Morgott/Margit??,) I thought it would be appropriate for him to say the equivalent of "er... John."

Morgott - Aimhirghin (Born of Song - Irish)

Mohg - Ainbheartach (Roughly ‘Evil Deed’ - Irish)

> I wanted Morgott & Mohg's names to still be 'matching,' but to have opposite meanings. Aimhirghin, in the more literal sense, translates to 'wonderous birth,' whereas Ainbheartach is more along the lines of "ill-doer" in a literal translation, although it doesn't exactly pan out to English.

Malenia - Lasairíonait (Pure flame - Irish)

Miquella - Laoidheach (Poetic - Irish)

> Giving Miquella a Christian name of Spanish origin reads so badly to me (I don't really care for scrutinizing if it's feminine or masculine.) I also do NOT believe in naming all of them with the initials of George R. R. Martin. Malenia's name is slightly ironic given her affliction / rot.

Godwyn - Heulyn (Ray of Sun - Welsh)

Godrick - Sulwyn (Fair-Sun - Welsh)

Godfrey - Sulemyr (Sun-King - Welsh)

> I really sincerely hated God/frey/wyn/rick. I understand that it's a 'tradition' of the Golden Lineage, but I think it would've been more appropriate to instead have the prefix 'Sul' passed down (Sun) especially given the conflict between the Golden Order and the Carians who are heavily associated with the moon.

Rykard - Cno (Devourer - Welsh)

Radhan - Cynfarch (Chief, ‘Horse’ - Welsh)

Ranni - Rhiannon (Great Queen - Welsh)

Rennala - Gwlithen (Dewdrop - Welsh)

> The name Rhiannon is derived from a goddess / figure in Welsh mythology who is associated with the moon, and was known in Welsh folklore for being enticing yet unreachable, which could be associated with Ranni's Age of Stars ending (where she leaves the world without gods for 1000 years.) Rykard's is very on-the-nose, as is Radahn's.

Radagon - Ruaidhrí (Red-haired king - Irish)

Marika - Gwawrwen (Radiant Day - Welsh)

>These are VERY self-explanatory, but I had also considered the name Tuathlaith, or "the people's ruler" for Marika.

Been drawing more elden dudes (and one doll)

y'know, it only just hit me recently but like... Marika would definitely have fucking hated modern Godrick right?

Forcing weaker and more vulnerable individuals into horrific experiments of fusing flesh is basically exactly the sort of thing she dealt with growing up under the Hornsent. The practice of grafting would have been a really sore spot for Marika, which is probably why it seems like it only came into practice during the shattering.

Godrick is lucky he started experimenting with grafting after Marika was imprisoned because if she was still around she probably would have come crashing through his roof with her hammer and make Radagon's grab attack look soft.

thinking long and hard about Godwyn and Fortissax's friendship like

>the dragons begin a war with the golden order

>Godwyn and Fortissax become “good friends” which brings an era of peace between the golden order and the dragons

>Godwyn goes on to begin the golden lineage with a completely unmentioned partner

>dragons are known to take the form of humans and even have relations with them, as seen with Vyke and Fortissax's sister Lanssax

>One of Godwyn’s many descendants is Godrick, who refers to the dragon in his arena as “kindred one”

>While Godwyn was the first demigod to fall during the night of the black knives, it’s implied that many others followed at the hands of the assassins. Due to the rest of the known descendants of Marika being alive, and no one else having a child pre-shattering it can be inferred that Godwyn's bloodline was specifically targeted for some reason. Since those are the only other demigods that existed at the time.

>Godwyn is assassinated and because him and Fortissax are such “Good friends” Fortissax proceeds to enter godwyns mind and spends decades, possibly centuries attempting to fight off the deathblight from within him, eventually succumbing to it themselves but still unwilling to abandon their “good friend” regardless.

funny quirky elden ring headcanon that I might make a proper post for later:

Marika was in on the night of the black knives and was the one who chose Godwyn to be assassinated. She did this because not only did he make peace with the dragons during their war with them (which is historically not the way Marika likes ending her conflicts). But due to Godrick, one of Godwyns descendants calling the dragon in his arena "true born heir" and "kindred" it leads me to believe that… well… Godwyn and Fortisax were probably a lot more than just “close friends” if you get what I’m saying. And I don't think Marika would have liked that very much.