Rykard - Blog Posts
Several characters from Elden Ring
I'd post all of them at once but Tumblr only allows me to add 10 images maximum
Rykard social media feed:
“Only by embracing the strength of the Great Serpent may we throw off the shackles of the gods. Click HERE to donate to the Church of Eiglay, or sign up to give yourself up as a sacrifice!”
“Introducing the ABDUCTOR VIRGIN: a new, never-before-seen, cutting-edge innovation in weapons of war, designed specifically for the Volcano Manor’s noble struggle against the armies of the Erdtree.” [most horrifying image you’ve ever seen]
[pic of the minor erdtree on fire]
[art commission of the erdtree burning]
“Through strength, unity, and taking by force, we shall claim our freedom from the gods’ tyranny once and for all. If we must descend into blasphemy and sin to end their reign of terror, then so be it.”
[thirst trap]
[quote retweet of Elden Lord Radagon Official’s post] you should kill yourself… NOW
[retweet of General Radahn celebrating Leonard’s birthday]
Children of the Full Moon
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.
I was honestly shocked how many people stumbled across my Elden Ring sketchpages so far, ty! :")
I decided to make prints available if anyone was interested c:
theyre feeding my candy ass to the great serpent later
Tanith wearing the dancer of Ranah set 😳
Rykard and the Night of the black knives.
Y’know after thinking about it for a while, I think Rykard's involvement in the night of the black knives could run a little deeper than just being a co conspirator. What if he was the person who actually did the deed?
Not on Godwyn mind you, we already know that was all the black knife assassins handy work. But there is one other corpse that is left unaccounted for.
What if he was the one who killed Ranni and carved the cursemark into her back?
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I know there’s no evidence in game that says anything about this but… it had to have been someone right? Someone other than Ranni I mean. She’s metal as fuck, but it would have been incredibly hard to carve such a specific symbol into her own back. Especially since failure would mean certain death.
And I also don’t think it would have been some random black knife assassin either. It’s certainly possible but looking at everything revolving them, their alliance seemed shaky at best, and they may not have even known about Ranni's half of the plot to begin with. No, I don't think she would have trusted them to do it. But I do believe she’d trust Rykard. They were already in on this together, and assuming he wasn’t part of the heist itself then there’s only really one other role he could have played in the event.
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And going off of purely in game mechanics, he definitely has the stats to wield a black knife blade. If you compare the stat requirements for the black knife and Rykards own blasphemous blade, then they match up pretty well. He would be able to use one.
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And then we've got Ranni's body itself, which is burnt beyond recognition. Which is strange for a black knife killing, since they have no inherent fire damage, and while they do seem to have some sort of burning affect, it's never as bad as how scorched Ranni's corpse is. We never see this sort of damage done by a black knife again.
This leads me to believe that Ranni's body may have been burnt after the fact. Possibly as one final middle finger to the Two Fingers and the GW for trying to control her fate. One last 'fuck you' by desecrating the holy flesh they bestowed upon her.
And who do we know that has access to fire powers? Or more specifically Magma powers?
Rykard. The lord of blasphemy himself.
Your honour, I rest my case.
It's not really implied very heavily in lore but I've always subscribed to the theory that the greatrunes negatively affect their demi-gods, since most greatrune holders have been trapped into never ending cycles of trying to amass power/accomplish a specific goal.
Rykard, Mohg and Godrick are all similarly running in circles trying to gain power without actually doing anything with it and Rennala is endlessly trying to birth something before we take her greatrune off of her.
The only real exceptions to this are Radahn, because he's lost his mind, Malenia, because she's only just woken up for the first time since the shattering wars and Morgott because... IDK, I've got nothing for Morgott, he's just built different I guess. (Though you could argue that him hunting tarnished and perpetuating the status quo is his endless cycle)
All active people who own a greatrune shard, demi-god or not, have fallen into some sort of self destructive, never ending cycle.
fuck, if you really wanna push this theory Maliketh is holding a greatrune in the form of the rune of death and he's litterelly been stuck in a timeless structure for the entire shattering.
I feel like this is also implied because Ranni decided to cast aside her greatrune, this being significant because she’s the only demi-god who can actually accomplish their end goal by the finale of the game and isn't just running in circles.
Thinking about how Ranni probably hated her own body because it made her nothing more than a puppet for the GW. And that’s probably why there’s no depictions of her anywhere in the game (I wouldn't be suprised if she slowly got rid of them all before deciding to revolt completely), and why she decided to make her new bodies in the image of her teacher instead of herself.
Because any sight of her previous body would be a horrible reminder of what she was.
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Edit:
To add onto this, Rykard obviously loved his sister as he was willing to fuck with Maliketh just because it would help her, but despite this there’s no depiction of her in volcano manor. Only ones of himself and Radahn.
Soooo he obviously cared for his sister and also obviously cared for these grand displays of affection/family power or he wouldn't have had these portraits made, so why wouldn’t he also have a picture of her? Well I can only assume it was because she didn’t want one.
