What if: Godskins are the ultimate exorcists?
THEORY
- The Godskin are "ghost-busters" for gods.
- There were crafted from birth to either exorcise the "gods" from the physical realm or to seal them away until they can be thrown into an incinerator.
BACKGROUND
The Hornsent practiced "divine invocation", either summoning spirits ("gods") into the physical realm by hosting them in their body or, if a spirit was already in a vessel, by defeating the vessel and allowing the spirit to possess them.
For unknown reasons, the Gloam-Eyed Queen created the Godskins to banish all of them from the physical realm.
This was extremely difficult, because not only are vessels of a spirit likely to be extremely strong but the spirits themselves have the habit of jumping from the defeated vessel into the body of the one that defeated them (see description for the so-called "Bear Communion" for clues of this happening).
To combat this, the Gloam-Eyed Queen devised the following features to protect Godskins from being possessed.
HOW THE GODSKINS ARE PROTECTED FROM POSSESSION
Step 1: Give your minions secret identities
The Godskin Swaddling Cloth description reads as follows:
Sacred cloth of the Godskin Apostles,
made from supple skin sewn together.
Successive attacks restore HP.
The Gloam-Eyed Queen cradles newborn apostles swaddled in this cloth.
Soon they will grow to become the death of the gods.
Why did the Gloam-Eyed Queen go so far as to skin a baby and make a swaddling cloth out of it just so that she could use it to cover newborn Apostles with it?
The answer lies with the concept of "true names".
In Japanese belief, knowing a person's "true name" gives spirits power over them.
However, you can't find out an Apostle's true name if they're wrapped in the skin of ANOTHER person from the moment of birth until their death.
For all intents and purposes, Godskin Apostles have no true name.
Step 2: Force your minions to wear spirit-traps
Consider the Godskin robes.
Note the faces and the symbols.
The robes have:
- multiple faces with open eyes and closed (presumably stitched-together mouths); and
- wierd, abstract symbols.
The purpose of the faces
Do you know what the faces remind me of? They remind me these:
This (allegedly) wards off mountain lion attacks.
This (allegedly) works against tigers.
The purpose of the multiple faces are to either:
- scare off attacks; or
- act as decoys to trick an attacker into attacking the wrong face.
Instead of possessing a Godskin's real face, the disoriented spirit is fooled into mistakenly possessing their robes instead.
Once inside an Apostle's robes (And man did I never think I'd be typing "that" phrase...) the spirit can't escape from the mouths of the decoy faces because they're sewn shut.
The purpose of the abstract symbols
As mentioned in the discussions here, the abstract symbols are warding or containing marks, very similar to the ones printed on "ofuda", paper tokens that Shinto (an other) shrines hand out and are believed to contain a part of the essence of the kami/spirit/god living in shrine.
Serpent-themed ofuda. The top symbols spell out the name of the shrine.
Once a spirit has mistakenly possessed a Godskin's robes, these warding symbols and the sewn-together mouths will ensure that the spirit trapped inside.
How do we know that the robes work? Because the Tarnished can wear robes with spirits/gods still trapped inside.
The Godskin Noble's ability Noble Presence's description reads as follows:
"Thrust out belly with gusto to produce a shockwave
that knocks back nearby foes.
Charging enhances potency, knocking enemies into the air.
Once a sign of the gods' wrath,
this incantation became a trophy
of the Nobles' god hunt."
The poor spirit/god is still helplessly raging inside the robe.
Step 3: Set your minions on fire
Finally, to make extra triply sure that a Godskin Apostle can't be possessed, please see the following description for Black Flames Protection:
A black flame incantation of the Godskin Apostles.
Summons black fire within, increasing physical damage negation. However, sacred flasks and other such forms of HP restoration are impaired.
The Apostles were all embraced by the Gloam-Eyed Queen, and the black flame was their armor within.
These metal bastards literally have a spirit-killing flame merrily burning inside their bloody chests!
OTHER THEORIES:
What if: everone's a slime mould zombie?
https://www.reddit.com/r/EldenRingLoreTalk/comments/1hj0dd8/what_if_everyone_are_slimemould_zombies/
What if: Torrent was a cucumber?
https://www.reddit.com/r/EldenRingLoreTalk/comments/1fb3q4m/what_if_torrent_was_a_cucumber/
What if: Godfrey was a sumo wrestler?
https://www.reddit.com/r/EldenRingLoreTalk/comments/1ew0jvm/what_if_godfrey_was_japanese/
What if: this is Game of Thrones? (Rennala murder theory)
https://www.reddit.com/r/EldenRingLoreTalk/comments/1ho2j4a/what_if_rennala_was_murdered/
What if: Gods have four parts?
https://www.reddit.com/r/EldenRingLoreTalk/comments/1hpgopi/what_if_gods_come_in_four_parts/
The Crucible is a Spiritspring and people keep building on them. https://www.reddit.com/r/EldenRingLoreTalk/comments/1evy9xm/people_keep_building_holy_sites_on_spiritspings/
ASOIAF THEORY:
Abominations: Of souls, ice, fire and blood.
https://www.reddit.com/r/asoiaf/comments/z9kyg0/spoiler_main_abominations_of_souls_ice_fire_and/
Posted Dec 30, 2024, 1:12 PM UTC