Elden Ring Lore | Godwyn Prince of Death

Godwyn the Golden and his murder has lead to the mass corruption of the lands between, as well as the Rise of Those Who Live in Death. In this lore video we explore Godwyn's soulless life, those born of the Death Root and his most loyal adherent; Fia, Deathbed Companion.

Intro: 0:00
Godwyn The Golden: 2:32
Night of the Black Knives: 11:55
The Prince of Death: 37:45
Deathroot: 51:20
Fortissax and The Eclipse: 1:03:02
Fia and the Mending Rune: 1:13:44
The Age of the Duskborn: 1:28:02

This is an extremely expansive video that not only looks at Godwyn Prince of Death but also covers the following subjects: Deathroot, Those Who Live in Death, Fia, The Golden Order, Destined Death, Fortissax, The Night of the Black Knives, Godwyn, Deathbed Companions, Empyrean, The Greattree, Leyndell, The Age of Dragons, The Golden Lineage, The Eclipse, Soulless Demi-Gods, Age of the Duskborn and More!

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REFERENCES

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Soundtrack is Demon's Souls, Dark Souls, Sekiro and Elden Ring

I do not own the rights to Elden Ring, all rights to FromSoftware

#eldenring #godwyn #fia

[SmoughTown]

Thanks for taking the time to watch everyone. Let me know your thoughts on Godwyn below!

[Acheryx]

I think another reason why Ranni might’ve targeted Godwyn was because he was the embodiment of the Golden Order’s future success. He demonstrated the strength of the golden lineage while also wielding the courage to challenge and transform it by accepting multiple perspectives and unifying them. Ancient dragons are a great example. He was also had a great relationship with his half-brother Miquella, and likely Malenia too as a result. He was the lynchpin holding the order together, and with him not only gone, but “killed” so unexpectedly, the future of the order was all but guaranteed to crumble from all these separate factions vying for power. If destroying the order all together was your objective, undoubtedly, Godwyn would be your biggest threat.

[Ell_Pacino]

Every time I think of what Leyndell was like before the Shattering, I laugh at the idea that Gransax’s body has just been sitting there for a hundred years because no one knows what the hell to do with it

[ruddyman]

I think he's very disturbing. The fact that he is dead, he looks dead, he has no soul, and yet he's still somehow active in the world in ways we cannot understand is unsettling to say the least. I think he gets at the core of the horror of undeath. When you look at his eyes they are unmistakably dead. There can't be any will behind them, and yet somehow there is.

[midasdagonovich]

I found Godwyn's new face when trying to jump from one ledge to another and falling down FROM THE ROOF TO HIS LAIR. That was horrifying

[silverhost]

I really feel bad for this guy. Seemed like a genuine chad who was loved by everyone, ended up a half-dead fish monster because of Ranni and Co. RIP

[Knights_of_the_Nine]

I love how Rogier says that the death of Godwyn happened long before the shattering, but then immediately says, "soon after" the shattering happened.

[sebastianmorin]

Another thing that shows that Godwyn and Miquella were close is that even in death, Godwyn seems to be trying to protect or find Miquella, upon my 2nd playthrough, I noticed that several of Miquella’s Lilies can be found guarded by those who live in death, as well as basilisks.

[TheGrandChimera]

I love that you can really feel and see what George wrote for Elden Ring. The entire Night of The Black Knives just screams him in my opinion

[dagdamor]

"You can't work out for 3 hours, what would you listen to?"

"I will listen to this. *Twice.* "

[fuzzysocks]

If you hold off on talking to Rogier + doing Rannis quest while progressing Fias you can actually fight rogiers spirit at the deep root depths then go back to roundtable hold and find rogier not dead, chilling like normal

[connormcguire]

One interesting thing about fortissax: every lich needs needs a phylactery - a “soul jar” or sorts that houses their living essence. From the looks of it, I think it could be argued that Fortissax cared so much for Godwyn that he tried to donate his living essence to him to bring him back, but unwittingly turned Godwyn’s body into a phylactery and became a lich. The act of becoming a lich usually “robs” one of their most powerful magics and in Fortissax’s case, it looks as though his divine lightning became corrupted into death lightning. And just looking at Godwyn’s body - he is confusingly sprouting a dragon’s tail while no other undead do. what do we find when Fia lets us enter Godwyn? The mortal essence of his best friend.

I think it also is telling how a Lich is in and of itself much like a “worm eaten eclipse” in that it is a husk devoid of its original inner essence.

[heathenly_aesthetic]

Godwyn's corpse scared the hell out of me... Like, when I was following Fia's questline and saw *that, * I was fully expecting to fight that mess.

[akaErma]

I would love to know what Marika was thinking when she removed Destined Death. It seems like an extremely short-sighted action for such an enlightened being. The fallout seems the logical conclusion, so she must have known that deathlessness would corrode the world. It was this action that actually caused me to suspect Marika's motives from the start, acting solely in her personal interest, not the best interests of the Lands Between. Rather than devising a method to counter the Black Flame, she chose to alter the metaphysical reality of the entire world. It just doesn't make sense on the face.

[jamesnorman]

As you stated with the crabs and other aquatic lifeforms, you can see how Godwyn is continuing to exert an influence upon the world, despite the fact he's been dead long before the Tarnished came back to the Lands Between. Plus like you said, Those Who Live in Death didn't ask for that existence. They deserve some place in the world too.

Can't help but feel sorry for Fia, too. All that work and she finally created the Mending Rune...only to be killed by D in the end. But hey, a typical From Soft ending, right?

[dantoki]

For me the rune's description (the principle of life into death part) and the duskborn ending (a grey mist envelops the land) implies that after death everyone just becomes undead, Death is restored yeah, but for undeath to exist people have to die first and then that "principle" can be implemented into their death.
So for me fia's ending isn't much better than Dung Eater's. Both of them kinda screw up death again.
One makes you reborn as a cursed omen and the other makes you an undead if you die. While spooky gothic lands between sounds neat, on the long run it's going to be a bit crowded.

[arlaux]

Honestly the dragons seem super chill. Like they seem like total bros.

[kylefernandes]

SmoughTown just wanted to say your hardwork is not going to vain. You are by far and large my favourite Elden Ring Lore youtuber, I look forward to you uploads, and God knows it keeps me going through some of my toughest times. Thank you SmoughTown. Love you.

[XCrossfire]

A really interesting analysis. A note about the characterization of Fia and the Deathbed Companions - Fia's mention of "embracing" those she takes warmth and vigor from is a literal translation, even though in Japanese *yosuru*, or "embrace", has a double meaning, in this case to having sex. Kind of like how in English we might say "knowing someone" as a way of saying we've had intimate relstions with them. Given the image of Fia naked with the corpse of the noble, it seems sex is a key part of the Deathbed Companions' duties. FromSoft just seemed to sanitize the scene by not having our characters go full Witcher.

This then loops back to Norse myth and folklore, where a man's..."seed" contained his vigor, and could be transferred to a woman via sex. Through seidr (basically sex magic) female shamans called volva could draw power from men, which they would used to fuel their powers and have visions. And at the death of a chieftain, Norsemen would have sex with one of that chief's slave girls, to give her their "vigor", before killing her, believing she would be reunited with and continue to serve her master in the afterlife, including having sex with him to pass to him the vigor she was given by his followers to strengthen him. I can't remember off the top of head if there was another end goal to the process, but I hope I've painted enough of a connection for this all to make sense.

[ISayEssays]

It would be interesting if Lansseax was Godwyn's spouse, it would explain why Godrick claims both the golden lineage and dragons among his 'forefathers.'