Reviewing Monsters: Elden Ring, Part 17

Last we left off on my coverage of Elden Ring, I beat Leyndell and unlocked the Mountaintops of the Giants, the 'second half' of the game -- although to my understanding it's more like the 75% point? It's quite beautiful, a bunch of snowy mountains filled with strange, ephemeral trees and animals that phase in and out of existence. 

But the Mountaintops aren't what we're here this time around. I haven't actually explored much of it beyond what was immediately visible, because I'm only doing it to get to a certain point in a side-quest for Volcano Manor. Which is an area that technically is recommended to be done before Leyndell. But I do want to do the Rya sidequest, and here we are. 

And so, in this segment, I finish up Volcano Manor!

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Juno Hoslow, Knight of Blood

And this is the guy that's Volcano Manor target hiding out in the Mountaintops of the Giants, Juno of House Hoslow. We actually meet and interact quite a bit with his little brother, who has a bit of an inferiority complex and a surprisingly touching and tragic side-quest. Juno himself does have one heck of a killer outfit with that metal getup, and fights with a thorny whip. Like most of my complaints about invaders in this game, though, it's not like he's an actual character that does anything, and practically everything we know about him is told to us later on. Out of all the targets, though, by virtue of being related to an NPC that actually shows up he's probably the one that's the coolest. Pretty great armour set, too. 

Fire Prelate

In Liurnia of the Lakes, we got to see a bunch of Thorn Sorcerers and Fire Monks -- a strange group of fire-wielding cultists that also use spells that manifest in red briars and thorns. Despite appearances, they're not actually worshippers of the Frenzied Flame, but rather are protecting the Flame of Ruin... but they also use fire magic? The descriptions kind of go back and forth about this, saying that they are a priesthood that are assigned by the Golden Order to protect the magical Flame of Ruin, but they also use flames and dress up in the regalia of the ancient giant enemies that used to wield the flame. To muddy things a bit, some of them have actually been seduced by the power of the flames and are actually worshipping it. It's all a bit muddled. 

We did meet their lesser agents earlier in Liurnia. Leading the otherwise mundane-looking lesser enemies are the Fire Prelates, who look massive, carry gigantic hammers, have metal masks... and have a whole cauldron full of coals or embers on top of their heads. Apparently the cauldron is meant to show off their faith and would burn at the zenith of worship... or, in combat, be the epicenter of a storm of lava raining out of the cauldron-hat. It's funny up until you realize they're trying to set you on fire. 

Flame Guardian

Another member of the fire cult, the Flame Guardian doesn't even dress in the fancy red regalia of the rest of the Frenzied Flame, but instead uses rags and a torch on a stick. The Flame Guardians are a bit weird because they actually have a little name-tag above their name, which is reserved to named NPCs, but there were multiples of them? I didn't notice it at the time, but the Flame Guardians wear the same golden masks as the Tree Guardians. Except not having plantlife growing out of their bodies makes them much more boring. At least the Fire Monks had fancy armour and weapons. 

Chief Guardian Arghanthy
Serving as a boss in one of the Fire Monk fortresses is Chief Guardian Arghanthy, who is a lady with a metal mask and a gigantic shield patterned after an ancient fell god that has a flamethrower cannon built into it. There's something just so fun to see one of these contraptions in the otherwise low-technology world. Are they also the guys behind the Flame Chariots? They probably are. 

Knight of Zamor

You can't have an ice themed area without some enemies that use ice, yeah? And the Knights of Zamor, found in the titular Zamor Ruins, are the remnants of an ancient civilization that once fought the giants. They are much taller than our Tarnished, and look like walking corpses -- but are still very much alive. And they breathe ice! They remind me of how the wights look in Game of Thrones. They were apparently former enemies of the ancient fire giants, but both civilizations have been reduced to basically nothing more than ruins at this point. There's honestly not a whole ton to them, but it is nice to have humanoid enemies that do more than just look cool and swing a big weapon.

Researching the Knight of Zamor made me realize I missed some of the earlier Evergaols, one of which contained an Ancient Knight of Zamor imprisoned within. It's much weaker, of course, since it was scaled to Limgrave levels, but it's a reminder of the neat little 'foreshadowing bosses' that the game does with its bestiary. 

More Misc. Bosses

Mountaintops of the Giants features a bunch of returning bosses with more stats. Lots of Golems, for one. But I also got to fight a bunch of bosses with a bit of extra flair. A Tibia Mariner that summons multiples of the giant ghostly skeleton. It's a fun experience dodging them as they materialize out of nowhere, while the Tibia Mariner himself hides like an asshole in a little cliffside.

I also go around clearing out a lot of the Erdtree Avatar bosses I've been ignoring. There are also some Putrid Erdtree Avatars that unleash rot, and the Erdtree Avatar in the Mountaintops of the Giants actually splits into two after you get its health down to a point. 

Anastasia, Tarnished-Eater also shows up in the snowfield once more with her big butcher knife. Okay. The Knight-of-Zamor thing have also made me go back and beat up some older monsters I missed, like the Night's Cavalry (who only appear in some spots at night), as well as a random evergaol with Battlemage Hugues, who is sure a battlemage. Again, never have much to say about these named characters who don't always have a backstory. 

Godskin Noble

Back to the Volcano Manor! The main miniboss for the manor is the Godskin Noble. We've met and talked about the Godskin Apostles before, creepy fuckers who skin lesser gods and wear their skin as clothes, something that's actually quite disturbing without showing off too much gore and schlock. The Godskin Noble here is fought in a church-like part of the Volcano Manor, a location where they appear to worship the cast-off skin of a giant snake. And unlike the slender Godskin Apostle, the Noble is a lot... chunkier. Or at least he looks a lot chunkier. Item description notes that in addition to the "seven-face aprons", the Godskin Nobles also sew in the subcutaneous fats of the godlings they have chosen to turn into fashion. So it's not just a god-skin hoodie, it's a god-skin fat suit. Okay. They also have a snake tail, probably because of the whole 'snake cult' thing. 

Like the Apostles, the Noble fights with a combination of a weapon (a rapier in his case) and blackflame magic. But descriptions note how the Godskin Noble has 'assimilated inhuman physiology'. For the Apostles, this had meant being able to unnaturally elongate their body. For the Nobles? They inflate themselves. The Noble proceeds to spin around and try to run you down like a runaway car. If a runaway car was a giant spinning sphere of fat and skin, that is. 

It's honestly so surreal and something I'd expect to see more in a Zelda game or something, but I appreciate this a lot. It is actually a surprisingly dangerous move, but one that does feel bizarre in its sheer strangeness. 'Unnatural' indeed! And... not all enemies need to be po-faced super-serious. The whole 'cutting off the skins of living beings to use as clothes' is creepy enough, and there are enough creepy things in the game. Being both creepy and weird is a nice way for this Noble to be more memorable than 'atrocity-committing dark fantasy villain' #11952.

Mage-Serpent

Serving as a bit of a mini-boss right before the portal that takes me to Praetor Rykard is a unique Man-Serpent holding a staff. That alone isn't enough to make it special, since the Man-Serpents have been running around with different weapons. But this guy has what seems to be an entire giant snake egg around his head. These Mage-Serpents seem to be the only ones capable of casting magic, so is there something with eggs and magic? The Mage-Serpent can also use that giant rock-hard egg as a bludgeoning weapon, not unlike the Pumpkin-Head enemies. Again, I like just how charmingly goofy some of the enemies in this game is, despite being billed as being part of a dark-and-gritty world. I honestly find the world more fun to explore with the juxtaposition.

Tanith's Knight

This guy is technically faced after we defeat the demigod of the Volcano Manor, but I wanted to end on Rykard, not him. But he's cool! He's the little coda to the Volcano Manor saga. Spoiler alert, we kill Rykard! His lover and the leader of the cult of Volcano Manor, Lady Tanith, is a bit shocked but acknowledges that Rykard falling is a possibility... and then she goes off to the gigantic decapitated head of Rykard and begin eating on the remains, with the hopes that Rykard will 'find purchase' within her the way he did on the snake. Yeah, these blasphemers are... are not right in the head. Killing Tanith causes her silent bodyguard, Tanith's Knight, to attack you. He's just another Crucible Knight, but there's an actual story tied to this guy, what with him avenging his fallen mistress. This is, by the way, the first time I've seen the 'dragon angel wings' Crucible art, as well as the skill he drops -- engorging his throat and breathing fire. That's sick! But with that, there's maybe two or three people left of the Volcano Manor, and this whole story of insane snake gods devouring blasphemer gods can be put to a close. 

God-Devouring Serpent

After all the build-up about the strange state of the Volcano Manor, the leader of the cult tells you to get an audience with their Lord, supposedly the demigod Rykard. But atop of Mt. Gelmir there was a giant serpent that also feeds on gods... and we find this gigantic coiled serpent wrapped up like a ball in the center of the volcano. It's quite impressive after me not being particularly enthused with Morgott in the last part of this series. The arena is littered with pillars of bones and corpses, remnants of past victims that challenged the God-Devouring Serpent and lost. And actually, the God-Devouring Serpent himself also seems to be covered by the remains of its past victims -- writhing tiny hands that move like little serpents, though it's not the most clear in this form.

And the serpent itself is quite huge. Most of its anatomy is coiled up, but we get to see its much longer neck (which is just a giant snake) and it's got super-long, spindly arms that it uses to support itself. The general design is basically a more 'serious', and a more serpentine version of the Man-Serpents. That would've been fine, until you realize that those hands aren't properly connected to the Serpent's body. No, they seem to have ripped out of the flesh like a caesarean section gone bad,  as if the hands are actually an unexpected growth suffered by the Serpent. Knowing what we do about how Rykard interacted with the Serpent god, it's  likely to be it. Also, while the screenshots aren't the most clear about it, the God-Devouring Serpent is larger than many of the dragons we've fought, and a huge problem of the fight against the God-Devouring Serpent is the sheer range it has. In addition to the snake-head moving quick to pluck you out of the ground, it's also always covered with an aura of lava, as well as has the ability to spew gouts of poison raining down on you. 

Very cool-looking, and after so many of the game's demigods have been more or less just humanoid-looking fellows, having a giant beast as a final villain for one of the dungeons is kind of refreshing. 

Praetor Rykard, Lord of Blasphemy

"TOGETHER, we'll devour the very gods!"

After beating the God-Devouring Serpent, there is a phase two with a completely separate health bar... and a transformation! The general body shape is still snake-like, but the snake head drops backwards and a giant mutant face appears on where roughly the 'chin' of a snake would be. From the wounds sustained on the snake body, red things that seem to be like limbs, but writhe around like snakes, pour out. Then this Rykard entity shoves his head into the now seemingly-useless snake head and pulls out a massive sword the size of a tower made of tangled limbs of his past victims. Thus begins phase two. This is Rykard's true form, or at least the form he is in now.

Again, as I mentioned a bit above, this doesn't seem to be a natural state for the God-Devouring Serpent or for Rykard. The hands seem to burst out of the snake's belly in a way that doesn't seem to be 'natural', not in the way the Man-Serpents limbs are connected to their bodies, for example. And now, you've got Rykard's head manifesting on the chin of the snake as it 'flops' backwards? This isn't a boss that's meant to look 'cool' or to even look natural, and I think they did a great job at making this thing look as grotesquely weird as possible. 

Great job on the voice-acting, too. Rykard's intimidating, sure, but there's just something extremely wretched and pitiable about a combination of that voice and that voice-acting compared to all the demigods we've faced before. There's always something tragic about Godrick, Rennala, Radahn and Morgott, who all have lost some function or dignity. Rykard's transformation is the most drastic, but also in some ways the most pitiable. 

See, Rykard used to just be a normal ol' humanoid. A demigod, yes, but still one that probably looked like Radahn, Malenia, Ranni and all the rest. But at some point he allowed the God-Devouring Serpent to... well, devour him. And merge with him. Because apparently this is what Rykard wants. So we've got this entity that isn't exactly Rykard nor the Serpent, but a hideous amalgamation of both, wreathed all over with the red gnarled mess of limbs and whatnot. A lot of the Volcano Manor themes revolve around the 'cost' you must pay for your goals, and to achieve it by all costs, and Rykard does it via blasphemy and by allowing himself to be eaten by a snake god.

And the idea, I think, was that Rykard has succeeded in asserting his will and power over the God-Devouring Serpent as well, sort of like a parasite that's taking over the host that ate it or something. From the physical transformations, to eventually asserting his will when he's fighting the Tarnished (perhaps because the Serpent is wounded), Rykard is slowly taking over. Or at least, that's what he thinks. How much of the serpent has infected him, we can't really say. But he's definitely infecting the serpent! Look at how creepy he is when you break down his model! Grisly!  

This was... probably the most difficult boss for me to fight, and the one and only time that I had to re-spec my character to a melee build before taking on him. I've been playing an INT sorcerer build throughout the game... but the Rykard boss fight is actually a gimmick boss fight. Strewn across the bodies is a very prominent weapon called the Serpent-Slayer, which glows with mighty magic and deals a lot of damage to the boss. And the damage the spear does is substantially bigger than anything I could do! The problem? I don't have the stats to scale with the spear, nor do I have the instincts to use it. A lot of my difficulty is honestly even in learning what buttons to press for what weapon string.

Even with the 'Mimic Tear' (which is a summon that duplicates my setup, Serpent Spear included) it took me way too many tries to defeat Rykard. You guys are seeing my monster reviews slightly out of order, but believe me that the gap between first meeting the serpent and actually beating him took way longer than it should. 

The thing is, it is nice that I only needed to defeat two of the 'shardbearers' (Godrick, Rennala, Radahn or Rykard) to technically progress in the story and face Morgott -- which I did last time -- and I have seen some builds struggle with other bosses that I found much easier and vice-versa. This guy was super hard, but it's to my understanding that some of the other bosses will be a lot easier to me than Rennala or Rykard were. So okay then! Respect the Serpent of Blasphemy. He'll devour the very gods togethaaaa!