Elden Ring Lore | Ranni The Witch

Thank you everyone for checking out my latest video on Ranni the Witch! Let me know your thoughts below!

I find it intriguing how the theme of self-determination is conveyed by the fact her body is a "puppet", controlled by Ranni herself

This video is about Ranni, but it opens my mind to Rykard's obsession with family and the union. It seems to be that Radagon departure hits these two siblings the hardest.

A little side note from my perspective. I feel like Rennala wasn’t as heart broken over Radagon as the story tries to make you believe. It feels more likely to me that the rune of the unborn was Rannis great rune, and the only thing that was left of her on top of the divine tower. Rennala clutches the rune to this day trying to rebirth Ranni. However since Rannis soul is not present she is only able to create failed clones of herself. My evidence for this is pretty in your face honestly. When you fight Rennala the shadow that leaks from the rune is Ranni herself defending her mother. Also none of Rennalas mannerisms tend toward a heart broken lover, rather a heart broken mother. In conclusion I think that Rennala is actually broken from Rannis death and not Radagon leaving, although perhaps both of these things could be contributing factors.

ranni bringing up the "1000 year journey" tells me that she accepts the finality of her order/cycles of life and death- something marika couldn't do

Ranni is a fascinating character. As with most characters in Fromsoft titles, she doesn't fit neatly into a category. She isn't what most would consider evil, but she definitely wasn't a "good guy". She has loyal and sympathetic followers(mostly) and she may have had very good reasons to do what she did, but she is also responsible for the assassination of Godwyn and the subsequent corruption of the Lands Between via Deathroot. She is a charismatic and violent revolutionary who is willing to kill any and all who stand in her way of bringing about her "Age of the Stars".

About Ranni's parentage. I have to say I'm very pleased with how you handled it. You acknowledged the competing theories, noted your opinion and why you thought that, but didn't insult anyone who thought differently. I think the reason I found this so enjoyable was because I recently watched a lore video that the person stated would only talk about proven canon and make no leaps in logic. They then declared that Ranni absolutely came from the egg and that anyone who thought differently must have less then a 2nd grade level of reading comprehension. It really soured me on the entire video, so I really wanted you to know how appreciative I am that you were respectful of other people's viewpoints.

Kinda late to this, but one of the best things I liked about Ranni's quest is how our player character's relationship with her develops. Remember that we only either stumble upon her by coincidence or through Rogier and yet as we do her quest you can feel a bond between Ranni and the Tarnished. Some of the evidence to this being that Ranni says that she will add our name along Blaidd and Iji. This not only shows how much she trusts us but also that she sees us as equals to her childhood friends and even a stepbrother in Blaidd's case. Also that she trusts us to relay her farewell to them both. After that she disappears, and Iji states that everything from now is something that she alone must journey through. However, Our character refuses to let her be alone, grabs the ring from the academy(the key to which btw, is given to us by Ranni even though in the description of the key, it said that she discarded it along with her flesh), and puts it on her finger, therefore becoming her consort and vowing to spend the thousand year voyage to the stars with her. Clearly she is pleased and touched(I don't know if she gave us the key so that we do marry her or if it is just a decision by the tarnished, the description of the key somewhat implies that she wanted us to do it or maybe she just gave us the fancy looking ring as a reward for our services). She shows her acceptance of us as her consort by giving us our shining moonlight, to remain by our side forever AND if we go back to her rise and talk to her, she will call us her one and only Lord and also changes the line "My fair consort, eternal" to "My dear consort, eternal" in the ending I know I might be reaching a bit here but this is how I interpreted the questline. I just really like we go from just doing errands to getting so devoted to her that we willingly leave everything behind to accompany her in the void of space, it gets better if we meet her through Rogier's quest because we initially think of her as a suspicious character. Finally I would like thank you for reading this gargantuan essay. Forgive any reading grammatical mistakes English isn't my first language and I hope you had fun reading this.

She could also be the first queen, and the last regent, of the family if she was preceded only by kings, and was granted her title due to her remarkable abilities.

I have a theory that Radahn, Rykard, Ranni were actually working together. The reason why Radahn halted the stars was for her preparation of Ranni's Age Of Stars, however after he got rotted by Malenia so he couldn't complete his task, which meant he sadly needed to be put out of his misery. In the Volcano Manor, Rykard has a picture of Radahn. Iji made all of the weapons the Redmane Army used. Jerren knew about Ranni's whole plan already, and was completely fine who btw was loyal to all the Carian Family. This would mean that Radahn knew about Ranni's plan. If Radahn was part of the Golden Order he would have been targeted by the Black Knife Assassins by Ranni. Rykard was gifted the Blasphemous Claw by Ranni to defend himself against Maliketh. And we can see plenty of Abducator Virgins in Caria, and even a special Abducator Virgin in Radahn's Castle, and in Caria Manor who is defending the Nox Bladewhip. Rykard's Finger Creepers are all over Caria Manor defending it.

Ranni's hands stacked on top of each other are symbolic of stillness, calm, and reflection. Ranni's dark moon and her dark path of the Empyrean emphasize coldness, loneliness, and introspection. The peaceful repose of her hands signify the deep reflection of self and her situation that led to her grand scheme.

I always had the impression that the Carian house existed before Renala, she was just he one who uplifted it to royalty.

I always thought "fear, doubt, and loneliness" was also referring to what will happen without a tangible order. While every other ending leads to another society where people are governed by divine force (or eradicated by the Frenzied Flame), Ranni's leaves a hypothetical world where people have to govern themselves because they have no god to lead them.

Dude thank you so much for using the Japanese translation in your analysis. So many interpretations of Ranni’s motives made her seem like she was intentionally trying to drive the Lands Between into this desolate existence when the original clearly shows she’s speaking of herself and absolutely not interested in gods -including herself - interfering in human affairs. I wish the localization wasn’t so drastically off because it makes the ending much more ominous than it’s supposed to be. I think the crime of Godwyn’s murder honestly speaks to just how depraved her existence was bound in that she literally has to essentially “kill” her sibling to begin the process to freeing herself. The path to Elden Lord is a ruthless one in all irony shaped by the “flames of ambition” that every actor, including the Tarnished, has to engage in to claim the throne.

I think an alternative explanation as to how Renalla is both the first and last queen of the House of Caria is that it's exactly as it says. Renalla swept in, astounded sorcierers everywhere with her incredible magic-negating powers of the Full Moon, and set up "The Carian House" to be a massive and influential force going forward. She is the first queen because she made this awe-inspiring House out of practically nothing at all. But, before they could even get a generation into the bloodline, the Rune of Death was separated, death stopped working right, and now she has carried on as the only queen of Caria since ita founding. Eventually when Radagon left her, she became how she is now, the last queen of a basically dead family. Saying she is the first queen, and the last queen highlughts how she built a grand and powerful legacy due to her achievements, only for it all to collapse around her within her own life. The House of Caria was so short lived, that she was both the first and the last queen.

One thing I noted playing the game that I haven't seen anyone else comment on is that there's two competing ways to read one's fate in the lands between. There's the stars of the astrologer's and the Carian royal family, and also the palmistry of the Finger reader crones, which seems connected to Erdtree worship and the Golden Order. The two as such seem at least potentially to be at odds with one another, perhaps even predicting different fates. No idea what such a thing could mean, but it's a thing I noticed.

I’m not quite sure this has been mentioned before, but I think Radagon breaking the vow he made to Rennala directly lead to Malenia and Miquella’s curses Miriel mentioned how Rennala and Radagon’s fates were linked by the vow, and that by breaking it, there would be consequences So in a similar way to how karma works, Miquella and Malenia’s fates were twisted as a result

I watched this whole video in 49 seconds I was so hyped

I've always loved Ranni's characterization, and the whole of her questline and those surrounding it, but I've found the Age of Stars ending a sore spot, being so cryptic and hard to understand the outcome of it from the dialogue Ranni offers. However that last segment really shone the light I needed to get what's going on. Also I love the idea that the Three Sisters area was a place dedicated to the Carian heiresses, (assuming there were ever more beyond Ranni) it's like a massive, sprawling backyard Rennala gave her daughters to play in, with their own personal wizard towers for independent sorcery-study time

the description of Ranni's moon always made me think about Gael's painted world. a cold, dark, and gentle place