Elden Ring: An Alchemical Explanation of Godfrey, First Elden Lord

What Godfrey's symbolism tells us about the alchemical concept of Sublimation

I’ve always admired the Soulsborne treatment of boss fights. Bosses in this sense are no longer just harder, bigger enemies at the end of a level or area. They are a carefully crafted representation of an over-arching theme associated with that area, with all the attention to detail that makes it an art and a science – blending fashion, architecture, music/sound design, combat design, and much more to create a holistic experience that is always memorable if not always enjoyable (looking at you, fire giant!).

Each area being more or less self-contained in its story and thematic design, the whole game in its turn aggregates all of these themes into yet another, larger theme, one that represents the ultimate grand narrative about the world. Unlike these smaller areas, the player has a decision to make on that ‘grand narrative’, and the ending you get in the game will of course depend on the actions you take in the world.

Elden Ring, the latest entry in the series, is a smashing success and I consider it one of the best games I’ve ever played. There’s much to say about ER that I hope to leave for future articles – but in this one, I want to discuss a specific character, Godfrey, and the greater theme he represents in the world of ER. My aim is to analyze Godfrey’s symbolism from an alchemical perspective, speculating on what I believe to be the true meaning of his story. As a result, I’ll quickly skim over many of the details of his story and focus on the broader picture and its underlying meaning.

Background

Godfrey: What We Know

Godfrey is described in ER as the first Elden Lord. An Elden Lord is someone who “brandishes the Elden Ring” by becoming the consort of Queen Marika. At the beginning of the game, little is known about his background. Through item descriptions and NPC/Boss dialogue, we gradually learn that he was the legendary warrior in the Lands Between who fought and won countless battles to reach his former status as Lord. Well-renowned for his lust for battle, his reign as Lord had ended when Queen Marika noticed that the “golden hue of his eyes” had faded, banishing him to the outer lands where he lived as a simple warrior once more. Presumably, the implication here is that Godfrey lost his former zest for battle, his grace of gold, culminating in his relinquishing of Lordship and essentially retiring.

Godfrey: The Boss

In our quest for the Elden Ring, we also fight many countless battles and win them. We accumulate rune-shards from several demi-gods across the Lands Between that enable us to finally enter the Erdtree and mend the Elden Ring. But before we do so, just outside the Queen’s Chamber, we find Godfrey standing at the foot of the tree. Here’s an excerpt of his Dialogue from the game when we meet him at this point in our quest:

We also see a vicious-looking Lion on his back. From item descriptions, we learn of the Lion’s name as Serosh, a beast who Godfrey had tamed on his back in order to dampen his lust for battle. The Godfrey Talisman item tells us:

Godfrey was a ferocious warrior. When he vowed to become a lord, he took the Beast Regent Serosh upon on his back to suppress the ceaseless lust for battle that raged within.

Godfrey is once again seeking the Elden Ring – to be granted audience once more as an Elden Lord. It’s clash time, and an epic boss fight ensues with the first Elden Lord.

In most Soulsborne games, there’s usually a second phase to the important boss fights, and this one is no exception. In his second phase cutscene, we see Godfrey killing Serosh as his blood is splattered over the battlefield, and Godfrey reveals to us his true identity – the warrior-chieftain of the Badlands Hoarah Loux.

Suddenly the music changes and we find ourselves wrestling with a total savage. Literally. For any player experiencing this fight for the first time, this transformation was utterly shocking. His high stamina and forceful grappling moveset resembled those of a warrior-in-the-wild, an utterly wild beast that is by far more dangerous than the self-restrained nobleman he represented in his first phase.

With good luck and a lot of deaths, we finish him off. Hoarah’s last few words to us are following: “Brave Tarnished, Thy Strength Befits a Crown”.

Analyzing Godfrey

Serosh’s Symbolism

There are a few things that immediately stand out in our encounter with Godfrey. One is Serosh, the Lion on his back, who from items descriptions we can glean was a beast used by Godfrey “to suppress the ceaseless lust for battle that raged within”. Taken literally, this fact is puzzling in that it is not obvious how a Beast Regent, pressing on someone’s shoulder, can induce a civilizing influence on someone and dampen their strength.

Understood metaphorically, however, this aspect can be understood as the effect of Sublimation on Godfrey’s psyche. In chemistry, Sublimation refers to the process where a substance is transformed from a solid to gas. The etymology (Sublimis) dates back to medieval times when Alchemy was the dominant science. In ancient Alchemy, Sublimation was considered a stage among many in the “Great Work” to create the philosopher’s stone, but accompanying this work was the practice of spiritual Alchemy where an equivalent process was established with the goal of purifying the soul and finding true enlightenment. The “gold” at the end of that process was not material – it was an inner gold that represents the divine essence of creation, giving life its fullest brilliance.

Freud famously coo-pted that concept for his psychoanalytical theory of Sublimation – the act of diverting aggressive or sexual energies towards other aims that are more socially acceptable.

C.G Jung on the other hand understood it in its original form as part of the alchemical process of transforming material into “true gold” and understood alchemical symbolism as largely a product of our unconscious psyche. In one of his private letters, Jung wrote:

Sublimation is part of the royal art where the true gold is made. […] It is not a voluntary and forcible channeling of instinct into a spurious field of application, but an alchemical transformation for which fire and prima materia are needed. Sublimation is a great mystery.

It is interesting to note the curious references to gold within Elden Ring. Godfrey in his pre-fight monologue describes us as having been “spurned by the grace of gold”, equating our quest for the Elden Ring with the quest for gold. I will elaborate more on this later, but several prominent Lore hunters have put out very convincing theories exploring how Elden Ring’s story is essentially an allegory for alchemical transformation.

It is this alchemical transformation (Sublimatio) that is represented visually in the case of Godfrey – a transformation that is revealed through Serosh, symbolizing the powerful aggression of Hoarah Loux. In other words, Serosh represents the sublimation of Hoarah Loux.

Before explaining in-depth the meaning of this transformation and what it symbolizes, I will begin by the listing the reasons why I believe Serosh represents the sublimate of Hoarah, clarifying each in a separate section below.

Evidence Connecting Serosh to Hoarah Loux

1) Hoarah’s Hand and Serosh’s Claws

In Godfrey’s transformation to Hoarah Loux, we can see a glimpse of the true relationship between Hoarah and Serosh when we observe that part of the cutscene that shows the hands of Hoarah in perfect sync with the hands of Serosh. To me, this scene gives us a hint that in fact Hoarah is Serosh – showing how the savage instinct of Godfrey, as represented by Hoarah, was formerly Sublimated as Serosh.

2) Serosh’s Brief Transformation From Gas to Solid

The word “Sublimation” in both modern chemistry and ancient alchemy is used to describe the phase change from a solid directly to a gas.

When we look the second-phase transformation scene, we see Serosh briefly materializing from a gaseous entity to a solid one. This gives us a hint that at this point in the fight, Godfrey’s savage instinct – Hoarah – is about to materialize and take effect. It also implies that formerly Serosh represented, quite literally, the Sublimation of Hoarah.

3) Hoarah’s Emergence After the Death of Serosh

During Godfrey’s transformation when Serosh is (supposedly) killed, we can see Hoarah emerging without Serosh in his back. This implies that the symbolic act of killing Serosh produced Hoarah in his full form. Hoarah’s first words to us when he emerges are: “I’ve given thee Courtesy enough”, and this is in line with the fact that Serosh never once attacked us (the player) during the first phase of the fight. This courtesy is taken away once Hoarah emerges.

4) Serosh’s Roar and Hoarah’s Warcry

Before your fight with Godfrey even begins, there’s a moment when Serosh’s roar reverberates across the battlefield, the cutscene showing you (the player character) struggling to maintain posture when it happens. An almost identical roar is emitted by Hoarah during your fight, and if you’re near Hoarah when it happens then you’ll find yourself blasted off a few meters away from him.

5) Godrick’s Axe Item Description

The Axe of Godrick item description states the following:

The beast engraved on the axe is that of a Lion, reminiscent of Serosh.

Sublimation, Alter-egos, and Grafting

It is important to understand the difference between Sublimation and the concept of the alter-ego, as shown for example by Tyler Durden in Fight Club. Hoarah Loux is not Godfrey’s alter-ego persona. Rather, they’re both one and the same person. Hoarah is Godfrey’s older, more primitive self; he’s the savage warrior whose strength and lust for battle challenged all the demi-gods in the Lands Between. In his quest for the Elden Ring, he underwent a spiritual transformation that changed his name to become Godfrey, a being worthy of becoming the Elden Lord, and this is metaphorically represented by showing him taking Serosh on his back.

Another thing to highlight is that Serosh is not the result of Godfrey’s practice of grafting, in the same way that Godrick was known for. Serosh can clearly be seen in our encounter as a gaseous substance that is placed atop Godfrey’s shoulder but not grafted onto it. Contrast this with Godrick’s practice where multiple physical parts of other beings are brutally grafted onto his body to produce an amalgamated monster, something that is obviously different from what we see in our encounter with Godfrey.

Godfrey’s Symbolism

Edward Edinger in his book Anatomy of the Psyche: Alchemical Symbolism in Psychotherapy argues in favour of understanding the process of psychotherapy in terms of alchemical symbolism, and in the chapter on Sublimation he says the following:

…the crucial feature of Sublimatio is an elevating process whereby a low substance is translated into a higher form by an ascending movement [...] That which is inferior is transformed to something superior.¹

In much the same way as in its chemical counterpart, the Sublimatio process aims at a purification of the self by separating the pure from the impure, at the end of which the “true gold” of the self can be found.

In Godfrey’s story, we can see this self-transformation visually – where Serosh, representing Godfrey’s older, more primitive and impure self (Hoarah Loux) is sublimated as a Lion-beast elevated on his shoulder. Godfrey then emerges as the pure self – a spiritually superior being worthy of becoming an Elden Lord.

As the Godfrey Talisman tells us:

Godfrey was a ferocious warrior. When he vowed to become a Lord, he took the Beast Regent Serosh upon on his back to suppress the ceaseless lust for battle that raged within.

Godfrey’s second-phase transformation can be interpreted as a process of spiritual regression where Serosh is coagulated back as Hoarah Loux, realizing his older warrior self in an effort to dominate the Tarnished. While he becomes more savage in combat, he is now spiritually weaker, and in my opinion loses a more fundamental sense of himself than any potential gain in combat. There’s no real evidence for this other than the epic soundtrack of Hoarah Loux, where in addition to the obvious notes of the primitive, earthly, and tribal, there are the tragic notes of the warrior-hero ‘fallen from grace’ – a melody that, while paying homage to the strength of a great warrior, is coloured by the realization that something tragic just took place.

Equally important is that part of Godfrey’s symbolism relates to his sheer strength as Hoarah Loux. His prowess as a fighter allowed him to conquer and defeat all manner of enemies in the Lands Between – and yet, to become a Lord, we are told that he needed to “take the Beast Regent Serosh upon on his back to suppress the ceaseless lust for battle that raged within”, a metaphor for his act of sublimation. This could be interpreted to mean that his love of battle was a major obstacle to the realization of his true potential as Elden Lord – that Hoarah Loux, while being quite strong, did not possess the qualities of an Elden Lord and therefore could never have been one. It required a certain kind of self-transformation that made him worthy of the Elden Ring, a transformation that re-branded him as Godfrey. Incidentally, the name “Godfrey” has Germanic roots that means “peace of God” or “God’s peace”, an obviously fitting label for someone who has undergone a spiritual transformation and achieved the true grace of gold.

Conversely, Godfrey could not have become an Elden Lord if he did not possess the strength of his warrior past. When we die at the hands of Hoarah, he taunts us with the famous: “A crown is warranted with strength” – meaning that his Lordship as Godfrey was backed by his strength and power formed in his earlier days as Hoarah Loux.

Parting Thoughts

Elden Ring’s lore connections to alchemical symbolism have been well-known for quite some time now – even before the game’s release, someone made a giant Reddit post noting all the alchemical symbolism present throughout the game’s imagery and overall theme. Max Derrat has been discussing these themes in Dark Souls and Bloodborne, well before ER’s debut on the public stage. And Ziostorm recently made a video connecting ER’s story to alchemy that leaves no doubt in anyone’s mind about its underlying meaning.

It should not be surprising then to find Godfrey’s story mirroring the greater alchemical theme of the game – an especially important one given Godfrey’s standing in the lore. He’s my favorite character in ER and I’m just as captivated as Radahn by the Lord of the Battlefield.

I don’t claim that my interpretation of his symbolism in this essay is wholly correct, but I’m personally more confident about the alchemical symbolism lurking beneath the surface of his design.

And yet, I’m constantly in awe of the depth of that symbolism in the Soulsborne series – and to combine that with brilliant gameplay, world and boss design, makes these games timeless masterpieces that will be cherished for a long while.

1. Edinger (1985), 116-117