this post was submitted on 25 Aug 2025
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Soulslike - Discussion, News, Memes
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Genocide begets genocide.
Miquella actually was bringing people together and avoiding bloodshed up until he left his Haligtree. Although he was also brainwashing everyone to be chill. Which is weird that when you start meeting others who have been charmed by his magic, they are completely aware of this and still don't seem to care. The old Pureblood Knight calls him a monster, but is more sad that he just wasn't good enough to kill him than upset about being under a spell.
Miquella and Marika are both schemers, and they both care deeply (or so it seems) about their PR. They want to appear as benevolent gods while making sure that the blame for bad stuff falls on someone else. (Marika makes sure Messmer is blamed for the genocide she ordered, Melina is blamed for burning the Erdtree, and I'd argue she also is responsible for the Night of the Black Knives that Ranni is blamed for. Miquella males sure Mohg is blamed for his failure to counteract the scarlet rot, and Melania is blamed for anything that happened during the Shattering.)
Their other halves (Radagon and st. Trina) both seem much nicer and more genuine, but they are locked away and suppressed as far as the more powerful halves are able.
I think Ansbach's reaction has two parts to it: the first is that he did already have some idea of what he was going up against. He may not have realised just how powerful Miquella was, but pre-charm he had already made the conscious decision to go fight a demigod. He was a senior enough follower of Mohg that he would have had at least some idea of what that meant. He had made peace with the potential consequences
The other is that he was one of Mohg's top knights, guy has definitely seen and done some awful stuff
I actually was curious about what the Pureblood Knights actually had done in the past. The presentation they (the faction as a whole) are given with Vare and such seems almost like they really are full of love. What terrible things have they actually done? Because they seem to have the same stigma as the Omens, the pre-Erdtree creations, and Those Who Live in Death in that nothing specific is mentioned about wrongdoings they committed, they're just weird, different and gross so everyone hates them.
Not sure if the game goes into a lot of detail about them. The only items off the top of my head that are even related to them are Ansbach's armor, weapons, and the Pureblood Medal Vare gives you. Mogh "kidnapped" Miquella and that seems pretty bad; until you read the description of the Charm consumable thing even before the DLC came out confirming it suggests that maybe Mogh was brainwashed by Miquella to do that so that's not exactly evil or even on Mogh!
Since just joining up normally requires you to murder your own finger maiden I would say that they're off to a bad start. We also know that Mohg's followers are a persistent enough problem for everyone else that Yura made it his career to defend people against their random murder attempts (although he does have personal investment with Eleonora too), and that Varre and the other white masks were "abducted" to enable the invasions. Being a murder & pain cult that seems to attack random people just because the boss says god likes when people get stabbed doesn't exactly stand out as exceptionally evil in the Lands Between, but we definitely know they've done at least some stuff to warrant opposition unlike the omens
My personal belief is that the sanguine nobles just straight up are the pureblood knights. The language used to describe them is very similar, both they and Ansbach have dextrous duellist-like fighting styles, the pureblood knight medal takes you right to the place with the highest concentration of sanguine nobles in the game, and if Ansbach dies before the Enir Ilim showdown then you get a random sanguine noble as a substitute summon.
In a meager defense of the cult of the Formless Mother, the finger maidens are literally working for the Greater Will (although they are low ranking), they can't stick around if you change faith and it seems they are bound to their Tarnished spiritually.
It's still a murder cult though, so I don't claim that they are good at all.