'Two great rivers flow beneath the Lands Between, the Siofra and the Ainsel,' reads the Ainsel River map, describing a vast region 'said to be the grave of civilizations that flourished before the Erdtree.' Nokron, in those same texts, is a city: 'the Eternal City of Nokron.' Where the Regal Ancestor Spirit walks, the game does not say. It gives instead the shape of the thing: the Ancestral Spirit's Horn is an 'item cut from the horns of the Regal Ancestor Spirit,' and there 'a number of new growths bud from the antler-like horns of the fallen king, each glowing with light.' Its Remembrance states the position plainly: 'Ancestral spirits exist as a phenomenon beyond the purview of the Erdtree. Life sprouts from death, as it does from birth. Such is the way of the living.'

The texts name the faith, 'the ancestral spirit-worshipping faith,' and the ancestral followers keep it. Their creed is written into the charms they wear: they 'believe that the horns of a long-lived beast continue to bud like antlers, over and over again, until the beast one day becomes an ancestral spirit.' In that telling a spirit is grown rather than born to rank, and the Ancestral Infant's Head is 'skull of a very young ancestral spirit.' They 'keep their distance from the Erdtree, awaiting new buds,' and their rites are made of horn: 'horns with buds that also shine are ideal ceremonial items for ancestral worship.' Erdtree Burial, set beside that, is written as an honour and a custody: Oleg 'earned the hero's honor of Erdtree Burial,' and the Watchdogs 'protect catacombs.' A line of dialogue runs the same way: 'Your soul will return to the Erdtree, in time.' The horn runs the other: 'thus does new life grow from death, and from death, one obtains power.' The figure this card turns on stays singular, a fallen king, dead and budding with light.

◆ Sources

Boss LoreRemembrance of the Regal Ancestor

Remembrance of the Regal Ancestor Spirit, hewn into the Erdtree. Ancestral spirits exist as a phenomenon beyond the purview of the Erdtree. Life sprouts from death, as it does from birth. Such is the way of the living.

TalismanAncestral Spirit's Horn

Item cut from the horns of the Regal Ancestor Spirit. A number of new growths bud from the antler-like horns of the fallen king, each glowing with light. Thus does new life grow from death, and from death, one obtains power.