>>81251648That is probably the most speculated part of the lore. Theroies right know shows it's strands in the form of runes, possibly the rune of death she was plucking from the Gloam Eyed Queen. Another postulates her cardinal sin was laying with the GEQ or possibly the ancient serpent, which would manifest in the abysmal serpent when Messmer was born. For closest evidence of what it could be we have two things atm, Jar Innard Meat seems to have golden strands in it too, but the other one is PicRel. Another link is found in the original E3 trailer at 50 seconds:
https://youtu.be/e5wwSxl0atcYou can see the strands coming out of Marika's Hammer. I feel like this makes me believe it's the form of the great runes that the hammer can work with and she took Destined death from the Gloam Eyed Queen personally, and stripped it from the Elden Ring.
>>81251808Yes that's something that I've speculated on too. Because the item description seems to indicate Nanaya had been a frenzy agent similar to Hyetta or Shabriri for a long time before even Midra, I wonder if Midra (who is known to be of common blood to the Hornsent according to one of the ghosts in his Manse), took her in as a blind (like Hyetta) widow expecting when in reality her child had died long ago with whoever Nanaya was in life, probably in childbirth. She'd slowly plant the seeds of the Frenzied Flame in Midra's once illustrious place of learning and healing, as he was a sage who met and helped all manners of people and one of the paintings of the Manse shows a beautiful garden bathed in sunlight surrounding it (perhaps it was once on a higher elevation for the erdtree light to reach so deep). Eventually the Hornsent of Enir-Elim/Belurat would send an inquisition to stop the spread of Frenzy, hence the inquisitors such as Jori and horned warrior spectres. Ultimately they would behead and put a thorn on each of Midra's most loyal followers and the thorned sword of damnation in Midra himself, even stiching up his wounds to ensure he suffered eternally. Nanaya before this occurred told him to endure then hid herself away, cradling the torch, knowing Midra would eventually suffer enough to become a Lord of Frenzy. It seems Midra also had attempted to cure the aging untouchables of their affliction, perhaps the craftsmanship of Nanaya before they had met. This was probably what stirred the Hornsent into investigating him in the first place.
