I wonder what Froms actual intent with the choice of “Fell” in the english translation is. Because we see the word used in two places as a describer. Specifically a describer of an individual.
The first is in the name of the first being to bar our path as a boss on the route to Godrick in Stormveil; Margit, the Fell Omen. Who refers to themselves as Margit the Fell intentionally when introducing themselves, the one to extinguish the flame of ambition in the Tarnished.
The second is in the name of the Flame of the Fell God, the incantation found in an Evergaol, a fire stolen by an individual named Adan from the Fire Guardians of the Mountaintops of the Giants. A crime for which the thief was imprisoned. This incantation cites “the fell god still lurks within the fire giants.”
There are more meanings of Fell than a regular person might think of;
As a Noun; it may be a skin, hide or pelt, specifically; “a thin tough membrane covering a carcass directly under the hide.”
As a transitive verb; to cut, knock or bring down (to fell a tree, to be felled by a blade)
Alternative verb use; to sew (a seam) by folding one raw edge under the other and sew flat on the wrong side.
Feller also comes as a Noun use (one who fells), and fellable as an adjective (a thing easily felled), in regards to the transitive above.
It also comes as the Past Tense of Fall.
Then as an adjective in its own right it becomes synonymous with being fierce, cruel, terrible. Or sinister, malevolent (a fell purpose) or extremely destructive (a fell disease.)
Or if you’re Scottish it may have connotations of being sharp or pungent, having fellness to it.
The last usage of Fell comes as a name for a high barren field, otherwise known as a Moor.
Taking these into account, the obvious choice of Fell usage for both Margit and the Fell God could likely be taken as simply “Sinister” or being creatures with ill-intent. But I believe the transitive use is actually the most accurate for both.
Perhaps the Fell God and the Fell Omen were only Fell in the eyes of Marika. She, after all, feared the fall of her Erdtree and her Golden Order, and there were two manners in which this event could come about;
First there is the First Cardinal Sin; the Burning of the Erdtree. We know the potential being referred to as the Fell God was capable of this due to their power over the Flame of Ruin, the raging fire itself inhabited by a fell god. A fact foreseen by prophets who foresaw the Erdtree burning many times. It is likely the sole reason (though there may have been others) why Marika pursues the full extermination of the Fire Giants of the Mountaintops who venerated flame. In doing so she realises their flame can never be truly extinguished, and so she curses the only survivor of the purge to tend the meagre flame for all eternity. While the rest of their kind is impaled, gouged and slaughtered.
Second there is the potential Revelation of the Curse afflicting Marika’s children. The Curse of the Omen, in which Margit - or rather Morgott - was one of the first two to suffer from, alongside his twin. This curse took the shape of tangled horns sprouting across the body, alongside other aspects of the Crucible. Such as vestigial wings, scaled bodies, nimble tails, and bestial fangs. Marika was quick to hide her own children, second-born of her lineage, in obscurity as a result, or in horror, of seeing this curse. It’s reasonable to assume the revelation that such beings are a result of the Eternal’s own bloodline would spell undoing for her in her own mind. Her vision of her own Orders perfection undone.
Perhaps the Fell God was only referred to as such in Marika’s own propaganda, and was never a name they used for themselves. If we assume the Fell God is not an Outer God of Flame, but was an individual with great power over fire at least. We could see why such ideology may have been required to promote the cleansing of the Danger posed to the gentle, very flammable, Erdtree that bestowed splendour on all who it graced with golden amber. Thus it was that the Fell God was named such; a being who posed a danger to the Erdtree itself, and may one day Fell it. A truth prophesied that does inevitably come true, as Melina, final daughter of Marika, burns herself as the Kindling foreseen by the prophets.
Perhaps Morgott referred to his cursed self as Margit, the Fell Omen, because the name Margit itself was a cover for Marika. A veil hiding the true name of the current King of Leyndell who despised their own curse. Maybe he knew what would come of his true identity being revealed to the nobles of Leyndell, and the world beyond. That they would riot in horror at the monster borne of their leader, and see her as unfit or sullied. He is the Fell Omen because the realisation that the Omen originate from Marika’s own would be the Felling blow to the thing he loved most, the Erdtree which graced even his cursed self.
It’s not unreasonable to see the other motives and connections behind the uses of ‘Fell’ within the titles of Fell Omen and Fell God either;
Morgott, as an Omen, likely had thicker skin than most, and due to a life in sewered underground of Leyndell may have smelt akin to a dying carcass, and had a Fellness about him.
The face witnessed within the torso of Fire Giants may have been one sewn into the raw edges of their flesh. An act of bestowal of the inhabitation of what would be called the Fell God later on.
Margit’s actions against all those who sought to become Elden Lord may have been seen as incredibly malevolent. After all, his Night’s Cavalry pursued any with aspirations of inheriting his mother’s power, or harming the Erdtree. And he himself projected golden illusions of himself to hunt down and slay those with the flame of ambition. Perhaps this line too is a hint of the method in which to gain entry to the Erdtree. An act Morgott would never commit.
Flame is itself incredibly destructive by nature. There is an incantation specifically called ‘Fire’s Deadly Sin’, which belies the danger of destruction the flame of the fell god possessed.
The Fell God may have been a cruel entity, for it carves out a place for itself in any who call for its Flame. Even the lesser Trolls, servants and smaller giants ridiculed by the Flame Giants, have signs they too once possessed the inhabitation of the face looming within the Fire Giants. It’s also true that Sacrifices may have been a large part of the worship of the Fell God, as the Fire Giant we fight actively sacrifices its own leg. Typically gods who require sacrifice in such a way are seen as cruel unless they are appeased by such offerings.
All this to say, language is interesting and fun.
