Not My Godfrey: A Theory of Lordship & Beast Divinity
TL;DR: Godfrey may not have been Hoarah Loux with Serosh attached. He may have been Serosh governing Hoarah Loux as a living vessel. Loux provided the warrior body, Serosh provided the lordly will, and “Godfrey” was the compromise between old beast divinity and Marika’s new order.
Most people treat Godfrey as Hoarah Loux with Serosh attached to him, but I think it might be closer to the other way around. People treat Serosh like the seatbelt on Hoarah Loux, but I think Serosh may have been the driver, and Loux was the car.
Hoarah Loux is mainly presented as a warrior. Once Serosh is gone, the boss name changes from Godfrey, First Elden Lord to Hoarah Loux, Warrior. Serosh, on the other hand, is not just “the lion.” He is called Lord of Beasts and Beast Regent. That wording matters because a regent does not just restrain. A regent governs.
So my theory is that Serosh was not only suppressing Hoarah Loux’s bloodlust. Serosh may have been the governing spirit that made the identity of “Godfrey” possible in the first place. Hoarah Loux was the body, strength, and battle instinct. Serosh was the lordly will that shaped all of that into something that could function as Marika’s Elden Lord.
This also makes me wonder if Hoarah Loux was simply used as a living vessel by Marika. Nothing says a vessel has to be dead or completely empty. Elden Ring already deals with spirits, bodies, and beings inhabiting or influencing other beings. In the DLC, Radahn’s soul is placed into Mohg’s body, creating a new lord out of one person’s spirit and another person’s flesh. So maybe Godfrey and Serosh were not just symbolic. Maybe Hoarah Loux was a living vessel for Serosh, but only partially taken over rather than completely replaced.
That could connect to the Divine Beast Warriors too. I am not saying they are exactly the same as Godfrey, but maybe they represent an older version of the spirit-vessel idea. Instead of warriors merely imitating divine beasts, maybe their bodies were fully given over to divine or lordly beast spirits. They could be dead bodies, emptied bodies, or willing bodies surrendered completely. In that case, a Divine Beast Warrior would be a full takeover, while Godfrey would be a partial one. Hoarah Loux was still alive and still in there, but Serosh was suppressing and governing him enough to create the public identity of Godfrey; it was always his will speaking with Loux's voice.
Miquella’s Radahn/Mohg situation could then be a later and more complex version of the same kind of idea. Radahn’s soul takes Mohg’s body, which is the vessel part. Then Miquella attaches himself to Radahn in phase two and seems to guide or suppress him. So Miquella may be combining both methods: a soul placed into another body, and an attached being controlling or steering that lord.
This makes Godfrey feel less like “Hoarah Loux with a lion restraint” and more like a compromise between old beast-divinity ideas and Marika’s newer order. Hoarah Loux provided the vessel; Serosh provided the lord, Together, they became "God's peace" and ushered in Marika.
That also changes how I read the phase transition. When Serosh starts to separate from Loux and become more physical, Loux immediately grabs and kills him. If Serosh was only a limiter, then this is just Godfrey removing his restraint. But if Serosh was the driver of the Godfrey identity, then Loux is killing the part of himself that made him Godfrey. After that, the game does not call him Godfrey anymore. It calls him Hoarah Loux, Warrior. So maybe phase two is not just Godfrey revealing his true self but whats is left after Hoarah Loux kills "Godfrey".
One extra speculation if this theory is true: maybe this is part of why “Godfrey” was sent away and Marika needed a new lord. If Serosh was tied to older beast-divinity traditions, he may not have approved of what Marika later did to the Hornsent, the Land of Shadow, and divine beast culture. Maybe Serosh only joined her because they shared an enemy in the Giants and the Flame of Ruin. He may have helped her quell the flame to protect the older crucible/tree tradition, only for Marika to later betray that world, seal it away, and create the Erdtree order over it.