you've seen the light. elden stars in pvp never ceases to put a smile on my face. imo triple rings is the best tool for giving yourself some space to cast it, some people who are hip to ritual will just jump into your ring of fire and fight you inside it. triple rings can either chase people away, giving you a chance to cast stars, or if they go through your rings and come toward you you can react with wog/radagon's rings and try to get the triple rings to hit them on return. all the spell combo potential is the reason i love the golden order build so much, needs a lot of stats tho

as with all other holy damage unless it says it is effective against those who "Live In Death" it's just another damage type

It is of note that this is found directly underneath the Erdtree itself. The Deeproot Depths seem to entirely be composed of Erdtree roots or similar, and it's likely that the ants that burrowed under the Erdtree came upon the nectar of the Erdtree, which is why they have Rune Arcs.

I'd say that the corpse this is found on is of either one of the original Erdtree worshippers from before the shattering (supported by this incantation claiming to be ancient), or is derived from the roots themselves as the original incantation.

Similar to your theory, I assumed that the ants had simply consumed who/whatever escaped from a time before the Shattering and the ones who were underground were some remnant of an older generation that still possessed legendary, ancient spells.

note also that it is surrounded by several "queen ants" which drop "numen" runes, the same people Marika was said to have been

Love having this used against me, free pokes

Love people using this, free Golden retaliation machinegun

if nautical nonsense be something you wish

Every time my opponent uses it they do not benefit from it.

It is the Elden Ring.

Considering the Elden Ring still seems to exist after you slay the Elden Beast and how there were different ages before the Golden Order as seen with Placidusax I'd say it just merged with the Elden Ring.

The Elden Beat is the Elden Ring incarnate. They are one in the same in the same way Radagon can be defeated, yet Marika remains.

the elden beast is a star that the greater will sent to the lands between, it's the living embodiment of the concept of order. eventually, some time after it arrived, it became the elden ring.

The dragon's time in power came before the ring/beast was sent by the "greater" will. I believe their power derived from the Crucible, which may have been similar to the ring/beast or even what drew the greater will and the other outer gods to the lands between to begin with.

The point is that you can use it when you're VERY far away. Just like all spells/abilities, higher DPS (usually, should) have a higher FP/Damage ratio. e.g. Glintstone Pebble is very FP-efficient, but has a relatively low DPS.

Elden Stars is something you kick off before you close with an enemy, to use a lot of FP in order to do a lot of damage all at once.