Elden Ring - Shadow of the Erdtree Expansion Announced

[papalazarou]

Was the zx spectrum ahead of its time with its proto version of elden ring?

[Captain Kelsten]

On 25/03/2022 at 07:59, df0 said:

Yes, but also no. This is the one and only FROM game where I do not get the story. Not in the sense that's it's obtuse and mysterious, I genuinely do not know what's going on, what my goal is, what everyone's goal is, who even the antagonist is. Subjective, this is the worst story telling they've done. I understood the main gist of Demon's up to and including Sekiro, the stuff on the side added flavour to the world. Fantastic. Elden Ring lacks that narrative thrust.

 

edit: also, "You're beautiful" is the best thing. It's my go-to greeting for multiplayer. It's even better when the recipient does the "shy" emote.

Ok lore dump for you. This explains everything leading up to the start of the game and is why everything happens. 

 

Spoiler

There is a higher power, or “outer god” known as the greater will.

The greater will sent the Elden ring to the lands between to help bring order to chaos. Queen Marika was chosen to be the keeper of the Elden ring. Radagon was also chosen as its keeper because, well, Marika and Radagon are one and the same - the male and female sides to this godlike entity. But they’re also kind of separate and had children together, known as empyreans as they are children born of one single god parent, which are the twins malenia and miquella. They were born deformed due to the sort of incentuous relationship between marika and Radagon. Miquella was born as an eternal child and malenia had the scarlet rot. 
 

One of the first things Marika did when she was given the Elden Ring was remove the rune of death, granting herself and her children immortality. She gave the rune to  her half-brother, Maliketh the Black Blade, for safe keeping and to ensure no one could ever harm the gods. 
 

The erd tree is a physical representation of the greater will - a symbol for people to look to and believe in. 
 

It was a time of prosperity, and those with the Erd tree’s favour had golden eyes.
 

The two fingers are the representatives of the greater will, ensuring its word is carried out and things happen according to the greater plan. The will of the two fingers can be interpreted through fingerprints, hence the finger readers who want to see your hands all the time. Worship of the two fingers led to the creation of the Golden Order religion. 
 

Meanwhile, Radagon (the male half of the god) was sent to Liurnia to wage war on the sorcerer’s academy, who were getting too big for their boots. However, upon meeting Queen Rennala, a powerful sorceress champion and leader of the Raya Lucara academy of sorcery and head of the Carian royal family, on the battlefield, the two fell in love and married. They had the children Redahn, Rykard and Ranni. They were therefore the half brothers and sister to Malenia and Miquella. 

 

Radagon left Rennala to return to Marika and this left Rennala so heartbroken she lost her mind in grief. As he left, Radagon gave Rennala her egg thing, which she is seen cradling in the game. Seeing their all powerful Queen and sorceress wasn’t so all powerful, the Liurnians rebelled, locking Rennala in her great library with her egg thing. When he left, Radagon also raised their children to Demi god status aka empyreans.

 

Meanwhile, Queen Marika chose Godfrey as her husband and he became the first Elden lord. They had three children: Godwyn, Morgott and Mohg. They were the step-brothers of Malenia, Miquella, Radahn, Rykard and Ranni. Both Morgott and Mohg were born with horns, an ill omen, and subsequently banished. 
 

Ranni didn’t want to follow the greater will, and wanted to help her mother, so employed special assassins known as the black knives to steal the rune of death from Maliketh. They succeeded, crafting special blades with which to kill Godwyn, in what became known as the night of the black knives - the single event that led to the downfall of the lands between as they were because suddenly the demigods weren’t immortal anymore and shit really hit the fan. 
 

In her grief over her lost child, Marika shattered the Elden ring, causing all kinds of chaos. This is known as the shattering. 

 

This caused the Demi gods to go to war to claim the power of the runes, which had come off the shatter Elden ring, but none would win and become Elden lord. Eventually they reached a bit of a stalemate and retreated to their separate parts of the world to recoup. 

 

Redahn and Malenia’s battle was so fierce and destructive, because Malenia unleashed the scarlet rot inside her, that it completely warped and destroyed the land, turning it into the rot filled nightmare we know it as Caelid.
 

Rykard locked himself away and tried to achieve full godhood through…other means, which corrupted him and turned him into that big snake thing.

 

Mohg stole the body of Miquella and used blood magic to try and raise Miquella to full godhood, with Mohg as his consort and ruler, but it wouldn’t work. The blood magic corrupted Mohg.  

 

Morgott remained loyal to the greater will despite his banishment and, after the shattering, returned home and set himself up as king of leyndell to try and eventually turn himself into a god. He occasionally disguised himself as Margit the fell omen to kill any tarnished that try to enter Stormveil. 
 

Godrick, a relative of Godfrey, and king of Stormveil castle, was a weak willed Demi god who was jealous of his relatives power and tried to claim the powers of others by grafting them onto himself, as well as trying to steal the power of the dragons. This made him hated throughout the lands between. 
 

Godwyn’s body was entombed at the roots of the Erd tree, beneath the capital. The black knife death magic that had killed him spread into the roots, corrupting things (such as the minor Erd trees and their avatars you find and kill) and creating the plague of undeath sweeping the lands between. Those that were sentient formed a new faction and in that faction were Deathbed Companions, sort of priests and priestesses that tried to protect these undead in their new unlife. Fia is one of these Deathbed Companions. The undead are hunted and persecuted by the Golden Order, as they are seen as the antithesis of everything good. D, who you meet in Roundtable, is a champion of the Golden Order. Fia wants to raise Godwyn from the dead and have a child with him to bring a new demigod of undeath into the world to protect the undead race.  

Meanwhile, Maliketh retrieved the rune of death and embedded it within his own body to ensure it could not be stolen ever again. He went into hiding, disguised as Gurranq, the beast clergyman. 

 

The tarnished (that’s you as well as many of the other human npcs you meet) once lived in the lands between but were banished and eventually died, cut off from the greater will’s grace. However, when none of the Demi gods managed to become Elden lord and just started in fighting, the greater will got desperate and resurrected you, and the other tarnished, to try and fix things, the idea being that one of you would slay the Demi gods, take their runes and repair the Elden ring, bringing order back to the world under the Greater Will. Melina acts as your guide and general macguffin to push you forward. She wants to burn down the Erd tree to end the greater will’s hold over the lands between and bringing a new age to the world.  
 

That’s where the game starts. The ending you get depends on which faction you side with at the end of the game. 

 

 

 

 

[Girth Certificate]

 

13 minutes ago, Doctor Shark said:

Ok lore dump for you. This explains everything leading up to the start of the game and is why everything happens. 

 

  Hide contents

There is a higher power, or “outer god” known as the greater will.

The greater will sent the Elden ring to the lands between to help bring order to chaos. Queen Marika was chosen to be the keeper of the Elden ring. Radagon was also chosen as its keeper because, well, Marika and Radagon are one and the same - the male and female sides to this godlike entity. But they’re also kind of separate and had children together, known as empyreans, which are the twins malenia and miquella who were born deformed due to the sort of incentuous relationship between marika and Radagon. Miquella was born as an eternal child and malenia had the scarlet rot. 
 

The erd tree is a physical representation of the greater will - a symbol for people to look to and believe in. 
 

It was a time of prosperity, and those with the Erd tree’s favour had golden eyes.
 

The two fingers are the representatives of the greater will, ensuring its word is carried out and things happen according to the greater plan. The will of the two fingers can be interpreted through fingerprints, hence the finger readers who want to see your hands all the time. Worship of the two fingers led to the creation of the Golden Order religion. 
 

Meanwhile, Radagon (the male half of the god) was sent to Liurnia to wage war on the sorcerer’s academy, who were getting too big for their boots. However, upon meeting Queen Rennala, a powerful sorceress champion and leader of the Raya Lucara academy of sorcery and head of the Carian royal family, on the battlefield, the two fell in love and married. They had the children Redahn, Rykard and Ranni. They were therefore the half brothers and sister to Malenia and Miquella. 

 

Radagon left Rennala to return to Marika and this left Rennala so heartbroken she lost her mind in grief. As he left, Radagon gave Rennala her egg thing, which she is seen cradling in the game. Seeing their all powerful Queen and sorceress wasn’t so all powerful, the Liurnians rebelled, locking Rennala in her great library with her egg thing. He also raised their children to Demi god status aka empyreans.

 

Meanwhile, Queen Marika chose Godfrey as her husband and he became the first Elden lord. They had three children: Godwyn, Morgott and Mohg. They were the step-brothers of Malenia, Miquella, Radahn, Rykard and Ranni. Both Morgott and Mohg were born with horns, an ill omen, and subsequently banished. 
 

Ranni didn’t want to follow the greater will, and wanted to help her mother, so employed special assassins known as the black knives to kill Godwyn, in what became known as the night of the black knives - the single event that led to the downfall of the lands between as they were because suddenly the demigods weren’t immortal anymore and shit really hit the fan. 
 

In her grief over her lost child, Marika shattered the Elden ring, causing all kinds of chaos. This is known as the shattering. 

 

This caused the Demi gods to go to war to claim the power of the runes, which had come off the shatter Elden ring, but none would win and become Elden lord. Eventually they reached a bit of a stalemate and retreated to their separate parts of the world to recoup. 

 

Redahn and Malenia’s battle was so fierce and destructive, because Malenia unleashed the scarlet rot inside her, that it completely warped and destroyed the land of caelid, turning it into the rot filled nightmare we know it as Caelid.
 

Rykard locked himself away and tried to achieve full godhood through…other means, which corrupted him and turned him into that big snake thing.

 

Mohg stole the body of Miquella and used blood magic to try and raise Miquella to full godhood, with Mohg as his consort and ruler, but it wouldn’t work. 

 

Morgott remained loyal to the greater will despite his banishment and, after the shattering, returned home and set himself up as king of leyndell to try and eventually turn himself into a god. He occasionally disguised himself as Margit the fell omen to kill any tarnished that try to enter Stormveil. 
 

Godrick, a relative of Godfrey, and king of Stormveil castle, was a weak willed Demi god who was jealous of his relatives power and tried to claim the powers of others by grafting them onto himself, as well as trying to steal the power of the dragons. This made him hated throughout the lands between. 
 

Godwyn’s body was entombed at the roots of the Erd tree, beneath the capital, the black knife death magic that had killed him spread into the roots, corrupting things (such as the minor Erd trees and their avatars you find and kill) and creating the plague of undeath sweeping the lands between. Those that were sentient formed a new faction and in that faction were Deathbed Companions, sort of priests and priestesses that tried to protect these undead in their new unlife. Fia is one of these Deathbed Companions. The undead are hunted and persecuted by the Golden Order, as they are seen as the antithesis of everything good. Fia wants to raise Godwyn from the dead and have a child with him to bring a new demigod of undeath into the world to protect them. 

 

The tarnished (that’s you as well as many of the other human npcs you meet) once lived in the lands between but were banished and eventually died, cut off from the greater will’s grace. However, when none of the Demi gods managed to become Elden lord and just started in fighting, the greater will got desperate and resurrected you, and the other tarnished, to try and fix things, the idea being that one of you would slay the Demi gods, take their runes and repair the Elden ring, bringing order back to the world under the Greater Will. 
 

That’s where the game starts. The ending you get depends on which faction you side with at the end of the game. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Also Tortoises

[Captain Kelsten]

1 minute ago, Girth Certificate said:

 

 

 

Also Tortoises

And Jellyfish. 

[Padaxes]

10 hours ago, kensei said:

 

I'm dual welding Colossal Swords. I find it hilarious that this doesn't have the stopping power required for a number of enemies. I sort of feel if that can't stagger a normal dude who is apparently wearing no armour, STR builds are a little bit broken.

 

Fortunately I've discovered Lion's Claw weapon art can stagger most things, including Crucible Knights, which makes then substantially less of a ballache.

 

Anyway, progressed Rabbi's quest a good bit and am now in a whole new underground area. Just why, From.

 

I have Lions Claw on my Claymore but its my off hand, do i have to swap it or is there a way to use both weapon arts ? 

[df0]

46 minutes ago, Doctor Shark said:

Ok lore dump for you. This explains everything leading up to the start of the game and is why everything happens. 

 

  Hide contents

There is a higher power, or “outer god” known as the greater will.

The greater will sent the Elden ring to the lands between to help bring order to chaos. Queen Marika was chosen to be the keeper of the Elden ring. Radagon was also chosen as its keeper because, well, Marika and Radagon are one and the same - the male and female sides to this godlike entity. But they’re also kind of separate and had children together, known as empyreans, which are the twins malenia and miquella who were born deformed due to the sort of incentuous relationship between marika and Radagon. Miquella was born as an eternal child and malenia had the scarlet rot. 
 

The erd tree is a physical representation of the greater will - a symbol for people to look to and believe in. 
 

It was a time of prosperity, and those with the Erd tree’s favour had golden eyes.
 

The two fingers are the representatives of the greater will, ensuring its word is carried out and things happen according to the greater plan. The will of the two fingers can be interpreted through fingerprints, hence the finger readers who want to see your hands all the time. Worship of the two fingers led to the creation of the Golden Order religion. 
 

Meanwhile, Radagon (the male half of the god) was sent to Liurnia to wage war on the sorcerer’s academy, who were getting too big for their boots. However, upon meeting Queen Rennala, a powerful sorceress champion and leader of the Raya Lucara academy of sorcery and head of the Carian royal family, on the battlefield, the two fell in love and married. They had the children Redahn, Rykard and Ranni. They were therefore the half brothers and sister to Malenia and Miquella. 

 

Radagon left Rennala to return to Marika and this left Rennala so heartbroken she lost her mind in grief. As he left, Radagon gave Rennala her egg thing, which she is seen cradling in the game. Seeing their all powerful Queen and sorceress wasn’t so all powerful, the Liurnians rebelled, locking Rennala in her great library with her egg thing. When he left, Radagon also raised their children to Demi god status aka empyreans.

 

Meanwhile, Queen Marika chose Godfrey as her husband and he became the first Elden lord. They had three children: Godwyn, Morgott and Mohg. They were the step-brothers of Malenia, Miquella, Radahn, Rykard and Ranni. Both Morgott and Mohg were born with horns, an ill omen, and subsequently banished. 
 

Ranni didn’t want to follow the greater will, and wanted to help her mother, so employed special assassins known as the black knives to kill Godwyn, in what became known as the night of the black knives - the single event that led to the downfall of the lands between as they were because suddenly the demigods weren’t immortal anymore and shit really hit the fan. 
 

In her grief over her lost child, Marika shattered the Elden ring, causing all kinds of chaos. This is known as the shattering. 

 

This caused the Demi gods to go to war to claim the power of the runes, which had come off the shatter Elden ring, but none would win and become Elden lord. Eventually they reached a bit of a stalemate and retreated to their separate parts of the world to recoup. 

 

Redahn and Malenia’s battle was so fierce and destructive, because Malenia unleashed the scarlet rot inside her, that it completely warped and destroyed the land, turning it into the rot filled nightmare we know it as Caelid.
 

Rykard locked himself away and tried to achieve full godhood through…other means, which corrupted him and turned him into that big snake thing.

 

Mohg stole the body of Miquella and used blood magic to try and raise Miquella to full godhood, with Mohg as his consort and ruler, but it wouldn’t work. The blood magic corrupted Mohg.  

 

Morgott remained loyal to the greater will despite his banishment and, after the shattering, returned home and set himself up as king of leyndell to try and eventually turn himself into a god. He occasionally disguised himself as Margit the fell omen to kill any tarnished that try to enter Stormveil. 
 

Godrick, a relative of Godfrey, and king of Stormveil castle, was a weak willed Demi god who was jealous of his relatives power and tried to claim the powers of others by grafting them onto himself, as well as trying to steal the power of the dragons. This made him hated throughout the lands between. 
 

Godwyn’s body was entombed at the roots of the Erd tree, beneath the capital, the black knife death magic that had killed him spread into the roots, corrupting things (such as the minor Erd trees and their avatars you find and kill) and creating the plague of undeath sweeping the lands between. Those that were sentient formed a new faction and in that faction were Deathbed Companions, sort of priests and priestesses that tried to protect these undead in their new unlife. Fia is one of these Deathbed Companions. The undead are hunted and persecuted by the Golden Order, as they are seen as the antithesis of everything good. D, who you meet in Roundtable, is a champion of the Golden Order. Fia wants to raise Godwyn from the dead and have a child with him to bring a new demigod of undeath into the world to protect them. 

 

The tarnished (that’s you as well as many of the other human npcs you meet) once lived in the lands between but were banished and eventually died, cut off from the greater will’s grace. However, when none of the Demi gods managed to become Elden lord and just started in fighting, the greater will got desperate and resurrected you, and the other tarnished, to try and fix things, the idea being that one of you would slay the Demi gods, take their runes and repair the Elden ring, bringing order back to the world under the Greater Will. Melina acts as your guide and general macguffin to push you forward. She wants to burn down the Erd tree to end the greater will’s hold over the lands between and bringing a new age to the world.  
 

That’s where the game starts. The ending you get depends on which faction you side with at the end of the game. 

 

 

 

 

Ok, neat. Where's that explained in the game? I'm honestly not trying to be facetious of dismissive here. I do not know and/or understand the hierarchy. Names are dropped over and over but I do not know who those people are. Not a first for FROM's output, but their previous game had a stage set, a stage I could understand. There's were extras on stage that added flavour.

 

On top of that, what's with all the similar sounding and looking names. It's confusing enough already, why have three characters that start with God, and Miquella, Marika and Malenia.

[Goemon]

Getting real David Icke conspiracy theories in Volcano Manor…

[NexivRed]

Fuck these valiant fucking gargoyles in the fucking arse hole. 

[robdood]

15 minutes ago, df0 said:

Ok, neat. Where's that explained in the game? I'm honestly not trying to be facetious of dismissive here. I do not know and/or understand the hierarchy. Names are dropped over and over but I do not know who those people are. Not a first for FROM's output, but their previous game had a stage set, a stage I could understand. There's were extras on stage that added flavour.

 

On top of that, what's with all the similar sounding and looking names. It's confusing enough already, why have three characters that start with God, and Miquella, Marika and Malenia.

It's explained in the item descriptions and the various cutscenes.  That guy put that video together using just the game as reference.  He even puts the 'sources' in the bottom corner as he talks about stuff. 

[Captain Kelsten]

21 minutes ago, df0 said:

Ok, neat. Where's that explained in the game? I'm honestly not trying to be facetious of dismissive here. I do not know and/or understand the hierarchy. Names are dropped over and over but I do not know who those people are. Not a first for FROM's output, but their previous game had a stage set, a stage I could understand. There's were extras on stage that added flavour.

 

On top of that, what's with all the similar sounding and looking names. It's confusing enough already, why have three characters that start with God, and Miquella, Marika and Malenia.

Chats with NPCs, item descriptions, cutscenes, things you find in the world. The lore is literally everywhere. It’s something you seek out if you’re interested, it’s not spoon fed or worse, force fed to you. Obviously that style doesn’t work for everyone but I find it fascinating, like a mystery to unfurl. With all From games there is always the basic plot: you’re some kind of special chosen one in a world gone to ruin (the first flame, the curse of hollowing, the blood plague etc) - go adventure and try and fix things and Elden Ring is no different in that respect, because you’re a special chosen one in an open world gone to ruin, go try and fix things! 
 

All the characters start with G R and M because George R R Martin is vain as hell. 

[robdood]

18 minutes ago, Padaxes said:

 

I have Lions Claw on my Claymore but its my off hand, do i have to swap it or is there a way to use both weapon arts ? 

You can hold Y/Triangle and press left weapon attack to two hand your claymore temporarily.  Otherwise you could swap the swords around in your hands.  You cant have access to both weapon arts at one. 

[scottcr]

2 hours ago, df0 said:

Yes, but also no. This is the one and only FROM game where I do not get the story. Not in the sense that's it's obtuse and mysterious, I genuinely do not know what's going on, what my goal is, what everyone's goal is, who even the antagonist is. Subjective, this is the worst story telling they've done. I understood the main gist of Demon's up to and including Sekiro, the stuff on the side added flavour to the world. Fantastic. Elden Ring lacks that narrative thrust.

 

edit: also, "You're beautiful" is the best thing. It's my go-to greeting for multiplayer. It's even better when the recipient does the "shy" emote.

 

totally agree with this - I have absolutely NO idea wtf I'm doing and why other than there's some big ring thing - I mean, why do folks even drop 'runes'.  Runes are physical things, why do they burst out of folks? My son asked me about this yesterday and his explanation is that every creature carries the runes about in their pockets and drop them when they die... and when you die, they're all dropped and one of the baddies steals them.

 

I would like a *little* bit more direction.  

[scottcr]

7 minutes ago, Doctor Shark said:

 

All the characters start with G R and M because George R R Martin is vain as hell. 

 

Jeeezo - so they do.  Hahaha.. wtf

[Davros sock drawer]

8 hours ago, NexivRed said:

I don’t know why I was so eager to get into the capital. It’s shit. 

“I really want to get into these sewers…”

 

(Time passes…)

 

”ARGH!!! GET ME OUT OF THESE FUCKING SEWERS!!”

 

(Talking of which - Jacob Rees Mogh can absolutely do one)

[Hexx]

1 hour ago, Doctor Shark said:

Ok lore dump for you. This explains everything leading up to the start of the game and is why everything happens. 

 

  Hide contents

There is a higher power, or “outer god” known as the greater will.

The greater will sent the Elden ring to the lands between to help bring order to chaos. Queen Marika was chosen to be the keeper of the Elden ring. Radagon was also chosen as its keeper because, well, Marika and Radagon are one and the same - the male and female sides to this godlike entity. But they’re also kind of separate and had children together, known as empyreans, which are the twins malenia and miquella who were born deformed due to the sort of incentuous relationship between marika and Radagon. Miquella was born as an eternal child and malenia had the scarlet rot. 
 

The erd tree is a physical representation of the greater will - a symbol for people to look to and believe in. 
 

It was a time of prosperity, and those with the Erd tree’s favour had golden eyes.
 

The two fingers are the representatives of the greater will, ensuring its word is carried out and things happen according to the greater plan. The will of the two fingers can be interpreted through fingerprints, hence the finger readers who want to see your hands all the time. Worship of the two fingers led to the creation of the Golden Order religion. 
 

Meanwhile, Radagon (the male half of the god) was sent to Liurnia to wage war on the sorcerer’s academy, who were getting too big for their boots. However, upon meeting Queen Rennala, a powerful sorceress champion and leader of the Raya Lucara academy of sorcery and head of the Carian royal family, on the battlefield, the two fell in love and married. They had the children Redahn, Rykard and Ranni. They were therefore the half brothers and sister to Malenia and Miquella. 

 

Radagon left Rennala to return to Marika and this left Rennala so heartbroken she lost her mind in grief. As he left, Radagon gave Rennala her egg thing, which she is seen cradling in the game. Seeing their all powerful Queen and sorceress wasn’t so all powerful, the Liurnians rebelled, locking Rennala in her great library with her egg thing. When he left, Radagon also raised their children to Demi god status aka empyreans.

 

Meanwhile, Queen Marika chose Godfrey as her husband and he became the first Elden lord. They had three children: Godwyn, Morgott and Mohg. They were the step-brothers of Malenia, Miquella, Radahn, Rykard and Ranni. Both Morgott and Mohg were born with horns, an ill omen, and subsequently banished. 
 

Ranni didn’t want to follow the greater will, and wanted to help her mother, so employed special assassins known as the black knives to kill Godwyn, in what became known as the night of the black knives - the single event that led to the downfall of the lands between as they were because suddenly the demigods weren’t immortal anymore and shit really hit the fan. 
 

In her grief over her lost child, Marika shattered the Elden ring, causing all kinds of chaos. This is known as the shattering. 

 

This caused the Demi gods to go to war to claim the power of the runes, which had come off the shatter Elden ring, but none would win and become Elden lord. Eventually they reached a bit of a stalemate and retreated to their separate parts of the world to recoup. 

 

Redahn and Malenia’s battle was so fierce and destructive, because Malenia unleashed the scarlet rot inside her, that it completely warped and destroyed the land, turning it into the rot filled nightmare we know it as Caelid.
 

Rykard locked himself away and tried to achieve full godhood through…other means, which corrupted him and turned him into that big snake thing.

 

Mohg stole the body of Miquella and used blood magic to try and raise Miquella to full godhood, with Mohg as his consort and ruler, but it wouldn’t work. The blood magic corrupted Mohg.  

 

Morgott remained loyal to the greater will despite his banishment and, after the shattering, returned home and set himself up as king of leyndell to try and eventually turn himself into a god. He occasionally disguised himself as Margit the fell omen to kill any tarnished that try to enter Stormveil. 
 

Godrick, a relative of Godfrey, and king of Stormveil castle, was a weak willed Demi god who was jealous of his relatives power and tried to claim the powers of others by grafting them onto himself, as well as trying to steal the power of the dragons. This made him hated throughout the lands between. 
 

Godwyn’s body was entombed at the roots of the Erd tree, beneath the capital, the black knife death magic that had killed him spread into the roots, corrupting things (such as the minor Erd trees and their avatars you find and kill) and creating the plague of undeath sweeping the lands between. Those that were sentient formed a new faction and in that faction were Deathbed Companions, sort of priests and priestesses that tried to protect these undead in their new unlife. Fia is one of these Deathbed Companions. The undead are hunted and persecuted by the Golden Order, as they are seen as the antithesis of everything good. D, who you meet in Roundtable, is a champion of the Golden Order. Fia wants to raise Godwyn from the dead and have a child with him to bring a new demigod of undeath into the world to protect them. 

 

The tarnished (that’s you as well as many of the other human npcs you meet) once lived in the lands between but were banished and eventually died, cut off from the greater will’s grace. However, when none of the Demi gods managed to become Elden lord and just started in fighting, the greater will got desperate and resurrected you, and the other tarnished, to try and fix things, the idea being that one of you would slay the Demi gods, take their runes and repair the Elden ring, bringing order back to the world under the Greater Will. Melina acts as your guide and general macguffin to push you forward. She wants to burn down the Erd tree to end the greater will’s hold over the lands between and bringing a new age to the world.  
 

That’s where the game starts. The ending you get depends on which faction you side with at the end of the game. 

 

 

 

 

 

I think you've got a couple of bits off...

 

Spoiler

Demi Gods and  Empyreans aren't interchangeable.

 

 Empyrean are the only ones capable of holding the Elden Ring. 

We don't know Marika's parentage before she came to the Lands Between  but she is  Empyrean.

 

 Empyreans, we're told, come from being born from a single god - which is why Mal&Miq are as Marika and Radagon are the same being.

Which makes Ranni an odd one out - there's no explanation for it in game, but we are told Miq, Mal and Ran are the only  Empyrean candidates. 

How Ranni is  Empyrean isn't explained in the game - it might be something to do with Egg/Rebirth. Another theory is she's adopted. 

 

It's also worth mentioning Marika (way before the Shattering) already took the Rune of Death out of the Elden Ring. She gave it to Maliketh who turned it into sword he wielded. Ranni's Assassins stole pieces of it to make their own black knives that could then kill Gods. After that it took the rune into himself so no one could steal it again - that's why he's constantly hungry for death.

 

I think this is FROMs worst story. Ignoring all the confusingly very similar names, it's just incomplete.

And while Bloodborne is  interesting and opening to interpretation due to carefully crafted gaps or conflicting stories, this just straight up doesn't tell you key bits in an attempt to be "mysterious".

[Davros sock drawer]

14 hours ago, Broker said:

I feel like the music is the one big weak point of the game. It is crying out for a big, memorable main theme. 

I agree. Can’t think of a single moment where I’ve thought “This music is amazing!”, unlike with say the Cleric Beast fight or Father Gascoigne.

 

I do like the Hellraiser chime that sometimes plays though.

 

”You opened the chest. We came…”

 

 

[df0]

I absolutely loved those sewers, one of the highlights of the game for me.

 

Also, just utterly trivialised the Malenia fight. Long story short: +10 Mimic, HP and DEF talisman + that one Tank talisman that makes the boss focus on you, summon Mimic, remove Tank talisman (once removed it stays active on Mimic), food that poisons you on quick bar (Mimic eats it yet can not gets poisoned).

 

Fuck you Malenia and fuck you game.

[Ste Pickford]

Is there an ideal route / target area after Renalla / Liurnia? 

[Hexx]

Just now, Ste Pickford said:

Is there an ideal route / target area after Renalla / Liurnia? 

 

If you're pushing Main Quest - to the North East looking for Lift. This might send you to a few places but you are looking to go the Plateau/Capital as next main destination.

 

Otherwise you can just explore. This is probably the openest part of the game. If you want a suggestion

 

Spoiler

Try the manor in the NorthWest Lakes.

 

[Davros sock drawer]

Just now, Ste Pickford said:

Is there an ideal route / target area after Renalla / Liurnia? 

I think you’re maybe “supposed” to go to Caelid next in terms of combat level (I didn’t and am now over levelled for even the terrifying birds) , but storyline wise head North from Liurnia.

 

Spoiler

Head north into “The Ravine” in Liurnia 

 

[Ste Pickford]

Cheers.  I got to the Grand Lift last night, as that's where the NPCs seemed to be telling me to go, but I saw on a website this morning that the Caelid boss was the 'next' one after Renalla.

[Rayn]

3 hours ago, NexivRed said:

Is that 

  Reveal hidden contents

Blaidd?

If so, he gave me more trouble than Godfrey, Morgott and Ryker ffs. 
 

Beat course of action is to bait him to do the lunge slam attack, roll back, then a jump attack at the least. If you’re good, try and get behind him. Then back off again. Circle and rinse and repeat. 
 

It was long, because once he gets you in a chain you really can’t roll out of it. So have to be patient. Which is why I sucked for so long. 

 

I don't know if it's actually him, but it certainly looks like him and yeah, that's the one I'm stuck on. I tried to cheese him by luring him inside the corridor with the lift but his reach was too long for me to be safe inside the lift. I reckon I just need to learn his moves but so far he strikes me as a bit unpredictable. 

[Lovelyman]

Tbh the lore is basically a mashup of dark souls and bloodborne and it’s way too complicated. I think they have kind of jumped the shark a bit with it. 
 

doesn’t really spoil the game for me, i never get much from playing, more watching and reading about it after I’ve done. 

[therearerules]

Best lore video

 

 

[kensei]

The main route way to open the Grand Lift needs you to go to Caelid. So I think that's the intended direction.

[Number 28]

30 minutes ago, Rayn said:

 

I don't know if it's actually him, but it certainly looks like him and yeah, that's the one I'm stuck on. I tried to cheese him by luring him inside the corridor with the lift but his reach was too long for me to be safe inside the lift. I reckon I just need to learn his moves but so far he strikes me as a bit unpredictable. 

I knocked him off with rejection. I'm a bit confused because more recently I found

Spoiler

and fought Blaidd outside Ranni's Rise. So I'm not sure what's going on. I guess one is just the spirit form...🤷‍♂️

 

[Hexx]

33 minutes ago, Lovelyman said:

Tbh the lore is basically a mashup of dark souls and bloodborne and it’s way too complicated. I think they have kind of jumped the shark a bit with it. 

 

I think it's amazing they got GRR Martin (before everyone hated the end of GoT) - but he basically just sold them their own story back to them

 

[Alan Stock]

I started properly on Caelid @Ste Pickford yesterday and I'm a bit ahead of you, I found it around the same difficulty as most of the stuff after the lift, before entering the capital. Although I still am avoiding the big monsters in Caelid where possible because they absolutely wreck!

 

About a bit in north Caelid for those who have done it

Spoiler

Had great fun/pain at the Divine Tower where you climb up the outside and then drop down the inside. Proper Souls level design, nailbiting jumps, evil enemy placement and fun little secrets dotted around. After a lot of deaths finally made it to the boss at the bottom but ran into my problem of not doing enough DPS to him, so will have to come back.

 

Conquered a lot of Caelid though, did the swamp, the mage village (still need to check out the boss there), rescued the girl from the rot, killed the rot dragon on the way to the main castle. Didn't head to any of the castles there yet though apart from the giant pot one, where I killed one of the summons but the blood loss one wrecked me. The giant dogs and birds can one shot me with some of their moves so I've been dodging them where possible!

 

[df0]

I'm sure the story works on paper where there author controls the pace and moment when and how information is fed to the reader. In a open world game like Elden Ring I can spend 80 consecutive hours doing anything but the story, that approach does not work. Especially with similar looking and sounding names, dozens of characters, a handful of non-physical entities.

 

Just now I arrived at the final boss and my first during the cutscene was "who is that?" followed by "what? why?" when the name was revealed. It fell completely flat.

[Hexx]

End boss spoilers and lore

 

Spoiler

As far as I know "Marika is Radagon" is only communicated at one point, if you do a certain incantation in front a certain statue. (And have probably been following Golden Masks questline),

 

I've no idea how the last boss would come across if you didn't know....