Hi everybody, with Elden Ring coming out and this section likely to be altered with all of the new twists and turns - here’s an excerpt from my massive Elden Ring video script.

If you’re looking to brush up on the lore (or have a quick read to give you a decent primer on what happened, written as if I’m speaking it in a video), give this a read!

A STORY WORTH LOOKING FOR

I sometimes think back to 2011 and how bright eyed I was about the first season of Game of Thrones. I was so happy to see a gritty, violent, sexy dark fantasy show, being made with a great cast and a competent budget. 

I was SO happy that I started reading the books right away - and devoured them over the span of a couple months. 

I loved the world of A Song of Ice and Fire, which led me to watch hours and hours of lore exploration videos and fan theories about what would be happening in the sixth book.

Here we are over a decade later and… still no sixth book. 

Understand that if you are a person who hates George R.R. Martin because you feel he’s abandoned the fans who helped him go from being the writer of a few cult hit fantasy novels, to one of the most successful writers of all time - I am absolutely sympathetic to your position. 

As far as Song of Ice and Fire goes, I’m right there with you. 

However, I also have to tell you that Elden Ring’s story is pretty damn cool.
 
Double however, that fact won’t be immediately apparent unless you’re willing to work for it. 

The From Software method of storytelling is very passive and unobtrusive and as I mentioned at the beginning of the video, it’s entirely possible to finish the game and not really have a good handle on the world or the lore. 

I had at best a cursory idea of who the major players were, how they relate to each other and what my role in this tale was supposed to be, by the end of my first playthrough. 

Before we go into the spoiler-ish details, we should address that writing issue first. 

From Soft could’ve done a much better job with the opening cinematic and the early game exposition - not because we need every last detail spelled out for us, or because we aren’t willing to go searching for our own answers - but because giving the player a tangible, initial narrative motivation would’ve made the experience more engaging. 

Not just for the players who plan to dedicate their next year and the thesis of their doctorate to parsing out the details of Elden Rings lore, but to ALL players who could very easily get to the end of the game not knowing what the Elden Ring is, nor what it means to become the Elden Lord. 

This gripe isn’t a deal breaker by any means, it just puts Elden Ring in a position where its story may appear to be far more of an afterthought than it actually is. 

Like Dark Souls before it, Elden Ring seems as if its present day narrative takes place AFTER an epic story of Lord of the Rings proportions happens and that the world has been brought to the brink of destruction as a result. 

All streaming services and studios who seem to want to adapt every comic, anime or game the sun or take previously beloved franchises and turn them into CW DC Comics-tier shows which balance insulting story and character decision, with strategically placed key-jangles to make just enough self-loathing fans talk themselves into defending the “BOLD NEW DIRECTION” the writers have taken the property they loved…. Could probably have saved a lot of time by just hiring a good animation studio to adapt Elden Ring’s lore. 

It would be quite easy to fill 3 seasons of an anime with the prequel story of Elden Ring. 

If you’d like to watch a deep dive into the details and truly understand why I make that claim, I’ll link VaatiVidya’s main lore video in the description, which is a solid way to burn a half hour and is just the tip of the iceberg for what that guy could tell you about this game.  

But if you don’t have all day and want this chonky video to be your one-stop-shop for Elden Ring, I’ll do my best to briefly explain the lore. 

Putting up a spoiler warning almost seems silly, as you aren’t guaranteed to see or comprehend any of this story in the game unless you go searching for it - but if you want to experience the mystery first hand and take on the monumental task of exploring the lands between and piecing together its various riddles on your own, go to this timecode to skip my synopsis. 

Finally for disclosure purposes, while I have read a lot of item descriptions and pieced together a fair amount of the story on my own, I did use Vaatividya, Smough Town, Fextralife and the wiki page at Eldenring.fandom.com - so this synopsis has been made primarily using secondary sources. 

It’s not like I’m trying to submit this to an academic journal - though I’m sure that VaatiVidya would have a solid argument for being published in a literature journal, so I don’t want anyone thinking I’m trying to pass his, or anyone else’s research off as my own. 

There are two central figures in this story - whom, to use the game’s own imagery, are almost like two fingers of the same hand: Marika and Radagon. 

Marika is a god and the Queen of The Lands Between. 

Godhood was bestowed upon Marika by the Elden Ring, which in as simple terms as I can get them to, is a collection of runes which give order to reality, rooted in causality. 

The Elden Ring was brought to the world by the Elden Beast, who is an envoy of the Greater Will, whom I suppose can best be described as a cosmic Elder God, like Cthulu. 

Don’t hold your breath for any direct references to Bloodborne as the Greater Will is never seen in the game and the Elden Beast is more like a Plesiosaurus with a bioluminescent skeleton, than a Lovecraftian tentacled creature. 

So the Elden Beast comes to The Lands Between, forms into runes becoming the Elden Ring, creates the rules of cause and effect which govern reality and bestows godhood on Queen Marika. Still with me? 

With her newfound God powers, Marika removed the Rune of Death from the Elden Ring, which removed Destined Death as a concept in The Lands Between and gave it to her brother Malekith, who serves as her Shadow - a shadow in this sense, being something akin to a bodyguard… or doggie. 

Marika then chose a warrior named Horah Loux as her king, giving him the new name Godfrey.

Godfrey and Marika had 3 children - Godwyn the Golden, Morgott the Omen King and Mohg Lord of Blood. 

Morgott and Mohg were born as Omens - something of a birth defect which makes them look monstrous and grown horns all over their bodies- so Marika imprisoned the twins under the capital. 

Godwyn however, begins what is known as the Golden Lineage, of which Godrick, the first major boss of the game, is the final descendant. 

Keep Godwyn, Morgott and Mohg in mind, I’m not done with them yet. 

Enter Radagon, a warrior who led Marika and Godfrey’s armies against the Raya Lucaria Academy. 

Long war story short, he ended up marrying the Carian Queen, Rennala, ending the war and creating an alliance between the Leyndell capital and Raya Lucaria through marriage. 

Radagon and Rennala, much like Marika and Godfrey had three children and were apparently appropriately affixed on affable alliterations, as they named their children Rykard, Radahn and Ranni. 

Ranni, who I mentioned early as the game’s premiere Waifu, was something of a libertarian and didn’t want to serve the Greater Will, so she stole a fragment of the Rune of Death from Malekith and used it to kill Godwyn. 

In order for Ranni to complete her anarchistic goals- being end the Age of Gold, which represents the authoritarian, structured nature of the Golden Order; in order to begin her Age of Stars, which is presumably a more chaotic and free alternative. 

The Age of Gold continuing or the Age of Stars beginning, are both endings which the player can choose when they are successful, provided they satisfy certain conditions for the Age of Stars. 

Back to the story: devastated over the death of her son, and in an effort to break the laws of reality and resurrect him, Marika broke the Elden Ring. 

This was right around the time that Radagon left Ranni’s mother, for a different Queen… Marika.

Lost a son and doomed the world, but hey! She got a new man! 

Sadly she was still married to another man at the time… 

So Godfrey was dethroned as Elden Lord and Radagon was put in his place. [heartfelt]

As cool as Godfrey, AKA Horah Loux was, he couldn’t hope to be as compatible with Marika as Radagon is, because… brace yourself for this one if you didn’t understand the story: Radagon and Marika are the same person. 

They are the male and female aspects of the same god. It seems as if they have different consciousness, but they share a body.  Kind of like Glory, the villain from the fifth season of Buffy. 

How they are able to have sex is anybody’s guess - aspiring artists, fire up those Rule 34 Patreon accounts because there’s money to be made speculating on that, I assure you - but they definitely HAVE had sex because they had two children: Malenia and Miquella. 

Malenia is the infamous, optional, ultra-difficult-meme-boss of this game, but she isn’t just “powerful katana lady” - her place in the story is incredibly prominent. 

Malenia and Miquella are Empyreans - which are essentially a god candidates, who could begin a new age. 

Other Empyreans include Marika and Radagon, who are currently in power, The Gloam-Eyed Queen, who doesn’t appear in the game, but is connected to the Godskins and all of the Godslayer Incantations, like my Confessor’s Black Flame magic; perhaps she’ll appear in future DLC. 

You’ve also got Lunar Princess Ranni, who is an interesting one, as only one of her parents is an Empyrean and finally Miquella, Malenia’s brother. 

Possibly due to their… asexual conception, being born of two aspects of the same god in Radagon and Marika, Miquella and Malenia were both born cursed. 

Miquella was cursed with eternal childhood, which all things considered, isn’t that bad - because his sister Malenia was cursed with the Scarlet Rot… the super poison we mentioned earlier.

The Golden Order, using the power of the Greater Will could not, or would not,  cure the twins, so Miquella left the order and attempted to create the Haligtree.

This might be a good time to talk about trees… no no, stay with me, we’re going to loop back around and it’ll all come together… I think.  

So the Erd Tree is basically the castle in which the Gods of the Lands Between live. 

The Haligtree, was an attempt by Miquella, to create a new “castle of the gods” as it were; a new Erd tree, free of the Greater Will’s control- letting him ascend from Empyrean to full blown God, which would presumably give him the power to cure Malenia’s rot and his own eternal childhood. 

Miquella used his blood to feed the sapling tree, which grew incredibly large- as in, modern New York City skyscraper large, using the city of Elaphael as its roots.  

Everything seemed to be going well, so in an effort to complete the tree, Miquella entered a cocoon at the base of its roots. 

Re-enter Mohg, the Lord of Blood.

Morgott and Mohg are the twin sons of Godfrey and Marika. Both of whom were born as Omens, the horned monstrosities I mentioned earlier. 

Most Omens have their horns cut off immediately - but Morgott and Mohg, being of royal blood, were allowed to keep their horns. 

They were also imprisoned under the capital… until Marika shattered the Elden Ring. 

After the shattering, Mohg escaped and made a pact with another one of the other Elder Gods - the Formless Mother. 

The Formless Mother set Mohg’s blood on fire, which created one of the most devastating magic types in the game: Bloodflame… Which incidentally also makes Mohg an incredibly annoying boss to fight. 

So with his new power, new underground kingdom and new title as the Lord of Blood, Mohg decided to tear Miquella’s cocoon out of the Haligtree, and raise him into a god who can rule The Lands Between for the Formless Mother, starting the age of blood, with Mohg as his consort. 

While it’s never clearly stated that this involved Mohg sexually abusing him, it is implied pretty heavily in the description of Mohg’s Remembrance: 

“Wishing to raise Miquella to full godhood, Mohg wished to become his consort, taking the role of monarch. But no matter how much of his bloody bedchamber he tried to share, he received no response from the young Empyrean”

So Mohg is essentially a massive, incredibly strong ogre, covered in horns, who has the ability to throw his own flaming blood (which causes you to both burn and then bleed)... and on top of all that, he’s a level 99 child groomer. 

BUT WAIT! If you’ve been paying attention, you would’ve caught that the most difficult, badass poison butterfly valkyrie is not only Miquella’s sister, but his “blade” - and trust me, I am well aware of Malenia being “Malenia: Blade of Miquella”... because she says it at the beginning of the players fight against her AND every single time you die.

So if the Blade of Miquella is such a  badass, how did Mohg manage to kidnap Miquella? 

The answer is that during this time, known as the Shattering, due to the state of the Elden Ring, many wars were being fought and one was between Starscourge Radahn, the son of Radagon and Renalla, and Malenia. 

While the opening cinematic shows Radahn patiently waiting as Malenia puts her prosthetics back on, presumably after the tide of the battle turned against her, his honour was his undoing, as she then released the Scarlet Rot, ending their fight in a stalemate. 

Radahn became an insane, infected, feral scavneger, eating the corpses which remained on the battelfield where he fought Malenia, the region of Caelid became the scarlet rot ridden wasteland which turned it into the most meme-able location in the game and Malenia went into a coma. 

We could talk a bit about Radahn studying Gravity Magic in order to continue riding his ailing horse - as the image of a gigantic warrior effortlessly riding a horse which looks malnourished is too ridiculous to not mention - but it doesn’t have any significant impact on the story.  

While in her coma, Malenia was then brought back to the roots of the Haligtree by Miquella’s Unalloyed Knights, to heal from her wounds - where she remains until the player wakes her up… which begins the most challenging boss fight in the game. 

So to recap, we have 3 interconnected families: 

Marika and Godfrey, whose children were Godwyn, who is dead at the game’s beginning and was also the inciting event of the Shattering;and the two Omen twins, Morgott and Mohg.

Next we have Radagon and Rennala, whose children were Ranni, Rykard and Radahn. With Ranni being the Empyrean among them, who is also responsible for Godwyn’s death. 

(Continued in Part 2)