It’s taken me a while to think of where to begin writing about the vast amounts of lore that Elden Ring Alone offers its fan base in order to form a proper storyline. Where could a player or story teller even begin? After a while (And as I’ve been writing this extremely long document) I’ve decided to cut it up into various smaller post to not cause anyone reader’s fatigue. 

Each post will focus on an aspect of the history necessary to understand the underlying story of Elden Ring’s history with only the necessary details given. 

I’ve made sure that each one has narrative continuity behind the next so that they complement each read and hopefully keep you hooked. 

Also, a spoiler warning should be in place, but honestly, you can play the game without ever knowing the story, so I just say that if you haven’t experienced this game by yourself, then you’re probably gonna be lost (Hell, even if you have played you’re probably gonna still be loss). 

So, welcome to the themed month of December as I present: Eder Ring’s Lords. A Deep Dive. 

I. Before the Erdtree

In the beginning, in times before the greater will had even glimpse at the world, the Lands Between, and by extension the rest of the world, was already alive and filled with life.  Men and Monsters ran through the lands, and swampy regions of the world. Eternal Cities lay in quiet existence, studying rituals and sorceries that will help them last for millennia more. The Giants up on top of the mountains, besides the ancient astrologers, lived and worship their god in a relative peace. The Dragons roamed freely, one of the few known Elden Lords recorded before the arrival of the Elden Beast was that of Placidusax, the Dragonlord. However, even in this age it seems that outer gods were like men, for they fought and they fled, and they won and they died. Placidusax saw this first hand:

“The Dragonlord whose seat lies at the heart of the storm beyond time is said to have been Elden Lord in the age before the Erdtree. Once his god was fled, the lord continued to await its return.”    -Remembrance of the Dragonlord. 

The important thing to take from all of this is that life DID exist before the introduction of the greater will, before the elden beast, before the ring. Other gods ruled factions of the lands between like a divided nation. Some gods we know as canon in the game are ones like The Frenzied Flame, The God of Scarlet Rot and The Formless Mother. Some of them we know because we get to follow their storylines and see them in a limited capacity (Like the Frenzied Flame) and others we fight their vessels or chosen champions (Like Melania, avatar of the Scarlet Rot). We also have outer gods like the Dark Moon or the One-eyed God of Fire. Outer Gods with very real presence in the game, yet whom compare to others we know frighteningly little about. 

Yet out of all of these gods and their power, none would have quite the impact in history as would have The Greater Will. Now we’ve left it clear that before the Greater Will, life already flourished upon the face of the Earth. However, when talking to Hyetta (a woman who we help eventually become a maiden of the frenzied Three Fingers) says in her dialogue at the end of her quest: 

“The words of the Three Fingers. As your maiden, allow me to divine them. All that there is came from the One Great. Then came fractures, and births, and souls. But the Greater Will made a mistake. Torment, despair, affliction… every sin, every curse. Every one, born of the mistake. And so, what was borrowed must be returned. Melt it all away, with the yellow chaos flame. Until all is One again.” 

It mentions that all there is came from “The One Great”. Originally, I thought that this referred to The Greater One that is clearly mentioned in that same paragraph. Yet holding up to light, it doesn’t really hold up as well I’d like. Or perhaps I’m missing a point? Life was before the Greater Will took up residence in the lands between, the Frenzied Flame lived in this world long before it.  So what does it mean? Perhaps there was something more? Some outer god or force that seemed to attract the attention of those who came to this world afterwards? The power of life itself? We can only theorize I suppose, for there is little mentioned outside of this dialogue about the creator or creators. And avatars of the Frenzied Flame aren’t exactly trustworthy sources to get information from. Then again, who is in this game?

All that matters is this, there was life, there was power. Some even seem to believe that there was once a great tree before the arrival of the now ever present Erdtree. When we obtain the material “Root Resin” it’s description reads: “The roots of the Greattree were once linked to those of the Erdtree, or so they say, and it is for this reason catacombs are built around Greattree roots.” It is not impossible to believe that perhaps in this old world there already was a primordial form of the Erdtree from which life flourished.

We know that the age previous to the Elden Beast arrivals are referred to as an age of “Chaos” where creatures bore strange shape, horn bearing Omen walked the land and lived common lives. You see, this “Chaos” as we would come to know it was simply primordial life itself. Not inherently evil in any sense, but rather wild, misshapen and not fitting of what would come to be the standard of Order. 

NEXT PART: The Elden Beast and Order