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FromSoftware is known for the intricate world-building exhibited in their games, though 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:Elden Ring has a slightly different approach than their previous games.𝓡 It has a much more defined mythos, crafted by Georg☂e R.R. Martin, as well as a more deeply detailed history of events.
Core to all of this is the Elden Ring itself, the eponymous object of the game. Within the layers of lore, much of it intentionally misdirecting you through the ruling Golden Order, it can be hard to discern the true nature of things. The Elden Ring forms the rules of the world, and you are tasked with fixing it. A monumental task when you may not even be sure what the Elden Ring truly is.
The Arrival Of The Greater Will
Long ago, in a period far beyond what is depicted within the game, The Lands Between were ruled by something called the Primordial Crucible. Only fragments of this period can be found, wit💎h the colosseums, Fell Omen, and the Erdtree itself remnants of this once-ruling nature.
Much of the Primordial Crucible is pieced together from smaller lore fragments, such as the dragons of Farum Azula and the previous praise of horned creatures li🤪ke the Fell Omen that were shunned by the Golden Order
This way of life changed with 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:the arrival of the Outer God known as the Greater Will. Sending down the Elden Beast as its messenger, it crashed into what was then known as the Great Tree, and would in time blossom into what is currently known as the Erdtree. From here, the Elden Beast becaꦜme the Elden Ring, and the Erdt🉐ree became its home.
To function, however, the Elden Ring needed the power of the Greater Will, and to do that the Greater Will needed a vessel of its own to direct its power. To this end, the Numen Empyrean Marika was chosen, and she became Queen Marika the Eternal. With her installed, Marika began to use her newfound power to establish the Greater Will as the one true ruler of The Lands Between and modified the Elden Ring to suit the world she wished to rule.
The Function Of The Elden Ring
At this point, it's clear to see that the Elden Ring is something powerful, a symbol of the Greater Will itself. This does not, however, indicate what it actually does. The Elden Ring establishes the Greater Will's rule in a rather direct manner in that it literally defines the rules of existence wi꧋thin its domain. It creates the s🌜ystem that empowers the Greater Will, functioning in a cyclical nature.
As you explore within the game, you will defeat Sharbearers and reclaim their Great Rune. These Great Runes are the composite pieces of the Elden Ring that formꦗ the full structure. Without one, it weakens the whole struc🧜ture and also changes the rules of reality. As a testament to their divine rule, Great Runes were bestowed to Marika and her family, allowing them ultimate control over the Elden Ring.
A prime example of how it functions is through the Rune of Death. Marika removed it from the Elden Ring and had it hidden away, not wishing for Death in her world. With its removal, Death was removed from The Lands Between, meaning that upon what would naturally be death, one was instead absorbed into the Erdtree, and subsequently into the Greater Will. This fundamentally changed how life existed, which was the entire purpose of the Elden Ring. The same is seen at the end of the game, with you being able to mend the broken Elden Ring with a Great Rune of your own to influence the rules of existence.
The Rune Of Death
We are shown very little as to the function of other individual Great Runes within the Elden Ring save for our own Great Rune of choosing at the end of the game, and the Rune of Death. Core to every aspect of the current world's existence is centred around the Rune of Death, both in how Marika used its removal to craft her own world, and also in how that self-same decision potentially brings about the end of her, and even the Greater Will's, rule.
Marika gave the Rune of Death to her shadow and brother, Maliketh, to keep sealed away within timeless Farum Azula. This, she reasoned, was a foolproof way to keep Death from ever returning to The Lands Between. Until Ranni, upset with the Greater Will's oppressive rule, decided to steal it. As established by its name, the Rune of Death, even outside of the completed structure of the Elden Ring, had the power to restore Death to the world, albeit on an individual scale.
168澳洲幸运5开奖网:During the Night of Black Knives, assassins murdered Godwyn the Golden with knives empowered by the Rune of Death, though only in soul. During his Erdtree Burial, the Death in his body soaked into the roots of the Erdtree, spreading across its vast connections across the land. Without t🍃he Rune of Death within the Elden Ring to regulate Death,♔ it spread wantonly. Suddenly, the removal of the rune caused the world to react in an unexpected way.
The Rune of Death is incredibly prevalent within the game, yet cannot be returned to the Elden Ring. It is destroyed alongside Maliketh, removing the possibility of natural Death ever﷽ returning to The Lands Between. This is why the mending of the Elden Ring is so important, as it has to account for a world undeniably changed by its very existence.
Though the Rune of Death itself is destroyed, vestiges of its strength exist in objects imbued by its powers. This is why Black Knives and Maliketh's weapons still cause Death after his defeat
The Shattering
Though the world is rather detailed in its history, many things are told over eons and in broad strokes. 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:Not the Shattering, however. This event was cataclysmic, the harbinger of the times in which the game takes place. In an event that is only revealed through careful analysis of the lore, Marika destroys the Elden Ring in fury at the death of her child, Godwyn. She created an eternal world and yet her very own son was murdered. It wouldℱ be hard to not become disillusioned with the supposedly all-powerful god you follow after that.
The Shattering triggered wars across the entirety of The Lands Between. Each of Marika's children gained a shard of the shattered Elden Ring and waged war against o♏ne another to reclaim the missing🦄 fragments. Individually these Great Runes meant little, yet together they had the potential to restore or even alter the Elden Ring. So they battled.
Morgott took charge of Leyndell, never allowing its walls to be breached. Godrick cowered away in Stormveil castle and fashioned himself a righteous lord. Mohg hid away beneath Siofra to build his own dynasty to challenge the Greater Will. Rykard gave in to the Great Serpent, hoping it would bolster his strength in defying the Erdtree. Only Radahn and Malenia truly fought, the immense powers they held destroying both the📖mselves and the land of Caelid. It was a war in which every participant lost.
Here, seeing that the demi-gods were making no progress in repairing the Elden Ring, the Grace of Gold left their eyes and fell to the Tarnished. These lowly, once-forsaken soldiers were what the Greater Will saw as their final saviour. Only those they had tossed aside had the power to restore their divinity. It is a great irony that without the Elden Ring in working order, the Greater Will was left at the behest of those it ruled so oppressively.
The Mending Of The Elden Ring, And A New World Order
As has now been established, the Elden Ring, through the configurations of the Great Runes within it, determines how life and death flows in The Lands Between. T🍸he world existed without it in ages past, and indeed it can exist without it in the future as well, yet with how thoroughly the Golden Order has rewritten history and hidden the past, it is hard to imagine a world so dramatically changed.
Across the game, you can acquire multiple Mending Runes which you can use to restore the Elden Ring. These range dramatically in effect, from simply mending the Elden Ring to exactly what it was before its destruction, to embedding the curse of the Dung-Eater, cutting off the absorption of souls into the Erdtree, and ironically cutting off the Greater Will's power source. Yet even still, it uses the power of the Elden Ring to create order within the world. It still utilises arc♐haic, imprisoning structures.
As a result, there are only two choices that will remove the Greater Will, and by extension the order imposed by the Elden Ring, in its entirety. These are the Age of Stars through Ranni, which uses her power as an Empyrean to dismiss the Greater Will and instead usher in a darkened world that is left to rule itself. It is a vague time that is perhaps unprecedented, leaving The Lands Between without a guiding f♎orce for the first time in its existence.
The second, and dramatically more destructive option, is to become the Lord of Frenzied Flame. Though complicated to achieve, it is nigh impossible to back out of. Here, having inherited the Frenzied Flame, you burn the Elden Ring to ash, alongside such of The Lands Between. Instead, you introduce endless chaos to the world. It is devastating, yet does create a world free of gods that wish to lord over it. No reverence, no rules. Just a simpl꧑e, cleansing ꦐflame.
The Elden Ring is only as powerful as the runes within it, and ultimately at the behest of those who structure it. It determines life, yet can j꧃ust as easily be denied altogether.