The Elden Ring
Hark, and cease thy wanderings for a moment. Thou seekest the heart of this forsaken world, the wellspring of its power and its decay? Thou askest of the Elden Ring.
The Shape of Order
The Elden Ring is not a jewel, nor a simple circlet upon a monarch's brow. It is the physical embodiment of the rules and tenets that govern the Lands Between. It is the core concept of divine law, a confluence of primordial runes that dictate the reality we inhabit.
Imagine not an object, but a mechanism.
In the age of the Golden Order, the Ring contained fundamental laws: Destined Death was bound away, allowing for eternal return to the Erdtree. The power of Grace flowed, guiding the worthy. It was, in essence, the supreme code by which Queen Marika and the Greater Will ruled.
To possess the Elden Ring is not merely to wear it, but to define the Order itself. The Elden Lord is the one who upholds, or re-fashions, its laws.
The Severance and the Scars
The tragedy of the Lands Between began when the Ring was broken, an event known as The Shattering.
The first crack was made by Queen Marika herself, in a moment of grief, rage, or divine madness—none can say for certain. Following the death of Godwyn and the theft of the Rune of Death, Marika used the sacred hammer to shatter the Ring.
It did not break into dust, but fractured into the Great Runes.
These Great Runes were no mere fragments; they were the fundamental, essential principles of the Ring, cast out like shards of a broken law. These shards were seized by the demigods, Marika's children, and each Great Rune imbued its bearer with godlike, tyrannical power:
Godrick clung to his shard to fuel his monstrous grafting.
Radahn held his to halt the very stars in their paths.
Malenia and her twin held others of equal terror.
The breaking of the Ring led directly to the war of the demigods. With the divine law fractured and fought over, the world collapsed into chaos, and the guidance of Grace—which had once been constant—was withdrawn from all but the wandering Tarnished.
Thy Purpose and the Mend
Now, thou, a Tarnished, seekest those selfsame Great Runes. Thy purpose is not merely to vanquish the demigods, but to collect the remnants of the fractured law.
Shouldst thou gather the Runes, thou might ascend to the throne, not as a mere conqueror, but as the one who shall mend the Ring. But understand this: to mend it is not to restore the old order, for that golden lie is spoiled.
To mend the Elden Ring is to choose a new set of fundamental laws for the world. To decide which runes will be left out, and which new runes will be carved in.
Thou seekest the power of a god, Tarnished. But the true power is the authority to write the rules of reality itself. What Order will thou choose for the Ring once thou hast claimed it?