The Tarnished

Tarnished. You stand here, before me, in my study—a testament to the fact that you, and all your kind, are the final pieces in this miserable puzzle. You ask who you are? Then sit, and I shall enlighten you.

I am Sir Gideon Ofnir, the All-Knowing. I know of your kind better than you know yourselves.

The Exile and the Summoning

To understand the Tarnished, you must understand the First Elden Lord, Godfrey.

The Tarnished are the exiled ancestors of Godfrey. When Queen Marika stripped Godfrey of his Grace—that guiding golden light—and banished him from the Lands Between, she also sent his retainers and his descendants out into the fog. They were commanded to go forth, to fight, and to die in lands afar.

For centuries, you and your forebears were a forgotten people, wandering far from the Erdtree's blessing. You died in distant wars, and your spirits knew no resurrection within the Golden Order's cycle.

But then, the world fractured. When the Elden Ring was shattered, and the demigods began to war, Marika’s Grace returned.

It did not return to the demigods—the true heirs, who were busy fighting—but to the Tarnished. To the exiled, the forsaken, and the forgotten. That is your core definition: You are the returned dead, now guided by Grace, summoned back to the Lands Between to claim the Elden Ring.

The Nature of Your Task

Do not mistake this divine summons for unconditional love. You are not meant to rule; you are tools.

The Greater Will, seeing its perfect Golden Order in utter collapse, has activated its ancient failsafe: the return of the exiled line. Your single purpose is to gather the Great Runes, breach the sealed Erdtree, and mend the Elden Ring under a Lord of the Greater Will’s choosing.

You are driven by the Guidance of Grace, which points you toward the capital and the throne. But I know that ambition is blind.

Observe the other Tarnished I have studied:

• Bloody Fingers seek to be instruments of the Formless Mother.

• The common folk merely strive for recognition and power.

• The great ones, like myself, seek knowledge—to understand the very nature of the God-Will that commands us.

You are an agent of chaos, directed toward order. You are a ghost granted life, sent to slay the gods. You are an outsider meant to be the next sovereign.

Remember your nature, Tarnished: you are merely the instrument of fate, granted a fleeting moment of Grace to accomplish the one true deed no golden-blooded demigod could achieve. Now go, and let me see what wisdom you bring back to my study. I am always listening.