The Story of Elden Ring - Elden Ring Guide - IGN (2024)

The Story of Elden Ring is largely the story of Marika the Eternal, a Numen woman from the Land of Shadow, who would escape her fate and build and destroy the Golden Order. However, she is not where the story starts, and many characters play their part.

Instead, the story starts with the Lands Between being prey to many falling stars, including things like the Falling Star Beasts, but also the Elden beast itself, who may well be the heart of the Elden Ring.

Long before Marika, in the age of the Crucible, a tree that precedes the Erdtree, dragons reigned supreme, and the Elden Lord at the time was Dragonlord Placidusax. However, for reasons unknown, Plaxidusax foresook his duties and left, leaving a void in the leadership of the Lands Between.

This is where Marika comes in, and starts to plot to leave the Land of Shadow and become a god herself.

Understanding how to escape her fate thanks to the guidance of the Two Fingers, and with the help of her half-brother Maliketh, Marika sent Maliketh to steal the Rune of Death from the Gloam-Eyed Queen, and then seal it away within himself.

Marika then chose a champion by the name of Godfrey as her consort and Elden Lord, and used his might to defeat the Fire Giants and many other foes. The two would also have Godwyn, Morgott, and Mohg, although the Omen twins would be confined below Leyndell.

This saw the beginning of the Golden Age of the Erdtree and the founding of the Golden Order itself. But also invited more conflict, as there were plenty of people who would oppose the Erdtree and Marika herself.

The first of these wars was The Dragon War, which saw dragons descending upon the Altus Plateau and Leyndell itslef, and the mightest victories of Godwyn the Golden.

It was around this time that Godfrey, in amongst so many battles, fought a being known as the Storm Lord, and the hue faded from his eyes. This seem to be the signal that Marika had stolen the grace from the Tarnished, and so she banished them to the Badlands.

That was not the end of the wars though, and the next ones to occur were the Carian Wars against the Carian Royalty. These battles went neither in Rennala's favor, nor in Radagon's, who was a champion of the Golden Order, and perhaps because of this, the two married instead of fighting, and the fighting ended that way. This would also see the birth of Ranni, Rykard, and Radahn.

After some time, Radagon left Rennala broken-hearted, and the three children followed Radagon to Marika's side, where he became her next Elden Lord, and the three children became demigods.

Radagon and Marika would then have a pair of twins, Miquella and Malenia, but both were cursed because their parents are in fact the same being. Miquella was cursed with eternal youth, and Malenia was cursed with Scarlet Rot.

Life would continue with some degree of happiness for some time, until Ranni decided to usurp her own fate. Choosing to embrace and seek her own Age of Stars, Ranni understood she needed the power of Destined Death once more, and stole a piece of the Rune of Death from Maliketh, forging it into some special knives for Numen Assassin's called the Black Blades, and also a singular stone as a backup for Rykard.

This led to the Night of Black Knives, in which Godwyn's soul was slain, and Ranni's body was destroyed. This was the first record of a demigod death, and because of the unnatural manor in which it happened, Godwyn's body, having been buried beneath the Erdtree, warped into a new form known as the Prince of Death, and led to the creation of Those Who Live In Death.

This also led to Marika seemingly breaking, and choosing to destroy the Elden Ring. While Radagon tried to repair it with the same hammer, both were imprisoned in the Erdtree for their sins.

This was not before Marika told her children to fight to become Lords or Gods, though, and that failing to do so would mean they would be sacrificed. This led to a great war, and this whole event was known as The Shattering.

The Shattering War saw the demigods all fighting among themselves. Many of them came into a Great Rune, including Godrick the Grafted, Malenia, Radahn, Rykard, Mohg, and Morgott.

The aim was to come into more Great Runes and repair the Elden Ring, thereby becoming a new god and Elden Lord. However, the battles were sporadic, bloody, and rarely had a victor.

Godrick fled the capital while disguised as a womenfolk, and went to Stormveil Castle and began the process of grafting in his pursuit of power.

Morgott alone stayed in Leyndell, and deeming none worthy of ascending to the throne, saw of any and all who would come to Leyndell.

Rykard retreated to Mt Gelmir to set up Volcano Manor and decided to embrace blasphemy and stand against the Erdtree.

Mohg took his rune and went underground forming the Mohgwyn Dynasty after forming a bond with the Formless Mother, and learning his art of bloodflame. He only emerged as Malenia was marching south to fight Radahn once more, and he only surfaced to steal Miquella and go back underground.

During Malenia's march, Godrick insulted Malenia, and got beaten nearly to death, had to beg for his life in an undignified manner.

Malenia finally reached Caelid, and finding the battle between her and Radahn at an impasse, release a Scarlet Bloom that decimated Caelid, warping it into something hellish, and destroying her half-brother's mind and body. She also fell into a deep sleep during this time, and was carried back to the Haligtree by a brave knight.

The Shattering of the Elden Ring also caused the guidance of grace to return to the Tarnished in the Badlands and elsewhere, and all of them started to flock to the Lands Between. It's here that the game begins.

While the story differs from here based on what the player does, the essence remains the same. The Tarnished meets Melina and gets gifted Torrent. They then journey around the Lands Between taking down the demigods and gaining their Great Runes, eventually finding their way to Leyndell to defeat Morgott.

It's here that they find the path to the Erdtree blocked by thorns that need to be blocked. They can burn these by heading to the Mountaintops of the Giants and either sacrificing Melina, or if they've embraced the Three Fingers, burn themselves as kindling.

This sets the thorns ablaze, and also sets the Roundtable Hold ablaze too. This also grants the Tarnished access to Crumbling Faruum Azula, where they have to progress and defeat Maliketh to fully release Destined Death.

Having done so, they come to find Leyndell as a city of ash and waste, and fight through not only Gideon Ofnir who attempts to stand in their way, but also Godfrey who has returned to reclaim his throne.

Once through all of these obstacles, the Tarnished must defeat Radagon within the Erdtree and then the Elden Beast. With everything dead behind them, the Tarnished is free to choose a new age to start, whether that's things as they've always been, burning everything to nothingness with the Frenzied Flame, or seeking a new path entirely as Ranni's consort in her age of stars.