What is the point of the Elden Ring?

Where does Elden Ring take place? What does it mean to be Tarnished? What's the Elden Ring lore you need to know? With time to piece together the story and setting and get to grips with everything, we've gone hunting through Elden Ring to help you understand the story a little more. Don't worry, this is more just about explaining the set-up for the game - there's no real spoilers here for you to deal with, we're just putting your frantic dragon battles and knightly duels in some context, helping to explain the intro cinematic and the setting a little.

Oh, and before getting into this lore rabbit hole, we should stress that this is just one interpretation of the basic premise of Elden Ring, the cryptically impenetrable FromSoftware games being what they are. In fact, you may find that your own interpretation of the story of Elden Ring changes as you play, leading you to different conclusions. Either way, here's an explanation of where Elden Ring takes place, the basic lore, and what being Tarnished means.

Where is Elden Ring set?

(Image credit: FromSoftware)

The world of Elden Ring is called the Lands Between – a large realm ruled by demigods and blessed by the power of the Elden Ring and the Erdtree. A meme that you might have seen doing the rounds joked that Elden Ring is in fact set in the US state of Ohio, but, unsurprisingly, this is false. The lands of the Lands Between are simply one giant, mystical continent surrounded by water. We’ve found the Elden Ring map fragments, so take a look to get the lay of the land.

The Lands Between and the world of Elden Ring is completely new and separate from previous FromSoftware titles. While the world has still been developed by Hidetaka Miyazaki and the FromSoftware team, George R. R. Martin, author of the "A Song of Ice and Fire" series that was the basis for Game of Thrones, was also brought on to assist with developing the world and mythos of Elden Ring.

You, the player, will start your Elden Ring journey in a region to the south known as Limgrave – a relatively nice-looking area that features grassy plains, valleys, woods, cliffs, and ancient ruins. As you explore, you’ll eventually come across the disease-blighted region of Caelid that’s full of undead horrors, the misty wetlands of Liurnia, and numerous more varied regions with their own environments and creatures.

(Image credit: From Software)

The basics of the Elden Ring story are that the Lands Between were blessed by the Greater Will (a type of unknowable god obsessed with Order over Chaos), who sent down the Elden Ring – a magical object that changed the Lands Between according to its whims. The Elden Ring was housed within a giant, golden, spectral tree known as the Erdtree. With this power, the Erdtree was able to bless the land and its inhabitants with the grace of the Elden Ring, creating an incredibly orderly reality.

The Lands Between were ruled over by Queen Marika the Eternal, a being chosen by the Greater Will, who acted as a guardian and keeper of the Elden Ring and had numerous children. She also purposefully altered it and removed the Rune of Destined Death, making anybody under the Grace of the Elden Ring immortal. All people were affected in this way, but the Elden Ring and Erdtree seemed to reject some of them, marking them as Tarnished who were sent into exile. They still couldn't die, but they had been marked as unworthy in some way.

Marika had two husbands at different times during her rule: Godfrey, who became Tarnished himself and went into exile, then Radagon, the mysterious red-haired warrior. Both of these men became Elden Lords and gained much divine power through this union with Marika - in fact, while Marika is a supremely powerful being, her consorts, aka the Elden Lords, seem to be almost as powerful as she is.

(Image credit: Bandai Namco)

Elden Ring main bosses

(Image credit: FromSoftware)

Want to know all the mandatory Elden Ring main bosses you've got ahead and how to beat them? Click the link to find out!

However, the Elden Ring was later shattered into multiple Great Runes after an event called the Night of the Black Knives, where a clan of mysterious assassins killed several of Marika's demigod children. Among the surviving demigods, a terrible war broke out called the Shattering, caused when somebody attacked the Elden Ring and damaged it, altering reality further and compromising the Greater Will's vision of the world. Marika disappeared without warning and has not been seen since, with no clue or understanding by the wider world as to where she went.

The end result of the war was a stalemate between numerous factions - many grand demigods have Great Runes scavenged from the damaged Elden Ring, but none have properly risen to power to either replace Marika (which certain powerful demigods known as Empyreans can do) or become the next consort, aka a new Elden Lord (which anybody could do). This pointless middle ground caused the Elden Ring’s blessing to partially fade from the Lands Between, and centuries later, the Tarnished are being called back by the Erdtree to try and break the stalemate. The Greater Will doesn't like this tepid state of affairs, and by failing to rise to power, all the existing demigods have kind of proven why they're not worthy of becoming Lords, or even new Empyrean vessels to replace Marika.

(Image credit: Bandai Namco)

And you're one of these lowly Tarnished. Elden Ring sees you play as an initially meaningless character in a world of monsters and demigods, all struggling for control over the Lands Between. It’s your job to explore the world, grow in strength, and fight or ally with those you meet to bring about a new order by collecting the Great Runes. In doing so, you have a chance to repair the Elden Ring and become the new Elden Lord, changing the world to reflect the ideals and desires of whatever side you're working with.

Of course, there’s a lot more to the story than that. Like previous FromSoftware titles, Elden Ring’s story is shrouded in mystery, and part of your job is to piece together cryptic information from the environment, items you find, and characters you meet around the world to learn more about the bigger picture.

Who are the Tarnished in Elden Ring?

(Image credit: Bandai Namco)

Now that you know where Elden Ring takes place and what the story is, it’s important to know who you play as – a Tarnished. Anyone that was exiled from the Lands Between as a result of losing the guidance of grace from the Erdtree after the Shattering is known as a ‘Tarnished’. Your character has now been summoned back by the Elden Ring and the Erdtree to try and break the stalemate, now able to see the guidance of grace once again, leading them back to the Lands Between.

With this newfound power, it’s pretty much your job to try to reunite the Great Runes. However, to build up the necessary strength and power to do so, you’ll need the guidance of a Finger Maiden too. In your first hour or so of playing, you’ll be ‘maidenless’ – another Elden Ring meme that you might have seen – meaning you lack guidance and the ability to convert your Runes into power. Eventually, you’ll come across Melina who will offer you an accord to become your Finger Maiden and will allow you to level up with your Runes.

Along your travels through the Elden Ring Lands Between, you’ll meet plenty of other Tarnished heroes, especially in Roundtable Hold – a haven for Tarnished that exists outside the Lands Between – but obviously, you’re the one who must become the next Elden Lord. If you want something done correctly, do it yourself, right?