The complete Elden Ring lore guide. (Everything explained)

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This video is the culmination of hundreds and hundreds of hours of passionate work. I truly hope you all have enjoyed it. Thank you for watching.
If you have any questions regarding Elden Ring’s lore, please feel free to ask them in the comment section!

I plan on making a follow-up video covering minor details I opted not to talk about in this video in order to not distract too much from the main events. I also plan on talking about the story of Nightreign eventually.

While I don’t like using external sources as direct reference for discussing From Software games’ lore – I’ve seen many get tunnel visioned because of that, same as with hyper-focusing on fan translations of the japanese script -, I of course know that understanding Miyazaki’s influences is very important to decipher his works. Here is a comprehensive reading list for this very purpose:

-Carl Jung’s complete works (the Book of Symbols being the most relevant one);
-The Golden Bough by James George Frazer;
-The Nag Hammadi;
-The Bible;
-History of the Archbishops of Hamburg-Bremen (especially the section about Uppsala);
-A Song of Ice and Fire book series by George R. R. Martin;
-Meditations on the Tarot: A Journey into Christian Hermeticism;
-Manly P. Hall’s works (The Secret Teachings of All Ages being the most relevant one);
-H.P. Lovecraft’s complete works (The Dream-Quest of Unknown Kadath being the most relevant one);
-Ovid’s Metamorphosis;
-Homer’s Odyssey;
-Plato’s complete works;
-Goethe’s Faust;
-The Berserk manga by Kentaro Miura;
-The Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind manga by Hayao Miyazaki;
-The Hermetic Arcanum;
-The Dune book series by Frank Herbert;
-J R. R. Tolkien’s works;

This list contemplates only the works which I’m absolutely certain were direct, major sources of inspiration for Miyazaki. I could elaborate in depth on why I selected each one of them. Of course, there’s more than a couple dozen books worth of material here, but I assure you reading them all will help you deeply understand Miyazaki’s writing. I assembled it off the top of my head, so I surely forgot quite a few; I’ll be updating this list when I remember which others I’ve missed.

Of course, I also recommend you to read general stories of world mythologies (especially the Norse, Kabbalah and Shinto), history, anthropology and philosophy. Sometimes I’ll be reading a random book about one of these topics and notice a clear parallel to something I saw in one of Miyazaki’s games.

Timestamps:

0:00 – 4:37 The One Great and the Outer Gods
4:38 – 6:31 A Song of Ice and Fire’s influence; Macumber the Demiurge
6:32 – 9:56 Prehistoric times, the Beasts, Hawks, Demi-humans and Dragons
9:57 – 13:19 The Numen and the Shamans
13:20 – 16:16 The Serpent Cult and the Fire Giants
16:17 – 18:14 The Astrologers
18:15 – 24:32 The Fire Giant-Astrologer alliance, and the pre-eclipse age
24:33 – 26:32 The war against the Dragons, and the birth of Placidusax
26:33 – 28:12 The first three generations of Albinaurics
28:13 – 30:30 Saints, and the original sin
30:31 – 36:03 Marika, the Crucible, Godfrey and the Roundtable Hold
36:04 – 37:59 The war against the Fire Giants
38:00 – 40:04 Messmer, Melina, what are Empyreans
40:05 – 42:14 The next generations of Albinaurics
42:15 – 44:18 The Liurnian Wars, Ranni the Bastard
44:19 – 47:52 Bayle’s rebellion, the Dragon Cult and the Dragon Communion
47:53 – 52:25 Messmer’s inquisition, the burning of the Greattree, and the birth of the Omen
52:26 – 53:42 The Tarnished and their Long March
53:43 – 55:08 The second Elden Lord and the Empyrean twins
55:09 – 59:22 The Night of the Black Knives, Godwyn and Miquella
59:23 – 1:02:52 The Gloam-eyed Queen and her Godskin Apostles
1:02:53 – 1:10:00 The Shattering
1:10:01 – 1:14:36 Miquella’s master plan
1:14:37 – 1:16:41 Marika’s end
1:16:42 – 1:25:28 Alternate endings – Age of Stars, Age of the Duskborn, Age of Order, Blessing of Despair and Lord of Frenzied Flame

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19 thoughts on “The complete Elden Ring lore guide. (Everything explained)”

  1. This video is the culmination of hundreds and hundreds of hours of passionate work. I truly hope you all have enjoyed it. Thank you for watching.

    If you have any questions regarding Elden Ring's lore, please feel free to ask them in the comment section!

    I plan on making a follow-up video covering minor details I opted not to talk about in this video for pacing reasons. I also plan on talking about the story of Nightreign eventually.

    While I don't like using external sources as direct reference for discussing From Software games' lore – I've seen many get tunnel visioned because of that, same as with hyper-focusing on fan translations of the japanese script -, I of course know that understanding Miyazaki's influences is very important to decipher his works. Here is a comprehensive reading list for this very purpose:

    -Carl Jung's complete works (the Book of Symbols being the most relevant one);

    -The Golden Bough by James George Frazer;

    -The Nag Hammadi;

    -The Bible;

    -History of the Archbishops of Hamburg-Bremen (especially the section about Uppsala);

    -A Song of Ice and Fire book series by George R. R. Martin;

    -Meditations on the Tarot: A Journey into Christian Hermeticism;

    -Manly P. Hall's works (The Secret Teachings of All Ages being the most relevant one);

    -H.P. Lovecraft's complete works (The Dream-Quest of Unknown Kadath being the most relevant one);

    -Ovid's Metamorphosis;

    -Homer's Odyssey;

    -Plato's complete works;

    -Goethe's Faust;

    -The Berserk manga by Kentaro Miura;

    -The Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind manga by Hayao Miyazaki;

    -The Hermetic Arcanum;

    -The Dune book series by Frank Herbert;

    -J R. R. Tolkien's works;

    This list contemplates only the works which I'm absolutely certain were direct, major sources of inspiration for Miyazaki. I could elaborate in depth on why I selected each one of them. Of course, there's more than a couple dozen books worth of material here, but I assure you reading them all will help you deeply understand Miyazaki's writing. I assembled it off the top of my head, so I surely forgot quite a few; I'll be updating this list when I remember which others I've missed.

    Of course, I also recommend you to read general stories of world mythologies (especially the Norse, Kabbalah and Shinto), history, anthropology and philosophy. Sometimes I'll be reading a random book about one of these topics and notice a clear parallel to something I saw in one of Miyazaki's games.

    Timestamps:

    0:00 – 4:37 The One Great and the Outer Gods

    4:38 – 6:31 A Song of Ice and Fire's influence; Macumber the Demiurge

    6:32 – 9:56 Prehistoric times, the Beasts, Hawks, Demi-humans and Dragons

    9:57 – 13:19 The Numen and the Shamans

    13:20 – 16:16 The Serpent Cult and the Fire Giants

    16:17 – 18:14 The Astrologers

    18:15 – 24:32 The Fire Giant-Astrologer alliance, and the pre-eclipse age

    24:33 – 26:32 The war against the Dragons, and the birth of Placidusax

    26:33 – 28:12 The first three generations of Albinaurics

    28:13 – 30:23 The Hornsent, Saints, and the original sin

    30:24 – 35:45 Marika, the Crucible, Godfrey and the Roundtable Hold

    35:46 – 37:26 The war against the Fire Giants

    37:27 – 39:31 Messmer, Melina, what are Empyreans

    39:32 – 41:27 The next generations of Albinaurics

    41:28 – 43:44 The Liurnian Wars, Ranni the Bastard

    43:45 – 47:19 Bayle's rebellion, the Dragon Cult and the Dragon Communion

    47:20 – 51:49 Messmer's inquisition, the burning of the Greattree, and the birth of the Omen

    51:50 – 53:05 The Tarnished and their Long March

    53:06 – 54:24 The second Elden Lord and the Empyrean twins

    54:25 – 58:46 The Night of the Black Knives, Godwyn and Miquella

    58:47 – 1:02:15 The Gloam-eyed Queen and her Godskin Apostles

    1:02:16 – 1:10:00 The Shattering

    1:09:24 – 1:14:00 Miquella's master plan

    1:14:01 – 1:16:07 Marika's end

    1:16:08 – 1:24:52 Alternate endings – Age of Stars, Age of the Duskborn, Age of Order, Blessing of Despair and Lord of Frenzied Flame

    Reply

  16. Interesting. Your view of the Elden Ring cosmos is a lot more Gnostic. I mean with an entity called The One Great I guess it goes without saying.
    So the Outer Gods are not so much Gods as they are cosmic forces that that people have attributed identities to. Pretty lore accurate to what Lovecraft had in mind for many of his more abstract deities for sure.
    It makes me wonder if like Plato's view of the Demiurge, there were more than one and if there's an Elden Ring equivalent of a Monad out there.

    Reply

  19. Hey, glad you took the time to make this video. Just through a quick overview it looks like you discuss a lot of interesting and nuanced concepts from various minds, my biggest concern is your methodology in applying it to Elden Ring. I'll only do a breakdown of the first few minutes of the video where you talk about the Outer Gods and where I feel a few of the ideas are a bit misguided. If you see this and respond I'd be willing to break down more of the video and its ideas, I'm very interested in the lore as it is especially its cosmology.

    0:14 – I don't think I'd describe the Greater Will as an "entity" per say, considering what we know from Ymir and other item descriptions in the DLC (and base game) we can now confidently say the Greater Will is the lightless void, specifically the one's Astels are formed in. It makes sense considering how we've seen Astels act in the history of The Lands Between, enacting the "will" of causality on behalf of the Greater Will. Though I don't think this denotes an actual "will" or "mind" (as you say) to the Greater Will in the traditional sense, it is simply the progression of the universe entire that is the "Greater Will" not a distinct entity that is pulling the strings.

    0:40 – Not sure where you get this idea from, though perhaps you'll elaborate on it later. I would've loved an explanation of a lot of these concepts at the start of the video, you present a lot of important information in the first five minutes but never directly go into where you got that idea from or how it makes sense in the context of Elden Ring. You're able to make these claims but you need to structure them instead of simply presenting an idea and expecting it to be accepted, I want to understand the reasoning you used to arrive at these conclusions, not just the conclusions. Its also important in order to properly substantiate your ideas, but I digress.
    To me, causality and regression are best exemplified by Life and Death (more acutely Ruin), in the words of Elden Ring: Gold and Shadow. Life is inherently causal, constantly progressing and forming ideas which then impress themselves back onto life. Death is a return, it is more primordial and more understanding, it is necessary for life to continue though in its purest essence it is a "going-back." If we take these ideas and compare them to their greatest embodiments, Marika and Radagon, it begins to make sense. Marika who represents the causal nature of Gold gives flow to the world with her Golden Order, though she is mistaken and in her attempt to prevent Death she stagnates the world causing it to regress. She deepens her understanding of the world and is able to realize her wrongdoing and ultimately sacrifices herself to undo the stagnation of the Golden Order. But before she can she must confront that regressive side of her, Radagon. Radagon, with his fiery giant's hair, attempts to halt Marika's sacrifice and even after her death he still harbors the stagnation of the world, intending to allow the Golden Order to exist in perpetuity, unwilling to let go. This is also mirrored with Miquella and Malenia, Melina and Messmer, etc. Fromsoft did this trope like 20 times in this game.
    Though an even better example exists with the Frenzied Flame, possibly the purest regressive force in Elden Ring. Though much like the Golden Order, the Frenzied Flame gives no "true death," in fact it is the only force within Elden Ring able to completely dissolve the spirit, it is Death in a form truer than even its truest form in Elden Ring.

    3:55 – I disagree pretty heavily. Much like the Greater Will, the One Great is conceptually universal, not individual. I assume you are aware of the Monad, I find this a far better comparison to the One Great, and possibly even a direct influence on how it is intended to be viewed within the lore. I love Gnosticism but to say it directly influenced Elden Ring is a bit of a stretch, in my mind the demiurge is deeply personal, his entire complex of revenge is what makes him "Yaldabaoth." It is his vindictive nature against divinity which paints him the malevolent child of heaven, though the One Great, the Greater Will, are not vindictive in this way, they are divine; insofar as their divinity is reflected in the world. They have no need to "harvest the life energy of the living" as they quite literally are the life energy (the One Great is *all that there is*).

    I'd be willing to look further into this video but as I like to be thorough and this writing was gleaned from under 4 minutes of the video, I'd like to first see if others are interested in what is being said.

    Reply

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