Elden Ring

Overview

Elden Ring is the game that broke FromSoftware out of the niche. Released in February 2022 after years of anticipation fueled by the involvement of George R.R. Martin — who contributed the world’s foundational mythos — it became a cultural phenomenon that transcended the soulslike genre. Over 23 million copies sold within two years, Game of the Year at nearly every ceremony, and a DLC expansion that alone outsold most full releases.

But the numbers only tell part of the story. Elden Ring works because it takes everything FromSoftware learned from Dark Souls, Bloodborne, and Sekiro and casts it across an open world that actually rewards exploration. The Lands Between aren’t a checklist — they’re a place. Every ruin has history, every cave hides something worth finding, and the map never stops surprising you, even fifty hours in.

You play as a Tarnished — an exile returned to the Lands Between after the shattering of the Elden Ring, seeking to become Elden Lord and restore order to a broken world. Or not. The beauty of Elden Ring is that “order” is subjective, and every faction has a different vision of what the world should become.

The Lands Between

The open world of Elden Ring is divided into distinct regions, each governed by a shard of the Elden Ring and ruled by a Demigod who possesses it:

• Limgrave — The starting region: rolling green hills, crumbling churches, and the ever-present threat of mounted patrols. Your first lesson that beauty and danger coexist.
• Liurnia of the Lakes — A shimmering lake district dominated by the Academy of Raya Lucaria, where sorcerers study the stars and the land itself seems to shift.
• Caelid — A hellscape of scarlet rot, where the aftermath of Malenia’s last stand still poisons the earth. The most overtly hostile region and the one players remember.
• Mt. Gelmir & Volcano Manor — A volcanic fortress ruled by a house of assassins who recruit Tarnished to hunt their own kind.
• Leyndell, Royal Capital — The seat of the Golden Order, a sprawling city of gold and ash where the truth of the Erdtree waits.
• Consecrated Snowfield & Mohgwyn Palace — Hidden endgame areas accessible only through discovery, embodying the game’s philosophy that the best rewards come to those who look deeper.
• The Mountaintops of the Giants — The frozen frontier where the last giants dwell and the path to the Erdtree reveals itself.

The Shattering

The central conflict of Elden Ring stems from the Shattering — the moment Queen Marika broke the Elden Ring, and her Demigod children went to war over the shards (Great Runes) that resulted. Each Demigod represents a different philosophy of rule:

• Godrick the Grafted — The weakest of the Demigods, who supplements his power by grafting body parts onto himself. A grotesque parody of ambition.
• Rennala, Queen of the Full Moon — Not a Demigod by birth but by marriage, holding the Great Rune of the unborn. Her academy is a monument to knowledge turned inward.
• Starscourge Radahn — A warrior who held back the stars themselves, now consumed by the scarlet rot in Caelid. The Battle of Aeonia is one of gaming’s great tragic set pieces.
• Morgott, the Omen King — A despised Omen who rose to rule Leyndell in secret, defending a Golden Order that would never accept him.
• Mohg, Lord of Blood — An Omen who embraced the underground and formed a cult of blood worship.
• Malenia, Blade of Miquella — The most feared warrior in the Lands Between, whose scarlet rot unleashed devastation across Caelid in a single duel.
• Rykard, Lord of Blasphemy — Who devoured the gods themselves, becoming a serpent that consumes all who enter his volcano.

Shadow of the Erdtree

⚠️ Spoiler Warning: The following discusses the DLC expansion’s story content.

The 2024 DLC Shadow of the Erdtree takes players to the Land of Shadow — a realm removed from history by Queen Marika herself. It reveals the story of Miquella, Malenia’s twin, who divested himself of everything — his flesh, his love, his doubt — to become a god capable of establishing a gentler order. The DLC deepens the lore of the Greater Will, the Two Fingers, and the true nature of the Outer Gods manipulating the Lands Between. It also introduced Messmer the Impaler, Marika’s son who was tasked with purging an entire people and imprisoned for the crime of existing.

Legacy / Impact

Elden Ring shifted the entire conversation around open-world design. Where most open worlds fill maps with icons, Elden Ring fills them with wonder. Critics and players alike praised its philosophy of trust — the game trusts you to find things, to piece together stories from item descriptions and environmental details, to fail and learn without hand-holding.

The game spawned an enormous modding community, countless lore video series (most notably VaatiVidya’s and Zullie the Witch’s), and a cultural footprint that extended far beyond gaming — from “Let me solo her” becoming a community icon to the Erdtree appearing in fashion and art.

Elden Ring proved that FromSoftware’s design philosophy — cryptic, punishing, deeply rewarding — could work at AAA scale. It didn’t compromise. It expanded. And in doing so, it brought millions of new players into a genre they’d previously considered impenetrable.