Quick Links
Though Souls games are beloved for many aspects, it is usually their difficulty that is lauded as their greatest feature. By all means, they are difficult games, but it's all in service of their narrative. These games aren't difficult just for the sake of it, but because the very atmosphere of the world demands it.
As such, storytelling has always been at the forefront of these games, though the player usually has to put it all together themselves through item descriptions, enemy placements and so on, it is still a cohesive hole, even if certain elements aren't fully explained. Being an open world, the world of 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:Elden Ring, The Lands Between, can be daunting to catalogue and fully grasp the history of. In a land that has removed Death,༺ time does start to become imperceptible.
The Earliest Days Of The Lands Between
Much of what we are shown of the Lands Between's past is from the viewpoint of the Golden Order, a religious and military order that upholds the divinity of Queen Marika and The Greater Will. The history of The Lands Between is vast, however, and no number of historical censorship can remove the past. As such, most of this history is found in the fringe regions of the wo♛rld that The Golden Order overlooked.
One of the pieces of information about The Lands Between is that of the Primordial Crucible. In these times, there wasn't a golden Erdtree like now, but instead what is called The Great Tree. People of the world would fight in great crucibles, a means of showing that only the strongest survived, and be crowned what was the equivalent of the Elden Lord for that time. In fact, Fell Omens seem to have been the natives of this time period, with the later Crucible Knights mimicking their horns and tails in 🥂their Incantations. This may also explain why Fell Omens are so shunned by the Golden Order.
Another key aspect of these days was the Fire Giants. Once again natives of The Lands Between, they dwelled in the Mountaintop of the Giants. They lived mainly in solitude, keeping to themselves. That said, they still had their own god that granted them the gift of fire. It's unknown if this was an Outer God, some God native to The Lands Between, or even just a power inherent to the Fire Giants, as most of the knowledge of their flame Incantations comes from the Fire Monks watching over them. Once again, they are slain almost to extinction by the Golden Order, fearful of the flame they control.
There were also Hermit Merchants. Though it's never made clear where they've come from or when exactly they first arrived in The Lands Between, they seem to have been there a long while. They were a nomadic people, pawning their wares on their travels, and they had their own gods. This posed no issue until they refused to forsake their beliefs for the Golden Order. As a result, a great deal of them were all locked beneath Leyndell, and they summoned the Frenzied Flame in a final act of revenge.
Many other beings existed in The Lands Between as well, though with a more vague time period. One of these was the Ancient Dragons of Farum Azula, hunted almost to extinction during the reign of Queen Marika. One of these, Placidusax, was once the Elden Lord of this time, a champion of the Primordial Crucible. There is also the God-Devouring Serpent, seemingly native to Mt. Gelmir, with hexes of its own. There may well be even more, though those ar🅷e 🍷lost to time.
The Study Of The Stars
Over however many aeons that passed since the days of the Primordial Crucible, the peoples of The Lands Between began looking towards the stars. Even in the modern day, we see many of the remnants of this period in the Carian Nobles and 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:Raya Lucarian Academy of Liurnia, or the secretive sorcerers of Sellia. Indeed, almost all sorceries of The Lands Between are derived from the cosmos.
There are many defining schools of cosmic sorceries. For Liurnia, many of these focus on moonlight. The Demi-God Ranni and her mother Rennala are both famed sorcerers symbolised by the moon🀅, and came to blows with the Golden Order for their praising of the cosmos. Eventually, this ended in a union between Radagon of the Golden Orꦯder, and Rennala of the Carian Nobles.
There is also gravity magic, brought by the various Onyx and Alabaster Lords that arrived in meteors to The Lands Between. Much of their magic is spread across 🌄the world though is most prominently seen in Caelid, where the Demi-God Radahn used gravity sorceries to halt the very stars, and was himself taught by an Alabaster Lord and the sorcerers ofꦦ Sellia.
With this study of the cosmos came beasts from the stars as well. Meteors pock the world, and shimmering granite beats dwell within. The Fallingstar Beasts spread across the land, Crystallians hide deep within mines practising their own sorceries, and plenty of others as well. This interaction with the great beyond may well have also been what summoned so many more Outer Gods to The Lands Between.
The Arrival Of Outer Gods
Prior to this point, Outer Gods seem to have been a minor, if not entirely non-existent, presence in The Lands Between. The people thrived with their own gods, and there was no singular unifying force. However, to truly take root, Outer Gods need an Empyrean, a being who can become the vessel for them to manifest and use their powers more prominently. For the Greater Will, this did not occur until the appearance of Marika, thoug𝐆h others appeared before this.
A major one of these figures was the Scarlet Goddess. Until Malenia, they are not shown as having a vessel, and so their presence in the world was more subtle. However, the Lake of Rot and Kindreds of Rot imply it is much older. Buried far beneath the world, the Lake of Rot is described as housing the sealed essence of an Outer God. The dagger, Scorpion's Stinger, is also described as a ceremonial tool crafted from the ancient relic of a sealed god and inflicts Scarlet Rot. Though vague, this is undeniably the same Outer God that later uses Malenia as a vessel, using her to turn Caelid into a blighted land.
There is also the Primeval Current, a concept proposed by scholars of the cosmos. The Primeval Current is seen as the life force flowing through the stars that gives birth to life, and powers the sorceries used in The Lands Between. Ranni herself can also usher in an Age of Stars in place of The Greater Will, implying the Dark Moon she worships is indeed an Outer God, or something similar.
The Reign Of Marika
Throughout the ages, plenty of people come to dwell within The Lands Between. For example, there is Marika herself, a Numen. Numen are not native to The Lands Between, and outside 🍸of Marika, are only seen through the runes dropped by the giant ants that dot the underground of the world. However, Marika was an Empyrean and opened herself up to become the vessel for the Greater Will, ushering in the most important age for The L🌄ands Between.
Though the Golden Order would soon follow, many elements came to form Queen Marika's early rule. For one, she was gifted the Elden Ring with which to channel the power of the Greater Will, and removed the Rune of Death to create a world that was Eternal. Though everyone blessed by the grace of the Erdtree was now undying, that did not mean threats of blasphemy were unheard of. This led to the formation of The Golden Order.
The first major casualties of the Golden Order were the Fire Giants. Led by the flame-haired Radagon, the giants and their blasphemous flame were driven almost to extinction and set to be watched over by the Fire Prelates. Next came the sorcerers of Liurnia, represented by the Carian Nobles. Once again led by Radagon of the Golden Order, war was waged across Liurnia until a truce was signed with the union between Radagon and Rennala. The mysterious Godskin Nobles also find themselves hidden across the world wielding the Black Flame of Death, with the Golden Order having pushed them into seclusion. The hermit merchants were also punished for their belief in what the Golden Order deemed blasphemous gods, sentencing them all to imprisonment beneath the capital. The Ancient Dragons of Farum Azula were also hunted down, and their deific status in The Lands Between diminished to Farum Azula itself, now a crumbling structure in the sky.
Though established in aeons past, the Eternal Cities of Nokron and Nokstella also became victims of Marika's reign. With bashful disregard for the rule of the Greater Will, they practised their beliefs in sorceries and the stars, erecting great cities for themselves. Taken as a direct insult to their divinity, the Greater Will punished them for their sins. The cities sunk beneath the surface and were cursed to have a sky of false stars, limiting their connection to the cosmos. Not satisfied with this, Astel of the Void was also somehow summoned and sent to destroy an unnamed third Eternal city now lost to history. These very events, however, were what ultimately led to Marika's downfall.
The Shattering
Heralded as an omen of the end, The Shattering is one of the greatest cataclysms to have occurred in the history of The Lands Between from the perspective of the Golden Order. With the Elden Ring shattered, the order of the world has been lost as well, sunken into chaos. Without an Eld𒉰en Lord to rule them or the Elden Ring to unite them, the remaining demi-gods took their shards and took to war. Though the exact reasoning for The Shattering is never stated, many theories posit that it was destroyed by Marika in retaliation for the Night Of Black Knives.
The Night of Black Knives can be seen as the catalyst that lead to The Shattering. Though not a central plot point within the game itself, Ranni is the one who helped gather the assassins of the Eternal Cities that slew Godwyn, the first of the Demi-Gods to die. Satisfied that death was beyond her, the Rune of Death was taken right from beneath her, with Black Knives c👍reated that cou🌞ld once again steal life.
Ranni's exact motivations are unclear, though her own belief in an opposing god may have been a strong contributor, wanting a world freed from an overbearing being that believed all must be preserved for eternity. In a twist that perhaps Ranni could not have expected, Marika destroyed the Elden Ring, seemingly a desperate act signalling her own loss of fait✤h in the Greater Will.
From that point on, both Marika and Radagon were trapped within the Erdtree as punishment and atonement, with all their children left to roam the world in hopes of becoming Elden Lord. Wars raged for innumerable years, with many Tarnished having fled The Lands Between with Godfrey, first Elden Lord of the Erdtree. Only now ꦕhave they re🐷turned.
The Lands Between As They Currently Stand
At present, much like the Elden Ring, The Lands Between are fractured. Caelid has been left a blighted ruin after 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:the battle between Radahn and Malenia. Radahn himself is a maddened beast by the Rot in his body. Malenia has almost entirely succumbed to her Scarlet Rot. Limgrave is ruled over by Godrick, cowering away in Stormveil like a lord worthy of anything but pity. Rennala lies in a stupor deep within the Raya Lucaria Academy caused by the amber egg given to her by Radagon. Mohg, disillusioned with how he and other Omens were created by the Greater Will, kidnaps his own half-brother, the Empyrean Miquella, in order to use him as the vessel for another Outer God, the Formless Mother. Morgot is the only one remaining with faith in the Greater Will, and it is a blind reverence to a god 🌜and family that paid him no heed.
The only thing that can set the world back again is an unaffiliated party, much like your own Tarnished. Blessed by the dwindling light of Grace, only a Tarnished can gather the shards of the Elden Ring to unite it once again and put the world back into a state of their choosing.