Chapter 844 - 843: The World as a Masterpiece

If you're an old player of Soulslike games, you'll likely feel a strong sense of déjà vu when playing "Elden Ring."

In ancient times, the world was ruled by immortal ancient dragons, until light and darkness, life and death, were born with the emergence of fire. Finally, a group of people gained the power of the First Flame, and the most powerful among them, Gwyn, created the Age of the First Flame. The white dragon and the sorceress then established corresponding magic and incantation systems.

The background seems very similar to "Elden Ring," and the main story plot also appears to be the same. The Tarnished becomes the Elden Lord, either continuing the golden order of the Elden Age, ushering in a new era for the whole world, or causing complete collapse.

However, as players delve deeper into "Elden Ring" and gradually understand the lore, they discover the differences.

That is, this world is too vast, not just in terms of game content.

Including its lore and story, "Elden Ring" can be said to be the culmination of Soulslike games.

Similar background settings can be found in the game, not only from Dark Souls but also from Bloodborne and others.

In the distant ancient era, the Lands Between did not have the Erdtree, nor was there life and death, yin and yang. It wasn't until the emergence of the Erdtree and the Rune of Death that pure life and death came into being in the world.

They were independent yet interdependent. The Erdtree needed death to allow the life it produced to return to it, much like the Lifestream in "Final Fantasy," where beings return to the planet after death.

The Rune of Death also needed the Erdtree, which symbolized life, to produce believers.

The Queen with the Scarlet Eyes was the first mistress of the Rune of Death. Her subordinates, the Godskin Apostles, hunted the believers of various deities, and these believers were beings born from the Erdtree.

Thus, beings born from the Erdtree gradually evolved into ancient dragons, giants, humans, and beasts. Life proliferated, forming alliances and engaging in conflict, and meeting their destined deaths in the Lands Between.

But whether it was the giants who drove away the ice dragons on the snowy mountains in the distant past and forged the Flame Cauldron, or the Dragon King Placidusax who resided in the Dragonlord's Resonant City, Farum Azula, at the crossroads of time and space.

This was the primordial era of life, but not the era of civilization's birth.

Unlike humans who symbolize civilization, civilization in the Lands Between is merely a concept.

And the Lands Between needed stable rule. But in a world with deities, divine authority and rule could never be separated. Faith drove the need for a common ruler.

There is a peculiar rule in the Lands Between: governance must be a combination of a god and a king.

From the ancient Dragon Lord and deities, to Godfrey, who was abandoned by Radagon and his wife and children to return home and attempt to establish a new dynasty, to Mohg, the Blood Lord, who kidnapped Miquella of the Inner Haligtree, and finally to Ranni of the Starcourse and the Tarnished.

No matter how the eras and protagonists changed, this combination never changed.

Therefore, to have a king who could conform to the rules of the Lands Between, the dragons, who possessed the power of storms and lightning, were chosen. The Two Fingers in the game represent civilization or the deities behind it.

Fire has always been considered the origin of civilization, just as the ancient Chinese Suiren carving wood to make fire and the Western Prometheus stealing fire.

However, the Two Fingers are also the origin of civilization, no less than fire. It is because of primates with fingers that they have the ability to create various tools, able to throw stones, and hurl sharp wooden spears. Even if their own strength is not comparable to that of tigers and leopards, as long as their skill points are invested in intelligence, primates with fingers can toy with and kill these powerful tigers and leopards.

Thus, guided by the Two Fingers, the embodiment of civilization, the dragons temporarily became supreme in the Lands Between, and civilization emerged.

Discipline and self-restraint are the symbols of draconic civilization. Godfrey, who suppressed his own wild nature and bore the Beast Regent Serosh, and Gelmir, who was in chains in the Beast Sanctuary, were both embodiments of civilization. They believed in discipline and self-restraint, locking their "wildness" within their bodies.

This is why, in the game, when the Tarnished faces Godfrey, he kills the saber-toothed tiger in the second phase, which the Tarnished initially thought was his pet. This is because that creature was the one who suppressed his wildness, and he was no longer willing to endure the triviality and empty rituals of self-restraint and etiquette in civilization. Therefore, he chose to abandon the identity of Godfrey and re-emerge as the representative of savagery, the barbaric warrior - Hoarah Loux.

And in the end, they succeeded. They bestowed civilization upon life. The age of dragons became the first civilization, but it was merely a fleeting dream.

Because on this land of the Lands Between, an external civilization arrived.

The first wave of external civilization was a race called the Empyreans. Compared to the natives of the Lands Between, who had established draconic civilization under the guidance of the Two Fingers, the Empyreans already possessed their own mature civilization. The Empyreans, who worshipped the stars, soon established a civilization different from that of the dragons, which is known as the Eternal City.

However, although the Empyreans established their civilization, this race disliked conflict and was fond of research. They only wanted to return to their homeland: outer space.

But unlike the peace-loving Empyreans, at the same time, a golden meteor fell upon the Lands Between, carrying the Erdtree and the Elden Beast.

If the Empyreans were homebodies who sought peace and avoided conflict.

Then the Erdtree was the king of troublemakers. They believed in uniqueness, and that uniqueness was themselves.

To eliminate all other laws in the world and retain only themselves as the sole law, this was the Erdtree's goal.

When they descended upon the Lands Between, the first to suffer was the Erdtree.

When the golden meteor fell upon the Lands Between, the seeds of the Erdtree fell into the Erdtree. However, instead of being smelted into the life of the Lands Between, the seeds took root and sprouted within it, even devouring the Erdtree's authority. Using the Erdtree as a base, they gave birth to the first Erdtree.

As the Erdtree that merged with the Erdtree, it also inherited the properties of the Erdtree, but in a more extreme way.

That is, the Erdtree's law worshipped uniqueness, believing that there should be no true death in the world. Both body and soul should return to the tree and be reborn.

This naturally conflicted with Queen Marika, who presided over the Rune of Death. However, at this time, the Erdtree was still in its dormant stage, quietly developing and preparing to emerge after gathering its six gods to pacify the world.

But at this moment, a meteor disrupted all the schemes of the conspirators in the Lands Between.

And the instigator of this was the peace-loving Empyreans. The outside world, the Goddess of Scarlet Eyes, the Erdtree and the Erdtree, and the nearly collapsing draconic civilization, all had little to do with the Empyreans, as they had no ambitions.

But their other flaw, their love for research, caused a huge disaster.

(End of this chapter)