What even is the story of Elden Ring, page 1 of 3

Elden Ring is the story of a broken ring and the family that broke it.

The Elden Ring is the law of a world called the Lands Between. A god held it. Her children shattered it and fought over the pieces.

You are sent to gather the pieces and take her throne. This page tells that story in eleven steps.

A large gold ring broken into seven separate arcs, with small gaps between them. the Elden Ring the law of the Lands Between one gap for each child who took a piece
The gold arcs are the ring's pieces. The gaps are where it broke.

A god named Marika held the ring inside a great golden tree.

Marika was chosen by a power outside the world, the Greater Will. It never speaks. It sends its wishes through a pair of giant fingers, the Two Fingers.

Marika became the vessel of the ring. A golden tree, the Erdtree, grew around her. Her rule is the Golden Order. Her children are demigods.

A star labelled the Greater Will at the top, a dotted line down through two raised fingers, into a golden tree with Marika standing at its base holding a small ring. the Greater Will a power outside the world the Two Fingers how it speaks the Erdtree Marika, holding the ring a god; the vessel
Marika stands at the tree, holding the ring. The star above her is the Greater Will.

Marika built her order by pulling Death out of the ring and hiding it in a beast.

In Marika's world the dead do not stay dead. She took Death out of the ring as a black rune. A rune is one piece of the ring's law.

She locked it inside Maliketh, the beast the Two Fingers gave her as a guardian. The game calls him her shadow, and says she betrayed him to do it.

A gold ring with one black rune lifted out of it, an arrow carrying the rune into the chest of a hunched beast holding a black sword. the ring Death, as a rune lifted out and locked away Maliketh, her shadow the beast who guards her the rune is now inside him
Death is the black hexagon. It now sits in the chest of Maliketh, the beast with the sword.

Marika sent her husband Godfrey and his warriors away, and promised to call them back.

Godfrey won her wars and became the first Elden Lord, the king beside the god. When the wars ended, Marika took away his grace. Grace is the golden guidance her people live by.

He and his warriors walked out into the fog. They are the Tarnished. You are one of them.

Marika at the right under a small tree, a cut gold thread, and five dim figures walking left into a grey band of fog, the nearest labelled Godfrey. the fog, at the edge of the world Godfrey first Elden Lord his warriors: the Tarnished eyes dimmed, grace gone grace, cut Marika "after thy death, I will give back what I once claimed"
Walking into the grey band are the Tarnished. A red cross marks grace being taken away.

Her daughter Ranni stole Death back and used it to kill her own body.

Three of Marika's children were picked to succeed her as god, each steered by their own Two Fingers. Ranni refused: "I would not be controlled by that thing."

She stole a shard of Death from Maliketh and forged black knives. Killing her own body set her free; her soul went into a doll.

Her brother Godwyn died the same night; the game never says why.

A black knife in the middle; to the left Ranni's body falling with a blue soul rising into a small doll; to the right Godwyn standing with a gold soul leaving his body. a black knife carrying a shard of Death a doll Ranni her body dies; her soul lives on Godwyn his soul dies; his body lives on one death of the body, one of the soul, on the Night of the Black Knives
The blue figure is Ranni; her soul goes into the doll. The gold figure is Godwyn; his soul leaves.

Marika smashed the ring, and each child took a piece and went to war.

Nothing in the game explains why she did it.

Her only words are "Let us be shattered, both." The other half is Radagon, a man who is somehow also Marika. He tried to mend the ring and failed.

The pieces are called Great Runes. Seven children kept one each, in seven strongholds, and fought to a standstill. Marika was locked inside the tree for it.

A rough map of the Lands Between with seven strongholds, each holding one gold shard, the shards flying out from a ring in the centre. Stormveil Godrick the Academy Rennala Caelid Radahn Volcano Manor Rykard Leyndell, the capital Morgott the Haligtree Malenia underground Mohg where the ring was
Each gold arc is a Great Rune sitting in a stronghold. The loop shows them flying out from the centre.

Grace called the Tarnished home to gather two pieces and become Elden Lord.

The war made no king, so the Two Fingers changed plan. Grace lit up again for the Tarnished, the living and the dead.

Bring back two Great Runes, the fingers say, and you may become Elden Lord. Why two, the fingers never explain. Two are close at hand: the weakest child and a grieving queen.

A small figure on the left walking out of the fog along a dotted gold line that passes two highlighted shards and ends at the capital. you a Tarnished grace, lit again Godrick's rune the weakest child Rennala's rune the grieving queen Leyndell the throne
Grace is the dotted line. Follow it past two gold arcs, the runes the fingers ask for.

The tree is sealed with thorns, so you burn it with your guide as the kindling.

With two runes you reach the capital and its king, Morgott. Behind him the Erdtree is shut by a wall of thorns. Only the fire of the giants, far to the north, can burn it.

Fire needs kindling. A maiden called Melina has ridden with you since the beginning, and she walks into the flame herself.

The Erdtree on the left with red thorns across its base, a fire on the right with a figure labelled Melina stepping into it, and an arrow from the fire to the thorns. the Erdtree thorns; no way in the fire, carried south the forge of the giants Melina your guide, the kindling
Red curls at the tree's base are the thorns. Melina steps into the fire.

You kill Maliketh to set Death loose, and only then does the fire burn through.

The burning drops you into a city outside time, where Maliketh waits. Killing him frees the rune of Death, and the thorns finally catch.

The capital turns to ash. Godfrey comes home to claim the throne, and you kill the first Elden Lord too.

The beast Maliketh struck down with the black rune leaving his chest, an arrow to the thorns now burning, and Godfrey standing at the far right before an ash-grey capital. Maliketh falls Death is loose again the rune escapes the thorns burn through Leyndell, in ash Godfrey, returned you kill him too
Maliketh falls and the hexagon leaves him: Death, loose again. Godfrey stands before the grey towers.

Inside the tree you fight Radagon, who is Marika, and then the ring itself.

Marika hangs broken in the tree. Radagon steps out of her. He was her other body all along, the half that served the order and tried to mend the ring.

Beat him and the Elden Beast rises. The Greater Will sent it; it became the ring. Beat it and the ring is yours.

Marika's broken gold figure on the left with Radagon's figure stepping out of her, then an arrow to a large ring with a beast shape curled inside it. Marika, broken Radagon her other body "Radagon is Marika" beat him the Elden Beast the creature that became the ring
The two gold figures are Marika and Radagon, one god. The curled shape inside the ring is the Elden Beast.

You choose what the mended ring becomes, out of six endings.

Mend it as it is, and nothing changes. Mend it with Death restored, or with a curse on every birth, or with the gods' whims removed.

Or give it to Ranni and leave with her under the moon. Or take a mad yellow flame from under the capital and burn everything.

Six rings in two rows: a plain gold ring, one with a black rune, one with a red mark, one with a gold mark, one blue with a moon, and one yellow and burning. as it is the Age of Fracture Death restored the Age of Duskborn a curse on every birth the Blessing of Despair gods' whims removed the Age of Order Ranni's, under the moon the Age of the Stars burn everything the Lord of Frenzied Flame
Each ring is one ending. The mark inside shows what is written into the mended ring.

That choice is the end of the story. Page 2 has every name in it; page 3 has every step.

Sources

Every claim here comes from the two reference pages that follow. Those were checked against the game's item text and dialogue as transcribed on the wiki.gg Eldenpedia and eldenring.directory; Fextralife is cited only where the sources disagree.

Made by Rian van der Merwe, with research help from Claude.