The main story, start to finish

Before you arriveThe Golden Order was built by locking Death away, and it broke the night someone stole it back.

Marika, a Numen from outside the Lands Between, was chosen by the Two Fingers, won the war against the giants, and became a god at the start of the Age of the Erdtree. Her Order replaced an older world, the Crucible, "where all life was once blended together." She took the Rune of Death out of the Ring and sealed it in her shadow Maliketh, which is why the Erdtree buries the dead and pulls them back into itself, and why she is "the Eternal." Godfrey, the badlands warrior Hoarah Loux, was her first husband and the first Elden Lord. When his wars were done and "the hue of Lord Godfrey's eyes faded," she stripped him and his warriors of grace and sent them across the fog. Those are the Tarnished.

Radagon, a red-haired champion of the Erdtree, married Rennala of the Carians after their wars, then left her to marry Marika and become her second Lord. His children by Rennala, Radahn, Rykard and Ranni, became "demigod stepchildren." Marika's children with Godfrey were Godwyn and the Omen twins. Marika and Radagon, being the same god, produced Miquella and Malenia.

Then the Night of the Black Knives. Ranni, an Empyrean (one of the few the Two Fingers could raise to godhood) who "would not be controlled by that thing," stole a fragment of Death from Maliketh and gave it to Numen assassins with "close ties with Marika herself." Godwyn's soul died and his body lived; Ranni's body died and her soul lived on in a doll. Deathroot spread through the roots from Godwyn's corpse. Then Marika took a hammer to the Ring. The opening cinematic gives the rest.

"The great Elden Ring was shattered. In our home, across the fog, the Lands Between. Now, Queen Marika the Eternal is nowhere to be found, and in the Night of Black Knives, Godwyn the Golden was first to perish. Soon, Marika's offspring, demigods all, claimed shards of the Elden Ring. The mad taint of their newfound strength triggered the Shattering. A war from which no lord arose. A war leading to abandonment by the Greater Will. Oh, arise now, ye Tarnished. Ye dead, who yet live."Opening narration

The narration names five Tarnished you will meet: Hoarah Loux, Goldmask, Fia, the Dung Eater, and Gideon. Then "one other, whom Grace would again bless. A Tarnished of no renown." That is you. The demigods warred to a standstill: Malenia's knights beat Godrick, Morgott held Leyndell as Margit, and Radahn and Malenia "locked in stalemate. Then, the scarlet rot blooms," and Caelid died.

LimgraveGrace points you at Stormveil, held by the weakest of Marika's children.

You wake in the Chapel of Anticipation and lose, or win, against the Grafted Scion; either way you drop into the Stranded Graveyard. At The First Step, Varré tells you that you are "maidenless" and sends you toward the castle. After three graces, Melina offers the accord: she will "play the role of maiden, turning runes into strength," and give you Torrent, if you take her to the foot of the Erdtree. Kalé sells you a crafting kit. Renna sits on the church wall at night with a bell. Blaidd howls from a tower in Mistwood.

Margit blocks the bridge: "Someone must extinguish thy flame. Let it be Margit the Fell!" He is Morgott, the Omen King, defending the capital in a borrowed name. Inside, Gostoc offers the side gate, Rogier waits in the chapel, Nepheli waits near the throne room, and Godrick waits with everyone's limbs grafted to his own. "I command thee, KNEEL! I am the lord of all that is Golden!" Enia's verdict afterwards is that he was "the runt of the litter, his divine blood sorely diluted."

The first grace outside Limgrave and the Weeping Peninsula, or a rest after trying Margit, brings Melina back to carry you to Roundtable Hold. Godrick's Great Rune is dead weight until you activate it at the Divine Tower of Limgrave, across the golem bridge east of the castle. Enia then gives the commission: "Seek another of its kind. To become Elden Lord, and restore the Golden Order."

Liurnia of the LakesThe Academy's queen is a grieving woman rebirthing children from an egg her husband left her.

The Academy needs a Glintstone Key, taken from the island where a dragon sleeps west of the gate. Inside, the students have turned on their master. Rennala "charmed the academy with her lunar magic, becoming its master," founded the Carian royal house, and married Radagon. When he left her for Marika "her heart went along with him. And then, those at the academy realised that Rennala was no champion, after all." She sits with an amber egg, the Great Rune of the Unborn, birthing "frail and short-lived" children out of it. Beating her does not kill her. She becomes the respec merchant and says one thing: "Oh little Ranni, my dear daughter. Weave thy night into being."

Liurnia is also where most of the NPC threads open. The Roundtable fills up. Ranni is at the Three Sisters behind Caria Manor once Royal Knight Loretta is down. Hyetta appears at Lake-Facing Cliffs if Irina has died. Rya has been robbed in a pavilion. Diallos is on a sunken roof over Lanya's body. Latenna is at the end of a crystal cave. Miriel the tortoise will explain all of it at the Church of Vows and absolve you of anything you regret.

CaelidRadahn holds the stars in place.

Caelid is the Shattering's worst wound. Radahn "fought Malenia and her rot to a standstill" in the Caelid wilds, she bloomed, and the region rotted. Now the general "gathers the corpses of former friends and foes alike, gorging on them, like a dog," as Jerren puts it. Redmane Castle holds a festival for anyone willing to give him a warrior's death. It starts when you touch any grace on the Altus Plateau or Mt. Gelmir, or when Ranni's vassals send you: Seluvis's letter to Sellen, who explains that "Starscourge Radahn's power holds back the stars," then a word to Blaidd or Iji.

Radahn learned gravity magic in Sellia "so he would never have to abandon his beloved but scrawny steed," and he "confronted the falling stars alone, and thus did he crush them, his conquest sealing the very fate of the stars." When he dies a star falls south of Mistwood, the Starfall Crater opens, and Nokron, the Eternal City, is reachable. The Fingerslayer Blade is in there, under the skeleton on its throne. Iji says it plainly: with Radahn gone, "the stars would once again resume their movement," and Ranni's fate unlocks.

Altus Plateau and LeyndellTwo Great Runes open the capital, and the capital's king is the Omen you already fought.

Leyndell's gate opens to anyone with two Great Runes who has been to the Hold. The plateau is reached by the Grand Lift of Dectus, with the medallion halves from Fort Haight and Fort Faroth, or on foot up the Ruin-Strewn Precipice past Magma Wyrm Makar. Touching any Altus grace starts the Radahn festival, moves Corhyn out of the Hold, opens the Dung Eater's room, and brings Yura to his last stand at the Second Church of Marika. Goldmask stands at the end of the Forest-Spanning Greatbridge, facing the tree.

Rykard is optional. Mt. Gelmir is the detour: Rykard, Praetor of Volcano Manor, "fed himself to the blasphemous serpent, Great Rune and all," and Tanith recruits Tarnished to kill Tarnished in his name. Killing him closes every open manor contract and sends the household away.

In Leyndell a golden shade of Godfrey stands in the road, and above the city Morgott waits at the Elden Throne. Melina and, if freed, the Dung Eater can be summoned. His opening speech lists his siblings, "Godrick the Golden, the twin prodigies Miquella and Malenia, General Radahn, Praetor Rykard, Lunar Princess Ranni. Wilful traitors, all," and ends "Felled by King Morgott! Last of all kings." He dies saying the truth he found first: "The Erdtree wards off all who deign approach. We are all forsaken. None may claim the title of Elden Lord."

Then you walk up to the tree and the thorns refuse you. Melina: "The thorns are impenetrable. A husk of the Erdtree's being; that spurns all that exists without." Her answer is the Forge of the Giants, "the flame of ruin, far above the clouds, upon the snowy mountaintops of the giants." "Think not, of the kindling. I shall see to that." She gives you the Rold Medallion. Enia says the Fingers have gone dormant.

Mountaintops of the GiantsThe Forge needs kindling, and the kindling is your maiden.

The Fire Giant is mandatory. The Grand Lift of Rold takes you up to him, "the last known survivor of the war against the giants," cursed by Marika when she found their forge could not be put out: "O trifling giant, mayest thou tend thy flame for eternity." A fell god "still lurks within the Fire Giants," and only that flame can burn the Erdtree.

At the Forge grace Melina asks whether you are ready to commit a sin. Say yes and she walks into the fire: "O Erdtree, you shall burn. Burn, for the sake of the new Lord. Thank you. For guiding me here." The Roundtable Hold burns from then on. You are dropped into Crumbling Farum Azula. Her last line is a warning for the ending: "The one who walks alongside flame shall one day meet the road of Destined Death."

There is another way, and Shabriri, wearing Yura's body at Zamor Ruins, will tell you about it: "If you inherit the flame of frenzy, your flesh will serve as kindling, and the girl can be spared." Do that before the Forge and Melina leaves you instead: "You are no longer fit. Our accord ends here. And remember, should you rise as Lord of Chaos, I will kill you. As sure as night follows day." The grace at the Forge then offers "Listen to the sounds of flame." Her plea, if you talk to her before: "Life endures. Births continue. There is beauty in that, is there not? Please, leave the frenzied flame alone."

Crumbling Farum AzulaThe tree stays shut until Death is let out of Maliketh.

Farum Azula "exists outside time," a city of the ancient dragons circling a storm. Dragonlord Placidusax, "Elden Lord in the age before the Erdtree," who "once his god was fled, continued to await its return," is an optional fight behind a hidden coffin. If you finished Bernahl's contracts and killed Rykard, he invades you beside the great bridge. Alexander asks for his last duel near the Dragon Temple lift.

At the top, the Beast Clergyman fights you, and at half health becomes Maliketh, the Black Blade. He is Marika's shadow, the vessel she needed "to lock away Destined Death," and his claw's item text says his former name "meant Death of the Demigods." He asks the question the game has been circling: "Witless Tarnished. Why covet Destined Death? To kill what?" And dies answering it: "Forgive me, Marika. The Golden Order cannot be restored."

Leyndell, Ashen CapitalThe Hold's master and the first Elden Lord are the last two Tarnished in your way.

Gideon waits in the Erdtree Sanctuary. "Ah, I knew you'd come. None shall take the throne. Queen Marika has high hopes for us. That we continue to struggle, unto eternity." He dies certain: "A Tarnished cannot become a lord. Not even you. A man cannot kill a god."

Beyond him, Godfrey has come home. "It's been a long while, Morgott. Long and hard didst thou fight, Tarnished warrior. Spurned by the grace of Gold. Be assured, the Elden Ring resteth close at hand. Alas, I am returned." At half health he tears Serosh off his back: "Thou didst me good service, Serosh. ... Now I fight as Hoarah Loux! Warrior!" Beaten, he gives you the only blessing in the game that sounds like one: "Brave Tarnished, thy strength befits a crown." Nepheli, if she took Stormveil, and Shabriri, if you took the flame, can be summoned.

Inside the ErdtreeRadagon is Marika, and the Elden Beast is the Ring.

Marika hangs broken in the tree. She was the one who did this, with a hammer "made in the lands of the Numen." In the Queen's Bedchamber you hear her say: "O Radagon, leal hound of the Golden Order. Thou'rt yet to become me. Thou'rt yet to become a god. Let us be shattered, both. Mine other self." Radagon is the half that wanted to fix it. He fights with her hammer.

When he falls, the Elden Beast rises: "the vassal beast of the Greater Will and living incarnation of the concept of Order." It is the beast the Greater Will sent in a golden star, which "would later become the Elden Ring." The Sacred Relic Sword forged from it afterwards is "wrought from the remains of a god who should have lived a life eternal. Some consider it the mark of a great sin." Then you stand before Fractured Marika and choose.

Off the pathMohg, Malenia and the Three Fingers are optional. They are also where the endings branch.

Mohg, Lord of Blood lives in Mohgwyn Palace, reached by Varré's medal or a hidden waygate in the frozen west of the Consecrated Snowfield. He has Miquella's cocoon and greets you in its chamber: "Dearest Miquella. You must abide alone a while. Welcome, honored guest, to the birthplace of our dynasty!" At half health his Nihil ritual bleeds the whole arena; Eleonora's Purifying Crystal Tear blunts it. The grace that appears after him is called Cocoon of the Empyrean.

Malenia is at the bottom of Elphael, under Miquella's Haligtree. Getting there takes both halves of the Haligtree Secret Medallion, from Albus in the Village of the Albinaurics and from Castle Sol after Commander Niall, then "Hoist Secret Medallion" at the Grand Lift of Rold, then the Ordina evergaol: light four candles while invisible Black Knife Assassins hunt you, with a Sentry's Torch to show them. "I am Malenia. Blade of Miquella. And I have never known defeat." Her flower afterwards is where the Unalloyed Gold Needle becomes Miquella's Needle.

The Three Fingers are under the Shunning-Grounds. Once Morgott is dead the Cathedral of the Forsaken opens; kill Mohg the Omen there, strike the illusory wall at the back behind the altar, and descend the catacomb below. Hyetta waits at the door. Take off all your armour to open it. Inside, the Three Fingers embrace you and every other ending is locked, unless you carry Miquella's Needle to Placidusax's arena in Farum Azula and use it there. Millicent's gold-sign path is the only way to that needle.

After the Elden BeastSix endings. Two of them ignore the Ring altogether.

Four endings mend the Ring with you as Elden Lord and differ by which Mending Rune you carry. One replaces Marika with Ranni. One burns everything. Ranni's sign overrides any rune you hold, and the Frenzied Flame overrides everything unless you have cured it.

Before you rest at a new graceEvery trigger, and what it does.

Read the row before you cross the line. "Moves" means the character relocates and nothing is lost. "Locks" means a step is gone for this cycle.

Where the sources disagreeEight points the guides do not settle the same way.

• Fia's Weathered Dagger: Fextralife ties it to the Radahn festival, other guides to reaching Altus. Both are right, because an Altus grace is a festival trigger.
• How many manor contracts Diallos needs before he leaves: one, two, or three depending on the source. Rykard's death covers every case.
• Where the Dung Eater's five curses are handed in: Fextralife says the Hold, Eldenpedia and Game8 say his cell. Whether burning the Erdtree breaks his quest is also disputed; finish it first.
• Whether killing Mohg before Varré's invasion forfeits Varré's rewards: Fextralife says yes, Eldenpedia has no record. Fight Varré first.
• How many invisible assassins Ordina's evergaol holds: one, two, or four depending on the guide. It does not change the approach, which is to bring a Sentry's Torch and light the four candles rather than fight.
• How many Seedbed Curses exist: five or six depending on the source; five is what the Dung Eater needs.
• Ranni's Great Rune: Gideon says she "is said to have cast aside" hers; no item text confirms it.
• Who sends grace, Marika or the Two Fingers, and whether Marika planned the Shattering: not stated in the base game. Every source that says otherwise is theorising.