Trying to piece together some Elden Ring Lore…
Some definitions mixed with speculations:
Elden Ring - Basically the natural laws of the land. Can be edited by the empyrean who chosen to brandish it. The person who brandishes the Elden Ring is a God, chosen by the Greater Will.
Empyrean - A demi-god (or just a being) being chosen as fit to be a God (not a God yet, but are the only ones able to pursue godhood).
Elden Beast - A physical manifestation of the Elden Ring. Landed after Metyr.
Metyr - The messenger and Translator of the Greater Will. “The abandoned Daughter”. Also the mother of the 2 fingers (and the fingercreepers).
The Greater Will - The “Creator” also a “fled God” was most likely the progenitor of all life in this world. It does not dwell on the earth. And has seemingly stopped sending messages to Metyr and her children.
Outer Gods - Other (possibly) cosmic beings working in opposition to the Greater Will (Perhaps competition?) Beings such as: The Frenzied Flame, The Formless Mother, The God of Scarlet Rot, The Nameless god of the twin bird and a few more…Like the Greater Will, these gods require vassals in order to enact their wishes
The Frenzied Flame - The antithesis of The Greater Will, embodies the idea of Chaos and destruction of order, return everything back to primordial soup, possibly paving the way to something new, something unimaginably different.
Two Fingers - Metyr’s children, relay Metyr’s wishes to those who understand them (the Finger readers). Originally thought to be the words of the Greater Will, it is revealed that Metyr hasn’t heard her mother’s voice in eons, and so the instructions that the fingers echo don’t come from the Greater Will.
Three Fingers - The messenger of the Frenzied Flame, also known as the reader-less fingers. It seems they communicate differently to the two fingers. Is it a seperate being to Metyr? Or is it meant to mimic them, similar to how Hyetta and Shabriri mimic Irina and Yura? The Fingerprint shield description states that the reader-less fingers left messages in the form of finger prints…possibly braille?
Finger maidens - members of the Golden order who fulfill the wishes of the Greater will by guiding the tarnished toward becoming Elden Lord. (most tarnished can’t see grace anymore so they actually need the guidance, unlike the player tarnished who could see it from the beginning).
Extra: Vyke and Bernhal’s maidens apparently needed to burn, but as shown with Bernhal’s maiden, her sacrifice was for naught, she couldn’t be kindling for the flames, this was a task that only Melina could enact. Vyke on the other hand, wanting to find another way, turned to the Frenzied Flame, the only other sure fire way to burn the Erdtree…Seems Marika wishes to be freed from the eternal cage of godhood, regardless of how it’s done, weather it’s by Ranni or The Frenzied Flame.
Extra: Hyetta wanted to become a finger maiden, but seemed to attract the attention of people who curse their existence, they would unsolicitedly offer her their eyes which give her a weak glimpse at a “distant flame”. Like Shabriri, I believe the frenzied flame used Irina’s corpse as a puppet in order to guide the tarnished, except they would find that this finger maiden leads not to becoming the Elden Lord, but instead to becoming the Lord of Frenzied flame.
Grace - The guidance of grace and the guidance of the fingers are different things. The Tarnished are those loyal to Godfrey, who in turn was Marika’s loyal Elden lord, the one who enacts her visions. It would make sense that Marika summons the Tarnished back to the lands between to follow HER wishes, not the Greater Will’s. Hence Grace leads our Tarnished to the Lands of the Giants after discovering that the Erdtree has barred its entrance, something the Fingers Freeze up about, as they have no clue what to do now, this wasn’t in their plan…
This links back to Metyr, she doesn’t know what the Greater Will wants anymore and has only been assuming. Everything Enia’s fingers had been saying were just assumptions made by Metyr.
Ultimately, the Tarnished (in my belief) were always Marika’s plan B, her means of escape, of rest, in case her vision of her world backfired. Marika, having gone through so much, almost being a husk by the end, but still being strung up and used as a vessel, wished for her reign to finally end, one last ‘fuck you’ to the Greater Will, the very thing that seduced her with notions of vengeance for her loved ones, only to betray her by turning her into its eternal puppet.
Sorry for the babble, this was some clarification for myself, but hopefully it helps or inspires others too. Elden Ring Lore is something I could ruminate on forever XD.
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