Elden Ring FULL Story Explained | Lore Recap Before DLC

From the One Great to the Shattering War, this Elden Ring Lore video aims to give a thorough overview of the game's main narrative and background lore. By explaining the main story we hope to provide players, old and new, a catchup before the Shadow of the Erdtree release.

Intro: 0:00
The Elden Ring: 1:25
Life and the Erdtree: 9:58
Ancient Dragons: 16:22
Crucible Era Civilisations: 23:14
Mountaintops of the Giants: 28:25
Crucible Warrior Culture: 37:01
The Erdtree Wars: 45:55
The Nox: 58:49
Early Erdtree Era: 1:08:01
Gloam-Eyed Queen: 1:12:01
Erdtree Faith: 1:22:22
The Long March: 1:27:56
Radagon and Fundamentalism: 1:33:58
Miquella and Malenia: 1:41:44
Night of the Black Knives: 1:54:17
The Shattering: 2:02:09
The Return of the Tarnished: 2:17:20

This is an extremely expansive video that looks at the entire story of Elden Ring including: The Shattering, Erdtree, Marika, Radagon, Godfrey, Ranni, Fia, Radahn, Malenia, Miquella, Morgott, Margit, Bernahl, Rykard, the Greater Will, Elden Beast, Godwyn and More!

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REFERENCES

Shout out to @TheAshenHollow for some of the Malenia Footage
Shout out to Lokey and Last Protagonist for their translations and insights

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Soundtrack is Demon's Souls, Dark Souls, Sekiro, King's Field and Elden Ring

I do not own the rights to Elden Ring, all rights to FromSoftware

#eldenring #shadowoftheerdtree #miquella

[SmoughTown]

Thank you everyone for watching my Elden Ring Story Summary - this has been my most ambitious video to date, so would love to hear your thoughts in the comments below.

[BaalFridge]

My dad's cat passed away yesterday, she had cancer. 2h30 minutes of Elden Ring lore is a +9 flask for my mind today. Thank you so very much.

[OldManMcLoyf]

I’m glad you blew up after Elden Ring, you cite other YouTubers a huge amount in your videos, shows you’re a stand up guy.

[jacobsnyder]

I work a double today, I prep meat and vegetables and have had nothing to listen to recently, I’m glad this came out, thank u smo.

[shawnwilcowski]

The community surrounding this game is amazing and full of thousands of insights a single person may never find, such an amazing flow of information and knowledge

[sudoggs]

Marika cursing the singular giant and calling him a "trfling giant" is not only an oxymoron but also shows how she views the eternal flame. Though it is anything but trifling, and the flame would go on to be a pivotal aspect of changing the Lands Between when we finally burn the Erdtree.

[revalone]

this is what i always wanted from someone just a basic rundown of the lore without going into why bungus scrungus knife had a relation with the fart of the gold wings

[polarfoxpat]

Oh boy, a 2 and a half hour long lore video, I know what to watch this evening

[heyitskuro]

Smough, you're an absolute legend. To see how fast you've reached 200k subs after just hitting 100k not too long ago, it's just beautiful. Almost a decade of making lore videos for us to enjoy. With the DLC coming out, I'm not only excited for the game, I'm also excited to see how your channel continues to grow and develop!

[pep]

I am a casual player who never played a souls game before or barely any game at all, after 1, 5 years and almost 150hrs i am still at 30% in elden ring. I never bothered understanding stats or using anything in my inventory, only thing i bother looking for online are your lore videos about a character after i defeat it. Very pleasing

[boris-dragosani]

At 17:23, you mention that Elden Beast and Plasidusaxu breathe golden fire. They aren't the only ones. The Tree spirits also breathe golden fire (when they aren't corrupted) and Melina's Blade of Calling flings golden fire. The ulcerated tree spirits are interesting as well, since they are Modelled after Níðhǫggr in Norse mythology and are primarily found around the Erd Tree's roots, the Erd Tree and Minor erd trees, which is where Níðhǫggr lives. Níðhǫggr eats the roots of Yggdrasil in Norse mythology, and is seen as evil, but in game I think they serve as a tree pruner. Eating diseased erd trees, and gnawing at the roots to support new growth for erd tree burial. Totally a crack pot theory, but I think it fits the world pretty well.

[maxderrat]

Thank you for this. I wish I had time to go back through Elden Ring all over again before June, but life isn't allowing me to do that. This is a great resource.

[eldric.stoneskin]

I think the Dragons representing Dinosaurs in the real world is fascinating, and is furthered by the fact that we still find the remains of Dinosaurs here on earth, who ruled before mammals in a wild kind of order, and have become fossilised and therefore turned to stone

A perfect parallel with the Dragons we find in the Lands between, who also ruled the lands between before the Golden order or “civilisation”, with their remind also having turned to stone as well

[jamesmurray]

Help me some guy gave me a talisman and now I’m underground and everything is covered in blood and the birds are weird and I’m scared

[SwedetasticGames]

Something worth pointing out, in regards of evidence that Godwyn's death clearly triggered Marika to shatter the Elden Ring, is that Godwyn and Ranni are pretty much one for one lifted from the tale of Balder (the God of Justice, who glowed with his own soft golden light due to his beauty) and Loki (half-Aesir and half frostgiant) from Norse mythology. Balder found a way to become invincible to forestall the prophecy of Ragnarök, and seething at this Loki, through cunning, learned that there was one exception: the mistletoe plant. So Loki tricked one of the other Aesir to use a mistletoe arrow during an event of Balder showing off his invulnerability for entertainment of his fellow gods, resulting in the instant death of the God of Light. The despair and dismay consuming the Aesir at this allowed Loki to innitiate the events of the Ragnarök prophecy.

Godwyn: fair, the most beautiful, the most just, and the kindest of the demigods.
Ranni: his half-sister, strong ties to ice magic, scheming, able to be ruthlessly cruel, pulling strings and using deception.
Marika: falls to despair at the death of her favorite child and the betrayal of one of her alter-egos offspring, initiating the Shattering and the resulting cataclysmic wars and tectonic changes leading to the remnants we Tarnished return too.

[CarelessVagabond]

Im an old-school Dark Souls vet... your videos are my bedtime story, brotha. I appreciate you for your work on Fromsoft games. They're my favorite and so are you..

[VLimit]

Just got through the video now since I was lucky enough to have an entirely free afternoon today. Incredible stuff, and that shoutout is, of course, massively appreciated 🙏
Looking forward to seeing your analysis of the DLC once that's out!

[DJBreton]

Thank you SmoughTown for this thorough, expertly crafted telling of a mysterious and enthralling lore. Elden Ring is one of my favorite games ever, and you have breathed new life into its depth and genius. Perfect for the upcoming return to the Lands Between. Cheers to you!

[mikaelbubbles]

1:48:18 Actually i think the reason that the broken needle of malenia is under the scarlet bloom is because when she stabbed herself in her fight with radahn, she was actually breaking it in order to release the scarlet rot. This would also explain why it's broken into two pieces when we find it.

[joelhughes]

I think the point of highlighting that Radagon was a mere champion is to force us to ask why Marika would choose Radagon as Elden Lord. The game gives us the answer by pointing to Radagon's red hair in nearly every description of him and the telling us through the Giant's Red Braid that red hair is a characteristic of the Giant's, and further that all Giants have an innate connection to the Fell God and rhe Fell God wields a power of destruction. Marika's previous husband was able to become a new person by gradting two preexisting individuals into one - so it is with Marika and Radagon. Marika notes a champion with red hair and already considering that she may eventually need the power to shatter the Elden Ring, if she remains unable to produce an Empyrean heir, marries and becomes one with Radagon. This gives her first another shot at producing direct heirs, second access to Ranni as a viable heir should this fail, and lastly a power she has never had before with Radagon's blood now flowing through her own veins. We need the flames of ruin to burn the Erdtree - maybe Marika needed to draw on the destructive power of the Fell God to shatter the Elden Ring. This is desperate strategy for Marika and a tragedy for Radagon, who wasn't selected as Elden Lord for his zeal or loyalty but rather the thing about himself he appears to be most ashamed of.