Elden Ring Lore: All Outer Gods Explained | What is the Greater Will? The Frenzied Flame? And More

The Outer Gods of Elden Ring, mysterious beings that work behind the scenes of the Lands Between. In this video, I explain everything we know about this ominous group!

If you enjoy, please subscribe and leave a comment or like! Lets me know that people want to see more of this kind of content.



Music:
Elden Ring OST - Limgrave, Great Underground Rivers, Altus Plateau, Subterranean Shunning-Grounds, Mountaintop of the Giants. Crumbling Farum Azula, Consecrated Snowfield, Miquella's Haligtree, Elphael, The Final Battle

#eldenring #lore #explained

TIMESTAMPS:
Intro: 0:00
Greater Will: 0:54
The Frenzied Flame: 3:49
The Formless Mother: 7:27
God of Scarlet Rot: 8:57
God of the Deathbirds: 11:35
The Fell God: 12:20
The God of the Dragons: 14:10
The "Moon": 15:06
Are the Outer Gods good?: 17:35
Final Dragon Note: 18:38

[sampson]

The moon is absolutely worshipped. There are Cresent moon symbols all over the game as well as the fact that those who oppose the golden order of the greater will of the sun, wear the metallurgical equivalent of the moon which is silver. Also there is a literal temple devoted to the moon in the game.

[gobstopper]

There’s actually one more god vaguely mentioned in game that you didn’t cover. In the descriptions of the crystalians, it mentions them waiting for their god to return to carve more of their kind out of crystal. Not much to go on, but maybe it’ll be expanded on in DLC

[SynthBro]

The map of lake of rot explains that the lake is the divine essence of the sealed outer god of rot

[Gargoyle]

The clan of wandering merchants was captured and locked away due to lies that were spread by Shabriri, a servant of the frenzied flame. Perhaps as a catalyst to create a vessel for the frenzied flame to manifest. And now the survivors of said merchants must wander forever, never to settle on one place for long, because if they do, the frenzied flame takes hold and they go mad.

[Audiodump]

Some extra thoughts
Formless Mother: It might be assumed that she is connected to the Omen, as Mogh's "accursed blood" is reference to his existance as an Omen. If this is true, she might also be connected to The Dung Eater. The Dung Eater, after all, emulates the Omen with his armor, wants to instill a bloodline curse, and frames his defilements as "Blessings". He might be a Paladin of the Formless Mother.

Scarlet Rot: I think a lot of info was overlooked here. Specifically Milicent, her sisters, and Gowry's quest. Gowry is thought by many to be either the god of rot itself OR a follower of it. He is using the Pest enemies as a vessel (attack him and he vanishes, leaving a dead pest instead and stating there are countless pests to inhabit), and we know the pests worship the rot. He also knows how to hold the rot at bay and is trying to manipulate circumstances to birth a goddess of rot (Malenia) along with "Scarlet Valkyries" in the form of Millicent and her sisters. Its possible this is also revenge against the blue swordsman, since he's infecting the swordsman's students.

Moon: The moon is very likely the God worshipped by the Nox within the eternal cities. The Nox have numerous references to the moon/Darkmoon and their armor references them waiting for their "Lord of Night". They are also the creator's of the fingerslayer blade and are said to have been sealed below the earth after invoking the ire of the greater will. It seems very clear that the "Moon" is the Lord of Night as the desires and actions of the Nox mirror those of Ranni, to the point that she uses their ancient weapon to complete their desired overthrowing of the greater will.

[qaztim]

I love how eldritch and lovecraftian the outer gods are while being completely different than lovecrafts interpretation of the same concept.
All of these ancients forces trying to force their way into this reality and using the demigods as proxy is a great fusion of lovecraft and more traditional fantasy aesthetics.

[jelloenjoyer]

The moon is an indeed an outter god. Think about how the stars were prophets of fate, a young astrologer walked their path and found the full moon, and with it became queen. The moon is what Ranni saw as she clasped her mother’s hand, but it the vision foretold of deep, dark, and cold. Ranni summons the moon in her ending, darkening while she speaks of walking a path of the unknown, as the chill grasp of loneliness stretches into the night. The stars are the moon’s envoys, following fate like the tails of passing comets. After they were sealed away, communion with the stars was no longer possible, explaining why worship of the night’s sky is no longer seen or at the very least common (see astrologer robes)(astrologers talisman). The moon also doesn’t enact it’s will directly, rather having people decide to follow or not. Not demanding worship. Not controlling people. No deception. Just the truth, as cold as it is, as bold as the full moon, forever distant but always seen by the people in the Lands-between. After we help Ranni, no longer is the power of godhood terrestrial as we walk far from what is known and man must now decide their own fate, watching and thinking wistfully at the beautiful moon.

[Gabranicus]

A "formless" deity with an affinity for blood... does that remind anyone else of Oedon from Bloodborn?

[thekinginyellow]

The Frenzied Flame seems not just to be a God of Madness, but of despair. Both Shabriri and the Great Caravan were pushed to despair by the minions of the Greater Will, and the Flame of Frenzy arrived in their eyes to offer them a chance to burn away all suffering.

The Frenzied Flame seems to work like the Age of Dark in Dark Souls, offering a chance to erase a stagnating system and to create a better world.

[josephburnside]

The voice acting in this game really doesn't get enough praise. The actresses (actress?) that voice Melina and Ranni are especially amazing, they really gave it their all.

[agm]

The god of frenzied flame might be Elden Ring's version of Hastur The King in Yellow since it's magick revolves around yellow flames that induce madness and not to mention the fact that the Three Fingers themselves kinda look like the most well known version of The Yellow Sign when they open to grab the Tarnished.

[geordiejones]

The roleplaying for this game is amazing. You can feel slighted by the Greater Will and hope to undermine them. You can be an agent of the Greater Will and choose to be one of vengeance against the Golden Order or one of unification. I think the Frenzied Flame and Greater Will are the split halves of an earlier unknown Outer God who both want the same thing but via opposite means. Marika can be seen as either the selfish queen who caused the Shattering or as someone smart enough to see the Elden Ring was being used for control and she wants to ensure that she's on top in the aftermath.

[semi-useful]

Given how Miquella has those bewitching branches and other mind control, he might be aiming to become an even more controlling Outer God than the Greater Will.

[Windowsprodukt]

An interesting point that's somewhat related: There is no sun in the sky in Elden Ring.

I might be wrong but I also don't remember seeing the moon until Ranni's quest had progressed quite a bit.

Thematically, the Frenzied Flame and Ranni's entity seems to be like the sun and the moon, with the more distant entities being the stars in the sky. (Especially fitting considering whatever Starscourge Radhan was up to)

We know very little about a lot of the outer gods, and they are written in such a way that there could be way more of them out there, hence "the stars in the sky".

[ivorymantis]

"Why is Mohg weak to bleed?"
_The Formless Mother desires wounds_
*Mohg surprised Pikachu face*

It's almost as if allying yourself to an Outer God makes you attune to them or something...

[Henriquevila]

I don't know if you have seen the mistranslations from japanise that surfaced this last weeks about the Stars Ending, I think it could give a better guidence for the Moon and theorys around it or give new insights maybe.

Just in case, in short, Ranni's ending dialog originally pointed not to give the Moon influence and new order over the lands, but its her invitation to help keep away the direct interfirence of the gods, so there's no direct subjulgation, interfirence nor literal physical manifestation of gods, therefore no alteration of natural order, like Marika did when she broke the Elden Ring.

[psychopathicporo]

To counter your thoughts on the moon having no motives, I would argue that the nature of Ranni's ending shows exactly what the moon would want, which is for no outer god to interfere with the lands between. I don't think it's a coincidence that the moon has no impact on the lands between, and that Ranni decides to leave the throne absent of a ruler for 1000 years.

[Leonesaurus]

Remember this: The Cathedral of Manus Celes.

Manus is essentially Latin for hand and Celes can either be a name based off the meaning for something heavenly or Celes can be short for Celestial. Now, what is the first thing you think of when the word celestial pops up in your head? Stars? Moon? Sun? The cosmos?

You can find the fingers controlling Ranni underground, beneath the Cathedral of Manus Celes. Her fingers could be what they named the chapel after which would literally translate from Latin into The Cathedral of the Celestial Hand.

Think about that.

[illeagle]

The Full Moon and Dark Moon are seperate entities, you can see two seperate moons in some areas. That's also why the spells have different properties

[BandofAdventurers]

When you look at the sky, in a certain location, you'll notice two moons. This secret moon is the moon Ranni talks about I believe.