One of the best Souls-like games to be dropped by FromSoftware so far, Elden Ring is by far the best thing they’ve ever made. From an absolutely gigantic map full of side-quests, dungeons, sub-bosses and all sorts of distractions to a twisting story filled with some genuinely great designed characters. It’s all just very, very good.
A lot of work went into making the game, especially from the lore and mythology teams who likely had a nightmare working with George R.R. Martin, but they pulled it off. The mythology of the game alone pulls deeply from some interesting wells and it’s worth diving into it for a while. So here’s everything you need to know about the mythology of Elden Ring.
What Mythology Is Elden Ring Based On?
If we were to metaphorically crack open Elden Ring and its design document like a metaphorical onion. Then peel back the various layers of design and art choice, we can start to piece together where a lot of the creatures, locations and overall style came from.
Although it’s worth noting that whilst you could put together a multi-page dissertation on all the symbolism, cultural touchstones and other mythological and historical references, we’ll be keeping things surface level for brevity’s sake.
The Celtic Connection
From the outset, whilst there’s no one specific mythology that Elden Rings focuses on, it does seem to primarily feature a medieval European setting. Lifting styles and armor from up and down the timeline of history. But if we were to drill into the mythology section, we would find that the various names, descriptions, and proverbial ‘fluff’ pull mostly from a mix of old Irish and Celtic myths.
As an example, the fire giants resemble the Irish Fomorians, a race of towering beings that settled in Ireland. There’s also the redheaded family that rules and the little hints of faeries, twisting trees that resemble Deirdre of the Sorrows, an old tale of two lovers that had twisting trees above their graves. There's also The Golden Beast Crest Shield, which looks like a Celtic Battersea Shield.
Plus, everything has two names or more than one. A constant in old Celtic storytelling where someone has to learn the ‘True Name’ of something to gain power over it. There’s also Elemer of the Briar, who bears a resemblance to the Red Branch Knights of old Irish mythology. These men fought for the Kingdom of Ulster and in the description he comes from a land known as Eochaid. Which itself is a name used by a lot of old Irish Kings.
A Sprinkling of Somewhere Else
Whilst it is a purely Celtic core rocking away at the heart of Elden Rings art design. There are also notes of other mythologies from around the world. For example, alongside all the lovely Irish and Celtic stuff there are dabbings of Japanese shinto-ism and Christianity.
For example, the prevalent use of crosses and a ‘special magic family’ impacting everyone, but taken to the Nth degree. The use of swords to mark graves or the importance of warriors, which was an old Norse Viking tradition.
Speaking of Vikings, we’ve got a fair amount of old Norse lore here and there as well. The Erdtree being a reference to Yggdrasil the World Tree as the most obvious and sparkly example. We’ve also got a healthy dollop of all the tasty stuff from Berserk since Miyazaki is a fan, as well as references to works by the ‘other Miyazaki’. So the whole thing is a bit of a melting pot of cross-cultural goodness.
Why Is Elden Rings Mythology So Mixed?
So whilst Elden Ring has some core mythologies wrapped up in its center to hold it all together, it is safe to say that the entire game dips into a lot of different cultures and mythos. But why?
In short, its good game design. They found things that looked cool throughout history and various cultures and decided to incorporate them into their game. There’s a little bit of everything because there’s always something cool, some great story, some astrological tale, or just really unique and lost designs that can be pulled from and they did.
Plus, the Lands Between is implied to be visited by people from other places around the world, mainly other FromSoftware game locations. So that’s why you’ll encounter Samurai, Teutonic Knights, Norse Barbarians, and everything in between on your travels.
It’s implied heavily throughout Elden Ring that just off over the horizon are the lands where Dark Souls and Bloodborne are kicking off.
