Elden Ring: Theories and Connections to Other FromSoftware Games

Amidst the complex and obscure lore of FromSoftware's games, a theory emerged that gained considerable traction within the gaming community. The theory suggests that the universes of the various FromSoftware games are connected, that is, there’s a multiverse where Dark Souls, Elden Ring and Bloodborne are part of a whole.

In fact, the conceptual similarities between these games are remarkable, especially the titles that address medieval fantasy, such as Demon’s Souls and Elden Ring. There’s always a greater force governing these worlds (First Flame, Great Ones, Pristine Ring), an endless cycle that needs to be broken, and an unnamed protagonist destined to end this cycle.

In this article, we propose that Elden Ring, FromSoftware's most recent and most well-crafted title, will be the center of this multiverse, demonstrating how the game's various endings can connect with other Souls-like titles.

The Frenzied Flame is the First Flame

The Frenzied Flame is a cosmic entity in Elden Ring that emerges as a way out of the endless cycle created by Marika with the Golden Order. Marika shaped the world so that death would no longer exist, a world where all prospered, guided by the Empyreans. However, she herself caused the destruction and ruin of this dream realm and all the consequences that came with the fragmentation of Elden Ring.

In this ending, the Tainted One is possessed by the Frenzied Flame, a yellowish, uncontrolled flame that consumes the entire world, including the Earthtree, turning everything to ash so that from these ashes something new can emerge.

This is precisely the beginning of Dark Souls: a gray world where disparity no longer exists, ruled by eternal dragons, until the First Flame emerges, a magnificent power that attracts beings who until then lived in the shadows, thus giving rise to Gwyn, Nito, and other central characters in Dark Souls.

It's possible that, in burning the world, the tainted one merged with the Frenzied Flame, creating a new flame, bringing chaos to the world of Elden Ring in the form of life, death, light, darkness, and all the duality that exists in Dark Souls. The ancient dragons remaining in the world of Elden Ring would survive the fire and inherit the world once again, and the seeds of the Darktree could blossom into gigantic trees, as seen at the beginning of the Souls series.

The original Souls trilogy revolves around a cycle of life, a natural course between light and darkness. The Frenzied Flame suggests exactly this.

The Age of Stars

Ranni's ending can be reached by following the character's questline, where the world ends up being ruled in an era guided by the stars and the cosmos. This cosmic atmosphere is very reminiscent of what we see in Bloodborne, where the world is shaped by alien beings connected to the moon and the stars.

During her childhood, Ranni had contact with the Dark Moon, which is possibly a god in the world of Elden Ring. In the game's universe, there are several external gods, such as the Greater Will, the Scarlet Rot, and the Dark Moon.

In Bloodborne, the final boss is the Moon Presence, an entity that rules the Hunter's Dream and is primarily responsible for the events that unfold in the base game.

The Age of Twilight

There’s another ending where it’s possible to restore the Death Rune, which had been separated from the Elden Ring and imprisoned by Marika. This results in the Twilight ending, where the world is shrouded in mist and the dead are integrated into the Golden Order.

Initially, Marika sealed the Death Rune to create a world where the gods could live eternally. During the events of the Night of the Black Knives, the Death Rune is stolen and a demigod is killed. By restoring the rune to its original location, the Tainted One creates a new world where life and death are part of the same whole, and a mist appears.

In Demon's Souls, the world is fragmented and shrouded in a dark mist. Death is an important part of the game's lore, as souls are essentially a form of currency and shape the economy and stability of the world. Demon's Souls is the first Souls-like game to establish several concepts used in later titles.

Perhaps the Twilight ending spawned the world of Demon's Souls, with the latter being a future version of Elden Ring in that ending. The Old One, the entity that rules the world of Demon's Souls, may be an incarnation of the Prince of Death Rune, a rune spawned by Fia at the end of Twilight.

There are also other very interesting connections in the game. Such as the formless god worshipped by Mohg and from whom he draws blood powers, something very similar to what we see in Bloodborne.

The Frenzied Flame is worshipped by several NPCs in the game, and all of them have their eyes gouged out or blindfolded, just as we see with some NPCs in Dark Souls and Bloodborne. The Firekeeper in Dark Souls 3 is blindfolded, as are several characters in Bloodborne, either to receive a hidden vision or to prevent unwanted visions.

This concludes another article. Leave your questions, suggestions, criticisms, and/or compliments in the comments. Thank you for reading, and see you next time.