After almost exactly two years, a new trailer for the highly anticipated Elden Ring was shown off at the end of the Summer Game Fest 2021 Kickoff Live event. This was the first glimpse at the new action-RPG developed by FromSoftware since it was revealed at E3 in 2019. Billed as an experience similar to Dark Souls, but in a larger open world, players have been eagerly awaiting more information. Although "big Dark Souls" is a bit reductive, the parallels in Elden Ring are certainly there, even with the nebulous information gleaned from the most recent trailer.

The player character in Elden Ring appears to be referred to as a "Tarnished," reminiscent of how the protagonists in the Dark Souls series have various titles - Chosen Undead, Bearer of the Curse, and Ashen One. Most of the new Elden Ring trailer was narrated by a cloaked woman who appears on screen roughly halfway through. Her first lines are "The Tarnished will soon return. Guided by grace once lost." - a hint that the Tarnished may have once existed in greater numbers, but were cast out of Elden Ring's society in some way.

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The cloaked woman also confirms that, in typical FromSoftware fashion, the Tarnished is afflicted by some sort of powerful curse. "They will fight. And they will die." points to another cyclical nature in the game world, canonizing the player's numerous expected deaths. These deaths are likely to come at the hands of an organization known as the Golden Order, which is "broken to its core." Elden Ring's Golden Order is mentioned only once in the trailer, but the repeated use of words like "lord" and "champion" point to the player's goal of usurping the Golden Order, who may be cornerstone bosses like Dark Souls 3's Lords of Cinder.

The Tarnished Is In Search Of The Elden Ring

Elden Ring Tarnished Sitting by Bonfire

Along with the voice of the cloaked woman, the Elden Ring trailer is narrated by two male voices. The first mutters, "Foul Tarnished... in search of the Elden Ring. Emboldened by the Flame of Ambition. Someone must extinguish thy flame." Acquiring the Elden Ring appears to be the Tarnished's objective, since it's a powerful artifact described as "that which commanded the stars, giving life its fullest brilliance" in the original reveal trailer for Elden Ring from 2019. That reveal trailer also mentions that the Elden Ring has been shattered.

Perhaps the destruction of the Elden Ring is the work of the Golden Order as part of their seizure of power. The shattering of the Elden Ring could certainly be synonymous with the Tarnished's "grace once lost," but the narrative remains largely a mystery. FromSoftware rarely explicitly tells the stories in its games, and this collaboration with author George R.R. Martin appears to be no different. Although some interesting details can be inferred from the new trailer, Elden Ring's narrative will most likely be pieced together from scouring the game after it's released.

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