Characters / Elden Ring: Outer Gods

Elden Ring Main Character Index
Main Characters (The Tarnished | Marika) | Roundtable Hold | Secondary Characters (Renowned Ashes) | Outer Gods | Demigods (Godfrey | Morgott | Mohg | Radahn | Rykard | Ranni the Witch | Malenia) | Enemies and Bosses (Dragons | Liurnia of the Lakes | Recurring Enemies and Bosses | Tarnished Invaders and Targets)

The Outer Gods

WARNING: UNMARKED SPOILERS

Unseen and phenomenally powerful entities from outside the world, said to be similar in nature and might to the Greater Will. Few mortals are aware of their existence; those who do call them "outer gods" of various different motifs. Greater in strength and power, even beyond Marika and her ilk, these entities have exerted their influence ever since the ancient history of Lands Between, and some are still trying to expand their reach even further. Unseen and acting through proxies and catspaws, they nevertheless wield tremendous influence over the setting of Elden Ring and its plot and backstory. Many of them act as rivals to the Greater Will, and some have direct influence in some of the game's Multiple Endings.

The exact number and identity of the outer gods is impossible to determine, due to occasionally conflicting information in the lore, plus the Golden Order having actively sought to erase or distort the knowledge of its rivals. Nevertheless, the following deities can be reasonably identified:

• The Greater Will itself, the higher power that bestowed the Elden Ring, the Erdtree, and the Golden Order the tree imposes, who guided Marika before the Shattering.
• The Dark Moon, an entity associated with glintstone sorceries and the night sky, and the only outer god whom the Greater Will has an explicit alliance with.
• The Scarlet Rot, described as "Rot itself", a manifestation of disease, decay, and rebirth.
• The Frenzied Flame, an entity associated with madness and chaos that is hated and feared across the Lands Between.
• The Formless Mother, also known as the "Mother of Truth", a being of formless burning blood that is worshipped by the Bloody Fingers.
• Death, an entity affiliated with ghostflame, blackflame, and undeath who sent a "twinbird" as its envoy in ages past.
• The "fell god" of the giants, a once-great entity associated with fire whose influence over the Lands Between was mostly wiped out when Marika annihilated its servants, the giants.

Technically speaking, the term "outer god" occurs only six times in the game's script^note On the descriptions of the Unalloyed Gold Needle, Miquella's Needle, the Scorpion's Stinger, the Map of the Lake of Rot, Mohgwyn's Sacred Spear, and the Twinbird Kite Shield. and is a label only applied to four entities: the Formless Mother, the Scarlet Rot, the Frenzied Flame, and Death. The Fell God isn't straight-up called such, but it is called an "ancient god", a label also applied to outer gods. Other beings with similar attributes are included on this page for convenience.

Due to the outer gods' presence, nature, and motives being central to the history of the setting and the plot of the game, all spoilers involving them are unmarked, so tread carefully.

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In General

Tropes applying to most or all of the outer gods:

• Above the Gods: While they are not invincible or all-powerful (one of them was defeated by a mortal), the game makes it clear their strength is far above the demigods and supposed "one true god" Marika (who is herself empowered by a similar being). The Scarlet Rot can ascend an Empyrean to the rank of God in Truth while imprisoned and the Formless Mother and Death can do this too. And the Frenzied Flame is even more powerful. Its unleashed strength can destroy the world and split the Erdtree. This provides a solid link to them, the Greater Will and the Dark Moon the only other beings confirmed to have such power.
• Ambiguous Situation:
  • Whether or not the One Great described by Hyetta, speaking on behalf of the Frenzied Flame, even exists, and if it does, whether or not it is an outer god. Hyetta describes it as the original form of life in Lands Between, fractured and divided into various lifeforms due to a mistake from the Greater Will. However, there is no information whatsoever about One Great's nature of being, as it is only hinted as an outer god because of circumstantial clues and the fact its state of being is a concern of the Frenzied Flame, which is definitively an outer god.
  • Due to the Greater Will actively suppressing knowledge of any god it deems a rival (which seems to be all of them save for the Dark Moon and to a certain extent the Scarlet Rot), much of the information regarding the outer gods is ephemeral, contradictory, or clearly flavored with a negative bias from the viewpoint of the Greater Will's followers. In particular, beyond the One Great, it's also ambiguous whether there truly is a singular being affiliated with death or whether separate-but-similar entities are behind the likes of the Deathbirds, the blackflame, and Those Who Live in Death. Likewise, little reliable information about the fell god of the giants remains. Some of the known outer gods might actually be the same entity under different titles and guises.
• Blue-and-Orange Morality: All of them to a lesser or greater degree:
  • The Greater Will seems to be mostly good, but how much of that is colored by the perception of its human followers is ambiguous. It abandoned the Lands Between for reasons unknown once Marika defied it, and it also ambiguously tolerates the Scarlet Rot's intercession in its affairs, despite the fact that the Will's own followers view being infected with Rot as a Fate Worse than Death.
  • The Dark Moon's affiliation with Eldritch Abominations like the fallingstar beasts and Astel paints it as horrifying by the Earth-like standards of the Lands Between, but it seems to view those creatures as little more than animals. Its glintstone grows and consumes surrounding land and life, and both the starborne beasts and the glintstones were apparently sent to the Lands Between by accident, or at least not deliberately. The closest it seems to get to intentionally interacting with mortals is providing means to encourage self discovery and that only if said mortals contact it first.
  • The Scarlet Rot and its followers seem to consider the horrible fates inflicted on those with Scarlet Rot — their flesh rotting, their mind decaying, their soul withering — as some sort of baptism so they can be reborn into their kindred. In particular, Sage Gowry believes Millicent being consumed by her rot due to despair and becoming a scarlet rot flower to be utterly "magnificent" with no malice whatsoever, finding it a joyous occasion. Despite Malenia and Millicent being the two proxies it works through during the events of the game, both of them hate the Rot and seek to throw off its influence — something that the outer god doesn't seem to mind, or even be aware of. Notably, the fact that the Rot-blessed Malenia was named Empyrean by the Two Fingers indicates the Greater Will, or at least its envoys, do not view the Scarlet Rot's motives and methods negatively.
  • The Frenzied Flame views all life as an aberration created by the Greater Will, and seeks to return life to its original, singular state — an act which would necessitate the destruction of every living thing, from humans to plants and animals and even fungi and microorganisms. Its adherents view this as a good thing, and they also willingly allow the Flame to blind them as it fills them with esoteric knowledge, offering their pus-filled eyes as "grapes" to Hyetta in order to inflict her with the Flame's madness, a fact which initially disturbs her but which she soon grows to relish.
  • The Formless Mother relishes in pain and agony, not only in the inflicting of it in others but in herself; her incantations involve maiming her ^note somehow, as she is without form as her epithet implies and allowing her blood to manifest in the mortal realm. She "blesses" her champion Mohg with burning blood, a fate that seems agonizing yet which both the Mother and Mohg himself view positively, and bestowed the same upon Mohg's twin Morgott, a fate Morgott never asked for. This is especially bizarre as Morgott is an impossibly devout follower of the Golden Order, who is otherwise unaffiliated with her in any way. Notably for the Formless Mother, while her followers will typically inflict blood loss when they attack their foes, she does not grant immunity to blood loss the same way those inflicted with Scarlet Rot are immune to it: Wounds are sacred to her.
  • Death has the most obscure motivations despite its prominence, as it has had multiple factions of followers throughout history. The Deathbirds appear to hold "death" as sacred, seeing as they devote their lifetime to burn the remains of the dead and rake their ashes, but the birds were also known to make pacts with priests who swore to become their guardians in exchange for a "distant resurrection", which mean they are not particularly against resurrections. The Godskin Apostles are known to hunt gods and their kin (Erdtree champions in particular), to the point of flaying their flesh and stealing their Incantations as trophies, but their attitude toward other powers and races in the Lands Between is largely unknown.
  • The fell god of the giants is the only one to which this doesn't apply, simply because almost nothing is known about it. What little is understood is that it both inhabited the giants and enslaved them, and both parties viewed this as a benevolent act.
• The Chooser of the One: The outer gods are shown to be able to alter the destiny of individuals of their choosing, in much the same manner the Greater Will uses its emissaries the Two Fingers to choose individuals to be its Empyreans to bear the Elden Ring.
  • After studying the stars, various sorcerers encountered "Moons" which guide them using the very stars. The Carian royal family in particular was granted knowledge about various truths of the universe and the Sorceries they wield, eventually culminating with Ranni, who is able to channel the Dark Moon with her Sorcery. Radahn's action of blocking falling stars and the light of the distant stars had halted this for a while, but his defeat allows the Dark Moon to once again guide Ranni.
  • The Frenzied Flame first appeared to the people of Great Caravan due to their despair and curse for the world, and sent its emissary the Three Fingers to choose individuals with the potential of becoming its divine manifestation — the Lord of Chaos. Shabriri is also granted the ability to Body Surf corpses so he can continue preaching about its influence.
  • The Scarlet Rot foregoes using any emissary, as it blessed Malenia directly in the womb with Rot. It's unclear what factors allowed it to do so, given most instances of outer gods directly blessing individuals generally happen because said individuals encountered, contacted, or attracted their attention in some way, and Malenia certainly was unable to as a fetus. There are a number of factors which might explain this^note as Malenia was born from Marika and Radagon — who are the same person — which Goldmask implicitly calls an imperfection in the Golden Order, it is possible the twins born of them are not under Erdtree's Grace and thus ripe for outer gods to directly influence; it is also possible Greater Will does not view Scarlet Rot in an antagonistic manner like it does outer gods of fire, and thus has no issue with the Rot blessing Malenia — as despite Malenia's Rot being a great danger to everything around her since birth, the Two Fingers still chose her to be a candidate for Empyrean, but none of them can be confirmed.
  • The Formless Mother came to Mohg as a child and taught him how to draw upon her power through Blood Incantations. She later tasked him with kidnapping one of the Empyreans so she could corrupt them with her blood into a vassal, whom Mohg could wed to become "the Lord of Blood".
  • In ancient times, Destined Death granted the Gloam-Eyed Queen a power sharing its epithet, though it is unclear if the Queen began hunting for the immortal gods and their kin from her own prerogative or the outer god's. In the modern day, it seems to have seized the Rune of Death used to kill Godwyn to transform him into the Prince of Death, making him another champion despite the fact that he is, well, dead.
  • Dragonlord Placidusax was Elden Lord in an age before Godfrey and Marika, suggesting that he and his spouse were chosen as the Greater Will's foremost emissaries. Notably, despite his god^note Not "outer god", so presumably a deity similar to Marika. having fled the Lands Between in the aftermath of most of the dragons abandoning it for loyalty to Marika's Golden Order, Placidusax is said to be stalwartly awaiting its return.
• Contrasting Sequel Antagonist: To the Great Ones. The Great Ones were compelled to interfere with mankind by the surprisingly sympathetic desire of "adopting" them to replace the children they could never have naturally, and much of Yharnam's descent into madness was the result of them horribly underestimating how incapable mankind was of grasping their true nature. Despite in many ways being even more eldritch and unfathomable than the Great Ones, the Outer Gods appear to be be entities that embody concepts that manifest in the human mind (I.E. the Greater Will representing order, the Frenzied Flame championing chaos) or natural concepts humans can recognize (Death, disease, blood, and flame) and thus have a far easier time communicating with and convincing humans to serve them, but do so far more callously.
• Clap Your Hands If You Believe: At least a few of them appear to be empowered by faith and worship in some way. One of them (the Frenzied Flame) awakened in the Lands Between by a curse of despair chanted by the people of the Great Caravan upon losing their cherished home. The influence of the fell god seems tied to their followers, with the fell god's influence waning considerably when the giants were wiped out.
• The Corruption: At least four of the outer gods (the Dark Moon, the Scarlet Rot, the Frenzied Flame, and Death) have their essences manifest as forces which can corrupt Lands Between and its inhabitants to varying degrees. See their individual folders for more.
• Color Motif: Just like the Greater Will is heavily associated with gold and the Dark Moon with blue, some of the other Outer Gods are associated with red:
  • Scarlet Rot is called such due to its vivid scarlet color — most notably Caelid and the Lake of Rot being heavily tinted in almost all aspects. It also generally goes together with muted, organic colors that show up on the plants/mushrooms that accompany its influence.
  • Yellow is heavily associated with the Flame of Frenzy. Many of its items are yellow and it's directly called the "yellow flame of frenzy".
  • Death is associated with black, white, yellow and red. The seeming purest form of Death, wielded through the fragments of the Rune of Death in the blades of Maliketh and the Black Knife Assassins, displays red surrounded by black, as does the Rune of Death itself when unbound from Maliketh. The Black Flame incantations and Ghostflame sorceries derived from it conjure black fire with ashen grey. White is the color used in its Incantations and Sorceries and the outfits of the Godskin Cult. Finally, Deathblight is a sickly yellow shade fitting for its association with Godwyn the Golden.
  • The Formless Mother and the weapons/spells that derive from her and her cult are represented by a deep, bloody shade of red with some black mixed in.
  • The fell god is associated with the rich orange-red of forge flames.
  • While primarily associated with gold, the Greater Will has a subtle connection to red too. Specifically in the form of the Primordial Crucible (the form the Erdtree took before the Golden Order) which is linked with red-tinged gold. The red lightning of Ancient Dragons (one of whom is the Elden Ring's previous wielder) may be linked to the Greater Will too as it is noted to be tinged with gold.
• Cosmic Chess Game: They seem to be in a struggle with each other to spread their influence across the Lands Between, and mostly do so by using native inhabitants of the realm as proxies:
  • The Greater Will has exerted the most direct influence over the Lands Between, to the point that its Golden Order serves as the basis for the laws of reality itself. Raising Marika to godhood and gifting her the Elden Ring to cement her power, it directed her to war against the giants, servants of an outer god. It tolerated reverence for the Moons done by the Liurnians (likely because they had initiated conversation with the Dark Moon, rather than the other way around) and, for whatever reason, also either allowed the Scarlet Rot to bless Malenia in the womb with its Rot or took no steps to curtail its influence, even naming her an Empyrean. The Greater Will's hold on the Lands Between has started to slip as Marika, its foremost servant, rebelled against it and shattered the Elden Ring. Having abandoned the Lands Between due to Marika's betrayal, it is poised to be usurped by outer gods, which indeed is possible for the Dark Moon, the Frenzied Flame, and Death in some of the game's Multiple Endings. In the base ending, the Golden Order is established as-is with the Player Character as Elden Lord; the Age of Order ending establishes a modified version of the Golden Order in which gods like Marika are no longer allowed to act as they please. The Blessing of Despair ending establishes a twisted return of the Golden Order stained by the Dung Eater's Seedbed Curse, in which all present and future generations will be barred from returning to the Erdtree.
  • The Dark Moon is rather unique compared to the Greater Will or the others with known influence in Lands Between, in that it doesn't seem to be actively spreading its influence. The phenomenon of its falling stars hitting Lands Between seems to occur naturally, as the Dark Moon didn't make its existence known to the ancient humans who discovered its Glintstones until after the ancient astrologers developed Sorcery using the stones and then encountered it in their studies of stars. After that, its influences are through guiding moonlight and very personal in nature to each individual seeking its guidance, as the likes of Ranni, Azur, Lusat and various others were all inspired with different Sorceries from it. Even the star spawn creatures rising from its meteors are not implied to be directed or guided by it, instead evolving and gaining traits based on where they landed in Lands Between, with equal chances of becoming either sapient and civilized beings like Alabaster and Onyx Lords or animalistic and calamitous forces like fallingstar beasts and Astel. The Dark Moon can assume influence over the Lands Between in place of the Greater Will if the player pursues the Age of the Stars ending, but even that is largely due to the machinations of Ranni and the Player Character and Ranni's descriptions imply that the Dark Moon's influence on the world will not extend further than keeping other Outer Gods at bay.
  • The Scarlet Rot once had an attempt to spread its influence at some point in history, but was halted under unknown circumstances and now a part of its essence is sealed beneath the Lake of Rot, turning it into the hellish pit it is now. Even so, it doesn't stop creatures of rot from being born there, nor does it stop madmen from forming the Order of Rot to worship the Scarlet Rot, mutate themselves and others into rot creatures, and facilitate its spread. It also "blessed" Malenia in the womb with the Rot, and the main goal of the Order of Rot (and, implicitly, the god they worship) is to get either Malenia or her daughter Millicent to embrace the Rot within and "bloom," becoming true avatars to the Scarlet Rot. Interestingly, the fact that the Greater Will took no steps to prevent the Scarlet Rot from infecting Malenia and that its envoys declared her an Empyrean indicates that it may not view Scarlet Rot as an enemy — for whatever reason.
  • The Frenzied Flame first appeared prior to the Shattering to Shabriri and the Great Caravan who fell to despair when they were buried alive underground for their heretical beliefs. Unlike the others known to influence Lands Between, the Frenzied Flame isn't keen on forming a cult, but instead dedicates its chosen ones to spread the corrupting flame of madness to other life and to spread chaos across the land against any form of order, chiefly being the Golden Order which Marika imposed. Its end goal is fairly vague, with those who possess insight to its nature claiming it desires to destroy all life on this world so these lifeforms can return to their original primordial form called the "One Great", but whatever it wants, it involves burning the entire world with Frenzied Flame. Although the servants of other outer gods have succeeded in sealing away its envoy, the Three Fingers, it can still get its wish if the Player Character meets with the Fingers and takes in the Frenzied Flame, becoming the Lord of Chaos.
  • During the Shattering wars, Mohg contacted an entity he calls "Formless Mother" and "Mother of Truth" in the hopes of resurrecting Miquella as his divine consort and foundation of his dynasty. She complied, granting him the knowledge to invent Blood Magic incantations derived from her blood and Mohg formed a cult to spread bloodshed to harvest enough blood as sacrifices to resurrect Miquella. Her blessing of Mohg's reluctant twin Morgott, and the apparent failure of Miquella to be resurrected, may indicate that the Formless Mother has greater plans than Mohg realizes.
  • The Deathbirds are mothered by a "twinbird" envoy of an outer god associated with death. They were once prominent prior to the Age of the Erdtree, comparable to psychopomps in role and described as keepers of "ghostflames" which burn the remains of the dead into ashes. They are considered malevolent deities by the Golden Order, which contributed to their fading into obscurity. This being is heavily implied to be the same entity who gave the Gloam-Eyed Queen and the Godskin their black flame of Death, given the Ghostflame Sorcery which Death Rite Birds use, and Fia's Mist developed from Godwyn's power (which in turn was a stolen portion of Destined Death Maliketh took from the Godskin) are considered the same category of Sorcery, with both receiving buffs by Prince of Death's Staff (also derived from Godwyn). Its motivations are by and large a mystery, because the Deathbirds have largely gone into hiding, the Godskin cult might not necessarily represent the outer god's motives as much as they do their Queen's, and the spread of Deeproot being possibly accidental as it spreads only through Godwyn's body which was buried under the Erdtree, while Ranni's body has no such mutation.
  • The Fire Giants were heavily implied to have built a civilization who worshipped and borrowed the power of a "fell god" which dwells in their flames and their very bodies, and this is heavily implied to be the reason why Marika and her Empire were ordered by the Greater Will to eradicate them. Though it's never explicitly referred to as an outer god, the fact the flame within the Forge of Giants remains undying despite Marika's attempt to extinguish it — even with the power of Elden Ring — and its ability to burn the Erdtree implies it is one. Whatever plans the fell god had appear to have fallen with the giants' civilization, and now it is simply used as a stepping stone to overcome the obstacles set forth by the Greater Will and, potentially, allow other gods to take the stage.
• Cosmic Entity: At least two of these beings are noted to influence the cosmos beyond the world of Lands Between, the Greater Will and the Moons. While it doesn't say so outright, the Future Press guide also heavily implies that the beings identified as "outer gods" are from the cosmos; it introduces them by saying that "the fledgling planet was not alone in the vast expanse of the cosmos, and before long a host of outer gods and fell creatures of the starry void took notice of its existence", with the story section about them titled "Visitors From Beyond." Wherever they're from, it's definitely not the Lands Between.
• Despair Event Horizon: A trait shared by the Frenzied Flame and Scarlet Rot is that they have a much easier time taking over their appointed vessels if the vessel experiences great despair, presumably because it causes their will to be broken. In fact, the Frenzied Flame only exists because this horizon was collectively crossed by an entire race.
• Did You Just Punch Out Cthulhu?: The outer gods appear to lack a true form which can die, but any physical influence, proxies, and manifestations they have can be beaten back, sealed or killed. Marika's Empire defeated the Fire Giants so thoroughly that their fell god's influence is effectively removed from the land. An ancient god of Rot was said to be defeated and sealed away by a blind swordsman with a sword bestowed by a "fairy", now locked somewhere in the Lake of Rot. The Fingerslayer Blade is also said to be able to harm the Greater Will and its vassals, and Ranni proves she can kill at least the Two Fingers with it. The Fire Giant offers its leg before its chest opens revealing a grotesque face similar to depictions of the fell god; since the fell god was said to reside in the giants, this suggests the Giant may be channeling or even taken over by the fell god, but it is still defeated just like any other boss. And in all endings, the player challenges and defeats the Elden Beast, an embodiment of the order of the Greater Will.
• Divine Conflict: Most of the wars in the history of the Lands Between are a series of secret proxy wars fought by the outer gods for control over the land, and the Shattering is no exception.
• The Dreaded: With the exception of the Greater Will, which is widely viewed as benevolent, and to a lesser extent the Dark Moon, whose glintstones are viewed as dangerous yet important sources of sorcery, almost every outer god invokes fear in those who know of it:
  • The Scarlet Rot inflicts a Fate Worse than Death upon infectees, and Radahn's forces have more or less tapped out of the Shattering entirely in a desperate attempt to contain its spread.
  • The Frenzied Flame's infliction of madness and desire to end all life terrifies anyone who knows of it. Its first adherent, Shabriri, is described as "the most reviled man in history" and is a Body Surfing Serial Killer. Melina uncharacteristically begs you not to meet with its servants the Three Fingers the closer you draw to them. Even a nomad merchant, one of the very individuals who called it to the Lands Between to begin with, warns you away from the Frenzied Flaming Village.
  • The Formless Mother's greatest servants are a cult of Serial Killers led by a rapacious Satanic Archetype. Everyone who knows of them hates and fears them, and her by extension.
  • Destined Death's blackflame can kill the unkillable, inspiring enormous terror. Even when Maliketh took this power from the Gloam-Eyed Queen, he was held over Marika's children as a threat, gaining the moniker "Death of the Demigods".
  • The very moniker of "fell god" evokes dread and fear, and generations after the war against the giants has been long concluded, icons of the giants and their lord are used as universal symbols of terror.
  • The lightning wielded by the Stoneguard ancient dragons, granted by their deity, was able to hurt the Erdtree. This horrified Marika's empire, to the point some Tree Sentinels become obsessed with becoming dragons to protect their Erdtree, and was a deciding factor in them going to war.
• Enigmatic Empowering Entity: Most of them act as the source of power for a corresponding school of Incantations used primarily by their followers as a means of strengthening their hold on the world. Yet they seem to care little about who wields their power and for what purposes: the Formless Mother, for instance, does nothing to stop you from using Blood Oath spells to slay Mohg despite his status as her greatest champion.
• Eldritch Abomination: All of them. The Greater Will is never referred to as having a body and may, as it is called, be nothing but will; the Dark Moon lives in outer space and creates Alien Kudzu and lesser Eldritch Abominations by existing; the Scarlet Rot manifests as a living, sentient disease that corrupts everything it touches; the Frenzied Flame is an intangible force of fire that bestows both knowledge and madness upon its followers, and wishes to return the world to what is effectively primordial soup; the Formless Mother has no physical form, yet the incantation Bloodboon states that it works through carving your hand inside her body and splattering her blood — which combusts into flames — to your enemies; Death is an omnipresent force of death which can manifest as both black fire as well as corrupted roots that cause the dead to rise; the fell god of the giants seemingly inhabited both the giants themselves as well as their forge, and may actually be fire in the form of a Hive Mind.
• Emotional Powers: Several of the outer gods are affiliated with emotions in some way:
  • The Dark Moon has a heavy individualism theme, with many of those who communed with it such as Ranni, Azur, and Lusat all developing wildly different sorceries based on the creator's own mindset and outlook.
  • The Scarlet Rot has some nebulous and unclear ties to its host's emotional state. Malenia is said to have needed to maintain her "pride", "will", and "sense of self" to stop it from breaking out, while Gowry states that Millicent would need to die in despair from the Tarnished's betrayal for the Rot's power to bloom properly.
  • The Frenzied Flame was implied to come into the world when the people of the Great Caravan despaired after being sentenced to execution via mass burial for heresy. Its incantations can also literally kill people by driving them to madness.
• Evil Is Burning Hot: As a god of life, fire is anathema to the Greater Will, and so fire is also associated with the most thoroughly (and indiscriminately) antagonistic Outer Gods. Whatever their quibbles with the Golden Order, few residents of the Lands Between are keen on entities that want to burn all life from their world.
• Evil Is Sterile: The four beings actually confirmed as outer gods are heavily linked to the aspects of death: blood loss for the Formless Mother, madness for the Frenzied Flame (who also has the main goal of killing everybody and preventing all future births), decay for the Scarlet Rot, and mortality for Death. This serves to directly contrast them to the Greater Will, which is a de facto Fertility God whose influence (gold) is associated with life and immortality, fitting its alchemical motif. This gets referenced in many item descriptions (e.g. Beast Blood: "fresh beast blood, glinting with gold... this glimmering blood never rots or decays").
• Evil Power Vacuum: The destruction of the Elden Ring and the waning of the Greater Will's influence on the Lands Between seems to have left it wide open for intrusion by the Outer Gods. Otherwise it's a very bizarre coincidence that Malenia's Rot significantly worsening, Mohg getting into full contact with the Formless Mother and becoming Blood Lord, the Frenzied Flame infecting settlements in the heart of Altus, and the Dark Moon deciding to open the path to Nokron all just happened to coincide with the Shattering.
• Evil Living Flames: The outer/ancient gods generally manifest through magical flames, contrasting them with the Greater Will and its manifestation through trees. These are "regular" flame for the Fell God, ghostflame and possibly blackflame for Death, bloodflame for the Formless Mother, and frenzyflame for the Frenzied Flame. The only exception, for unknown reasons, is the Scarlet Rot, which is instead repulsed by fire.
• Fantasy Aliens: The Greater Will and Dark Moon play this straight, being associated with the cosmos, and send their servants to the Lands Between via shooting stars and cosmic rays, but they aren't directly referred as outer gods. Ironically, many of them are associated with the underground: the Lake of Rot, the Frenzied Flame, the Formless Mother, and the Prince of Death (though the Rune of Death itself is in the sky) are all found underground ^note The underground Lake of Rot in particular is the resting place of the god of Rot and remnant of a civilization that worshipped Rot, while Mohg found the Formless Mother "deep underground, his accursed blood erupted with fire" and remained devoted to her because of "his devout love for the wretched mire that he was born into far below the earth", and some of their manifestations were explicitly born there ^note the Frenzied Flame sprouted forth into the world when the "seeds" spread by the Three Fingers received the Great Caravan's despair as they were Buried Alive underneath Leyndell, while the Prince of Death was created when the Cursemark of Death mutated Godwyn's buried corpse. However, it's unclear if they started there or just moved there later. The Rot was imprisoned there long ago, and Death is heavily associated with the sky through its Deathbirds. The official strategy guide implies they're all from outer space.
• The Ghost: While their influence is certainly felt, none of these entities manifest in the Lands Between. Justified since as eldritch entities beyond space and time, they might not have a true form and any manifestation they do have can be considered temporary vessels. Some of them do downplay this however:
  • The Greater Will sent the Elden Beast along with the Elden Ring and has Two Fingers as its heralds. While the Elden Beast’s exact role is unknown, each Empyrean chosen to bear the Elden Ring becomes a god as the Greater Will's extension of being or divine proxy. They as well as their consort Elden Lords are explicitly called champions of the Erdtree and the Greater Will, and are referred to as "gods in truth".
  • An ancient god described as "Rot itself" was defeated and sealed away near the Lake of Rot at some point in the past. It’s ambiguous if this god was a vassal like the Elden Beast, a proxy like Marika, or the outer god itself manifesting, but in any case the Scarlet Rot has marked Malenia as its latest proxy; if she “blooms” three times, she would become a true “goddess” — a true extension of the Scarlet Rot. The Rot seems to still be a sentient force exerting itself even in this state, as it's capable of spawning fully-formed sapient beings (Kindred of Rot) who can act against its "hosts" (one is shown keeping Millicent prisoner), and Millicent states that Malenia needed "a will that was once her own" and "a sense of self" to resist the Rot.
  • The Frenzied Flame also has a herald in the Three Fingers, and anyone powerful enough to harness its flame’s true potential to be the Lord of Chaos becomes its proxy.
  • Destined Death/the Rune of Death is the only one to subvert this, as it appears physically after beating Maliketh. However, an outer god is said to have sent the Twinbird as its envoy, and is heavily implied to have bestowed the essence Destined Death to the Gloam-Eyed Queen so she and her Godskin cult could slay gods — proxies of other outer gods — it doesn't appear just like the rest. Given how much Those Who Live in Death revere Godwyn after his body became the source of Deeproot, it is also possible the Prince of Death is considered its modern proxy.
  • The flames of Fire Giants are said to contain the “presence” of their fell god. In particular, the flame in the Forge of the Giants is shown to be inextinguishable even to Marika, so it might be a proxy or even the god's actual physical manifestation in Lands Between. The Fire Giant also manifests a face similar to ancient depictions of the fell god during its Boss Battle.
• God of Evil: While there are any number of contenders — such as the terrifying and corruptive Scarlet Rot, the chaotic and nihilistic Frenzied Flame, and the mysterious and terrifying presence of Death, the Formless Mother is probably the Outer God that fits the mould closest — she blessed Mohg with power and presence in return for embracing the defilement and corruption inherent to his nature as an Omen, and saw to it that he created a cult devoted to sacrificing the blood of the innocent in both their names. The values espoused by the being are strange like those of all the outer gods, but are sinister in comparison, seeming to relish violence, slaughter, and wounds, even on her own formless "body", and the main cultists we see in the game — Mohg and Varre — have a disturbing obsession with a violent, possessive "love." In contrast to the followers we encounter that revere the Frenzied Flame, Death and the Scarlet Rot, they instead place power, prestige, and dynasty on a pedestal, whereas Hyetta, Fia, and Gowry at least offer strange and at times compelling perspectives on the benevolence of the force they worship. While other gods may have more destructive and transformative designs for the Lands Between, it's clear that among them, the Formless Mother and her servants have the most malevolent.
• God of Fire: The fell god of the Fire Giants and the Frenzied Flame manifest their essence as flames. Death and the Formless Mother might also count, as the former's essence can be harnessed into both blackflame and ghostflames while the latter's blood literally combusts into flames when conjured with its incantations. Not coincidentally, all of them are at odds with the Greater Will, a deity heavily associated with trees.
• Good Colors, Evil Colors: The Scarlet Rot, Frenzied Flame, Formless Mother, and Fell God are all associated with various shades of red, while Death is black. This contrasts the Greater Will's prominent gold and the Dark Moon's blue.
• Greater-Scope Villain: While not the direct antagonists of the game, their Cosmic Chess Game and attempt to expand their influences are the cause of many troubling things the Tarnished has to deal with, from Those Who Live in Death and alien beasts like Astel and the Crystalians to the threat of the Scarlet Rot and everything to do with the Frenzied Flame. The conflicts between followers of certain outer gods with Marika on behalf of Greater Will have literally shaped the pre-history and history of Lands Between. In many ways, the entire Shattering is nothing more than an elaborate proxy war fought between the outer gods for control of the Lands Between.
• Jerkass Gods: From a normal human being’s perspective, none of the Outer Gods seem to have good plans for humanity: some seem neutral or indifferent, others are downright hostile to humanity or have malicious intent, or their way of spreading influence would completely transform and change humanity as we know it. Even the Greater Will, the one most widely viewed as conventionally "good", abandoned the Lands Between the moment the Shattering started, leaving humanity to the predations of rampaging demigods fighting for power.
• Kryptonite Factor: Unalloyed gold made by Miquella can stop their control on a person; when combined with a component that puts them "outside of time" (like Dragonlord Placidusax's chamber), Miquella's crafts can purge their influence entirely. Mirrorhelms from the eternal cities are designed to be this but only for the Greater Will.
• No Name Given: None of the Outer Gods' proper names are revealed, instead they're called by either titles that their servants made up, such as the Formless Mother, or by what they represent, such as the Scarlet Rot or Flame of Frenzy. Of course, these being eldritch entities beyond mortal comprehension, it's likely they don't have names.
• Our Gods Are Greater: Unlike Marika and her family who fit the typical "humans, but grander" mold of many classic pantheons from world myth, the outer gods are both far more powerful and far more unknowable, being impossibly powerful, cosmic entities from beyond the world. They have an almost Lovecraftian vibe to them.
• Physical God: On 2 different levels:
  • The outer gods exist on such a vast scale of existence to the point their envoys and chosen ones themselves are considered divinities. The Two Fingers are worshipped almost like angels while Empyreans chosen by them to bear the Elden Ring, the Erdtree, and the Elden Beast are all deemed as gods. Malenia, who was blessed with the Rot to become its champion, is effectively the larval form of a goddess and worshipped as such by the Order of Rot. All of these imply the only reason the envoys and champions of outer gods aren't named gods in the game is because the Golden Order faith deems them as alien, heretical beings.
  • A number of outer gods have direct manifestations which can be physically interacted with and even killed. This is most obvious for the Formless Mother, whose school of magic involves its followers stabbing its veins and spilling its cursed blood through reality itself. The Scorpion's Stinger also states that the Outer God of Rot has a body, which is currently sealed under the Lake of Rot - the weapon itself is a relic of the god (i.e., a body part). The One-Eyed Shield is also said to be a depiction of "the malformed fell god" of the Fire Giants (i.e. it had a form), which along with Marika being said to have slain it on the same item description, indicates it had a body too.
• Reality Warper: All known outer gods can alter fate or causality to their will, and their physical manifestations can twist the laws of physics passively or actively: the Glintstones are the basis of Sorcery, and outer gods often exert their presence or essence as different schools of Incantations. Given the Dark Moon can share its guidance even to dwellers of Eternal Cities (which are trapped underground and thus unable to see the stars), and the Formless Mother's followers can reach its formless veins anywhere in the world, it's clear even space and time don't restrict their influence either. However, they do seem to have limits:
  • While they can freely influence any entity of their choosing (regardless of race, even the likes of giants and dragons), they need to notice their targets first in some way. At least a few outer gods extended their influence into the Lands Between because they were contacted by natives (Dark Moon, Formless Mother), while at least one came to Lands Between because certain elements attracted it (Frenzied Flame).
  • They cannot freely affect those who are already under the influence of an outer god; they require a more direct means of intervention to subvert this hold^note the Greater Will needs its herald the Two Fingers to affect Ranni and bind her to be an Empyrean, and the Frenzied Flame needs the Three Fingers to bless a Tarnished guided by Grace to turn them into a potential Lord of Chaos; the Scarlet Rot might look like an exception to this as it blessed Malenia in the womb, but the circumstances of her birth might have made her unprotected by Golden Order and Erdtree's Grace due to being born from a single god, which is noted to be a flaw in the Golden Order.
  • Finally, powers born of outer gods can counteract other outer gods. Mirrorhelms, connected to the Eternal Cities and the Carians, are born from the Dark Moon and expressly shield the wearer from the Greater Will. The unalloyed gold researched by Miquella can suppress the Scarlet Rot in one of its bearers, and can also be used to purge the Frenzied Flame from a recalcitrant Lord of Chaos. The flame of the fell god, empowered by Melina's sacrifice, can burn the Erdtree and allow the Tarnished to seek its interior. Radahn proves it is also possible to turn the powers of an Outer God against itself to ward off their influence, as he wielded the gravity powers learned from star spawn to slay them.
• Religion of Evil: Many of them have formed these:
  • The Scarlet Rot is worshipped by the Order of Rot, consisting of the monstrous Kindred of Rot. Their duty is to spread the Rot as much as they can, forcibly transforming others into more kindred in the process, and also to convince Malenia or her daughter Millicent to embrace the Rot within and ascend as an avatar of the Scarlet Rot. To that end they've abducted the reluctant Millicent and kept her prisoner. They also attempt to manipulate the Tarnished into betraying Millicent so that her despair causes her to "bloom".
  • The Frenzied Flame has its own counterpart to the Two Fingers, the Three Fingers, complete with Finger Maidens who are granted both insight and madness by being fed the diseased eyeballs of its adherents. The entire faith seems to be led by Shabriri, a reviled historical figure who can Body Surf thanks to the Frenzied Flame and uses this ability to spread chaos through the world.
  • The Bloody Fingers are the most overt, being a religious cult of assassins based in a fortified underground cathedral led by the local Satanic Archetype.
  • Downplayed by Death, whose followers go out of their way to kill and murder individuals like D who hunt them down, but who ultimately acted second, and who otherwise do not directly bring harm to the Lands Between beyond the natural consequence of enabling a bunch of zombies. Played straight by the Godskin Apostles, who hunt down lesser demigods and flay them before wearing their skins.
  • The Fire Monks were set to guard the fell god of the giants, but have grown to worship it instead, and have taken advantage of the Shattering to set up militant forts and encampments throughout the Lands Between.
  • The dragon cult seeks to "worship" dragons by hunting them and devouring their hearts in an act of Dragon Communion. The result of this is that practitioners begin to grotesquely mutate into Magma Wyrms, bloated monsters that are a hideous reflection of the dragons they worship. Note that the dragons themselves strongly object to the killing of their fellows; Ekzykes, even after being infected by the Scarlet Rot, never forgot his hatred and drive for revenge against Dragon Communers.
• Unreliable Narrator: Most of what we hear about them is filtered either through the mindset of followers of the Greater Will, who will naturally denigrate other gods to make their own look good, or from their own followers, in which the reverse is true. The only other information to go on is buried scraps of history and fables and fairy tales, some of which are contradictory, and necessitates taking all information about the outer gods with a very large grain of salt.
• The Unreveal: The fell god receives less insight into its personality and motives, as its influence waned in ages past when their followers were either wiped out (Fire Giants, some trolls) or defected to the Greater Will (most trolls).

The Greater Will

The Erdtree, seat of its power

The godly being which created individual life and the Elden Ring ages ago, when it sent a golden star bearing a vassal beast to the Lands Between. It's not confirmed to be an Outer God, but there are hints that it may be one. Originally, the dragons held the title of Elden Lord, but after a long war between them and Marika's Golden Order, Godwyn the Golden brokered peace between the two sides and they unified, and the title and the Ring passed to human gods. The beliefs of the Golden Order and dragons were found to be harmonious, as both "are imbued with gold." Thereafter the Greater Will would be primarily represented by the Golden Order, which "is founded on the principle that Marika is the one true god." The Golden Order established the Erdtree to anchor its power in the Lands Between, and its laws governs both life and the very nature of reality itself in the Lands Between, with Marika as "a god in truth" who enforces it. After the Elden Ring was shattered by Marika herself, the Greater Will abandoned the Lands Between as Marika's demigod offspring went to war to seize power in her absence, triggering the Shattering. Still, its envoys the Two Fingers remain, guiding the Tarnished in an attempt to end the Shattering, bring peace to the Lands Between, and become Elden Lord.

Although the Greater Will has abandoned the Lands Between in the wake of the Shattering, the Golden Order it created still governs the nature of life itself in the Lands Between, however imperfectly, and its adherents still maintain a wide level of control over the world. It undoubtedly has the most influence of any outer gods on the current state of the Lands Between, though the activities of the others may challenge its dominion.

The Age of Fracture ending (the default one if no Mending Runes or alternate ending routes are used) features the repairing of the Elden Ring more or less as it was before the Shattering, with the Player Character as a new Elden Lord. However, it remains ambiguous if the Greater Will approves of this result, as the Erdtree has grown dim and it's ambiguous how much it resembles the old Golden Order with the Elden Beast, the avatar of Order itself, slain.

Three more endings, the Blessing of Despair, Age of Order and Age of Duskborn endings, form a new type of Order. The Blessing of Despair sees the Golden Order corrupted by Dung Eater's Seedbed Curse, the Age of Order modifies the nature of the world to make it far harder for the Greater Will's vassals to modify its laws, and the Age of Duskborn sees Destined Death usurp the Golden Order for its own purposes.

For tropes specific to the Greater Will, see its entry on the Main Characters page.

The Moons

Aliases: The Primeval Current of the Stars, the Full Moon, the Dark Moon, the Black Moon of Nokstella

Since time immemorial, comets and meteorites have fallen upon the Lands Between. Referred to as "falling stars" by the land's inhabitants, these starborne stones carried with them fearsome creatures, some of whom were hideous, rampaging beasts while others were intelligent humanoids who taught the mortals of the Lands Between hitherto unknown powers and sorceries.

Some of these falling stars left behind glintstones that glowed with power. Studying the stones, ancient astrologers were able to develop glintstone sorceries, and used this power to study the force beyond the Lands Between from which the stars fell: the Primeval Current of the Stars. Associated with glintstones, falling stars, magic, and the night sky, it wasn't even initially understood to be a sentient force, and indeed its influence is very passive in the Lands Between.

Studying the stars and its glintstones, the astrologers developed a sophisticated school of magic and founded both a kingdom in Liurnia and the academy of Raya Lucaria. They were known to be divided politically and societally, but that changed after the young Rennala encountered what she could only describe as a "Full Moon" in her study of the stars. Rennala was inspired and created the first known Full Moon Sorcery, with which she bewitched the academy and paved her way to become the headmistress of Raya Lucaria in addition to founding the house of Caria as royalty, essentially uniting Liurnia as disciples of the Moon.

On behalf of Marika, Radagon led adherents of the Golden Order to wage war with disciples of the Moon at least twice; but a fateful meeting in the battlefield eventually led to marriage between Radagon and Rennala, which ultimately brought Liurnia into the fold of the Golden Order. The union between the great houses of the Moon and the Erdtree in the Church of Vows is emblematic of the relationship between the higher powers they serve; the Moon and the Stars are the only known cosmic influences whom the Greater Will definitively establishes an alliance with.

During this period, Rennala and Radagon went to have three children: Radahn, Rykard, and Ranni. The last of whom was led by Rennala to encounter another Moon of her own — a cold, Dark Moon veiled in occult mystery. Ranni's secret mentor whom she encountered in the woods of Liurnia, a witch of snowy crone, taught Ranni to fear this Dark Moon.

Up until this point in time, it was still not clear even to the adherents exactly what these Moons among the Stars truly were, until the sorcerers of the subterranean Eternal City Nokstella deciphered a "black moon" of their own was in reality "the guide of countless stars", leading them to believe in the coming of an age of stars. It's not made clear if the Moons are distinct from one another as separate beings who preside over the stars, or if they are manifestations of a singular sentient cosmic force, but Ranni and the Eternal Cities appear to believe in the same conception of "an age of the stars" and both sought out their own "Lord" who would lead them into this age.

However, the house of the Moon's decline began after the fall of Godfrey, when Radagon divorced Rennala and became the second Elden Lord, putting the alliance with the house of Erdtree into question. It became even more unclear after the Eternal Cities invented things which warranted a punishment worthy of "high treason" by the Greater Will, resulting in their cities being sealed away to be forgotten by time. It is however noted the Carians did not become enemies with Marika's empire at this point in time, suggesting the Greater Will punished specifically the people who conspired against it.

Later on, due to the declining mental state of Rennala, the Cuckoos of Raya Lucaria turned against the Carian royals, which served to diminish the influence of the stars in Lands Between with the weakening strength of their adherents. This influence diminished further still due to the actions of Radahn, who became known as the "Starscourge" for using gravity magic to arrest the stars for unknown reasons which had the side effect of stopping them from guiding the Carian royal family. Still, Ranni remains as one devoted disciple of the Dark Moon, throwing off her mantle of Empyrean and is dedicated to bringing about an age of stars in the Lands Between.

Through Ranni, the Dark Moon and its Stars exert influence on the game's Age of the Stars ending.

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• Alien Invasion: The Moons appear to cause these by accident. The extraterrestrial creatures such as Crystalians, Alabaster or Onyx Lords, and Fallingstar Beasts were all carried to the Lands Between by the primeval currents of stars.
• Alien Kudzu: Natural Glintstones carried by its comets will crystallize anything in direct contact for long periods of time, including the lands around it, and will continue spreading unless properly contained with sorcery.
• Ambiguous Situation: It is impossible to determine if the various "Moons" discovered by Rennala, Ranni, and sorcerers of Nokstella are separate but similar beings or if they are manifestations of a singular outer god. Also, due to how these Moons remain hands-off in how they influence their followers, it is just as difficult to determine any intent, motive, or response toward any particular subject. In particular;
  • As the guide of the stars, these Moons are responsible for the falling stars carrying the glintstones which crystalize anything in direct contact for too long unless properly processed. More importantly, the stones can be studied and used as a source of magic more accessible and safer than those of outer gods ^note demi-humans and wolves can use sorceries, but not incantations; while certain groups of incantations can be used by anyone, as proven by mutated beings of Rot and Frenzied Rats, they typically come at the price of irreversible and inevitable degrees of The Corruption. It is unclear if this is indeed intentional on the part of the Moons, and if so, to what ends.
  • It's unclear what the Moons feel in regards to the Carian family's alliance with the house of the Erdtree and the Greater Will. There is nothing to suggest Rennala was encouraged to carry it out, and given the modus operandi of these Moons, they might not care at all. Even when subsequent events put this alliance into question (Radagon divorcing Rennala, the Greater Will's punishment of the Eternal Cities), none of the Moons has any known response. However, while the Eternal City's specific crimes against the Greater Will are not stated, given they produced Mirrorhelms ^note which can shield its bearers from the Greater Will's influence, the Fingerslayer Blade ^note which is said to harm the Greater Will, and can kill its Two Fingers heralds, and Mimic Tears ^note attempts to create a mighty lifeform which can act as their Lord for an "age of stars", it can be inferred the Dark Moon has assisted the Eternal Cities in some manner. Still, whether or not it did so specifically because it wanted the Eternal Cities to commit treason against the Greater Will or it simply guiding its disciples regardless of what they wish to do with its guidance remains a mystery.
  • For that matter, their attitude to power, as well the worship and reverence of its followers in general. The dwellers of Eternal Cities appear to believe that unlike other gods, the Moons don't/won't send them any emissary or the like who can fulfil the role of a Lord, and to that end they went as far as to attempt creating their own Lord to preside over an age of stars. It's known at least one Eternal City was destroyed by a falling star who carried Astel, and assuming it is not a coincidence like other cases of fallen stars, this might even suggest at least one of the Moons responded negatively toward the Eternal City's attempt to create a Lord to represent its power.
  • Related to the above, given unlike the Frenzied Flame and Destined Death who each separately had known attempts of establishing influence and would succeed in doing so depending on the player's choices, neither of the Moons even appear to want seizing power, with most of the initiative being taken by Ranni on behalf of the Dark Moon. In the end, it's ambiguous whether its goals align with Ranni's, or whether it will even tolerate her scheming once she puts it in power.
• All-Powerful Bystander: The Moons appear to have no designs on the Lands Between with all elements of its presence in the world appearing accidental and its "followers" being more akin to scientific scholars pursuing research of their own volition. Its lack of any intention to interfere with the world appears to be exactly why Ranni champions it.
• The Corruption: The fallen stars slowly turn areas in its vicinity and those in direct contact into glintstone, and needless to say this is eventually fatal. Modern sorcerers have mostly mitigated these effects, but the reckless Primeval Sorcerers and the hapless miners the academy employs are doomed to turn into stone from so much unsafe close contact. There is a reason they built Raya Lucaria as far off the ground as they possibly could.
• Cosmic Motifs: They are quite literally referred as Moons of different motifs — Full Moon, Black Moon or Dark Moon. However, an arguably even more prominent motif is the stars — to be precise, the cosmic debris called "falling stars" and "shooting stars" which keep falling on the Lands Between and fill up the cosmos, as it was through a falling star the ancient humans of Lands Between discovered the power of Sorcery, and it was through Sorcery the ancient scholars studied the stars, leading them to encounter the "Moons". A lesser, but still notable motif is the water and frost motifs which make up a number of inspired Sorceries, though this might be because sorcerers of Lands Between tend to visualize space and cosmos as an ocean of primeval currents, much like real life ancient cultures.
• Color-Coded Wizardry: Glintstone sorcery and gravity magic both derive from the Stars guided by the Moons, and they are a vivid, eye-catching blue and purple, respectively, to indicate their extraterrestrial origins.
• Dark Is Not Evil: Maybe. The Moons are naturally associated with the night and darkness, and while Blue-and-Orange Morality is as at play as for any of the outer gods, neither seeks the destruction, dominion, or enslavement of mankind. The threats of their stars — namely the spread of glintstone as Alien Kudzu and the Eldritch Abominations which some of their stars carry — appear to be accidental, and tempered by the fact glintstone sorceries genuinely seem useful, with sorcery even being the key to contain the spread of glintstones. Unlike the Lord of Frenzied Flame ending, Melina has no qualms with the player eschewing the Golden Order to side with Ranni, showing that she at least considers the Dark Moon to be better than the Frenzied Flame and an acceptable means of ending the Shattering, although given what those entail, that's a fairly low bar to clear.
• Enigmatic Empowering Entity: All the Outer Gods qualify; but these Moons stand out among them because they don't seem to be doing so for the sake of spreading influence over the Lands Between, instead just providing guidance and mentorship to a select few sorcerers who found them instead. This might be why the Greater Will tolerates their influence, unlike almost every other outer god. Of course, despite the lack of interest, at least the Dark Moon still ends up being put in power over the Lands Between thanks to Ranni in the Age of the Stars ending.
• Fantasy Aliens: The Moons themselves qualify, explicitly living in outer space beyond the Lands Between, and are the origin and patron of lesser examples like the Star Spawn.
• Fantasy Counterpart Myth: Of Hecate, Greek goddess of the Moon, knowledge, magic and sorcery amongst other things. Not only do the Moons have dominion over all of those concepts, they're both worshipped by Carians.
• The Ghost: Possibly the only Outer God to subvert this. Multiple times in the game it's possible to see a dark, abnormally large moon in the sky, especially in zones connected to sorcery and the Dark Moon like Liurnia. While a player may at first just brush it off as a fantasy case of Alien Sky, it's highly implied that is the body of the Outer God itself.
• God of Chaos: The Moons seem best described as embodiments of the disruption of natural order. Via glintstone sorcery, its adherents (such as Ranni and the Nox Monks) are granted the power to better understand and shape the world to their will, all developing extremely different schools of sorcery aligned with their unique viewpoints. While the Star Spawn, their progeny, have no fixed shape and are able to shift into an incredibly wide variety of forms depending on their surroundings. However, this variant of chaos isn't malevolent like the Frenzied Flame or Scarlet Rot; instead this chaos is liberating, freeing mortals from the shackles of destiny.
• A Lighter Shade of Black: Compared to the other Outer Gods, channeling the Dark Moon’s power appears to be far less damaging to the human mind, with entire civilisations (such as the kingdom of Caria and the Nox Monks) having thrived using the Glintstone Sorceries Its influence makes possible. This, however, does not make It harmless: seemingly every sorcerer who attempts to perceive Its true nature (such as Sellen) is ruined in mind and body, and while It doesn’t appear to cause the Starspawn (many of which are dangerous wild animals of cataclysmic power) to fall into the Lands Between intentionally, It doesn’t appear to do anything to stop the phenomenon.
• Lunacy: Naturally, being literally Moons. The Carians referred to the Full Moon's patronage as "guiding moonlight".
• Mix-and-Match Critters: Tying into their nature as embodiments of chaos, most creatures under the influence of stars are often either born as or eventually mutate into bizarre creatures with physiology combining traits from rock formations and a wide variety of animals, the oldest and most powerful of which can verge into Eldritch Abomination. This includes the Fallingstar Beasts (which look like bulls with pincers that are made from rock) and the ancient Sorcerers Azur and Lusat (who have heads made of solid crystal).
• Personality Powers: Disciples of the Stars and the Moons which guide them learn not a singular type of sorcery, but instead use the guidances to develop spells tailored to their own mindsets and prejudices.
• Pieces of God: The Black Moon appears to have been destroyed and its fragments are used to form the Memory Stones.
• Recurring Element: Lunar magic is a recurring theme in FromSoftware's games, especially in the form of the Moonlight Greatsword. The Moons are the origin of both lunar magic and the greatsword in Elden Ring, approaching Mythology Gag levels thanks to the phrase "guiding moonlight", which is lifted straight from Bloodborne.
• Screw Destiny: Unlike other Outer Gods that influence the world in direct ways (The Greater Will's Erdtree and Elden Lords, the Scarlet Rot's visceral corruption, the insanity brought on by the Frenzied Flame, and the manifestion of the Fell Gods of the torso of giants), the Moons never truly forces beings into service, instead guiding those who are able to understand it to reach self-actualization and defy the fate of the gods. They seems to be indifferent to reverence, only seeking to inspire and liberate.

The Scarlet Rot

The Lake of Rot, its prison

The Scarlet Rot is a much-feared blight in the Lands Between. A festering plague that consumes anything it touches, the Rot is capable of killing even the unkillable; dragons, demigods, and the Tarnished are not immune. Those whose bodies are eaten away by its touch also lose their minds, becoming creatures of rot. Some are twisted into unspeakable forms, or reborn as monstrous kin who worship sickness itself, their very minds tainted by the disease. The Scarlet Rot consumes both the lands itself and even taints the sky above, making the air burn a sickly red. The only thing known to beat it back is judicious application of fire.

In truth, the Scarlet Rot is more than a mere disease. An ancient legend tells of a blue fairy that bestowed upon a blind swordsman a flowing sword. Using this blade, the hero sealed away an ancient god — one that was Rot itself. There is truth to the legend, for hidden in the warren of tunnels that snake under the Lands Between lies the Lake of Rot — a festering pocket of disease and rot that corrupts anything that sets foot in it. The outer god of Scarlet Rot, or possibly its proxy or champion, still lurks within it. The deity is associated with disease, decay, flowers, transformation, rebirth, and — of course — the color scarlet.

Though sealed in the Lake, the god that is Scarlet Rot is far from contained. Pockets of corruption are slowly leaking from its prison to manifest as diseased swamps and mires in the Lands Between, and it has another, more active means of influence. The demigoddess Malenia, one of the twin offspring of Queen Marika and Radagon, was "blessed" in the womb by the outer god, being born with the disease and able to channel its power. Fighting its influence for most of her life, Malenia was nevertheless slowly corrupted, parts of her body rotting away. In the battle against her stepsibling Radahn, Malenia embraced the power of Rot inside of her and "bloomed", unleashing the power of Scarlet Rot against Radahn and his armies. Infecting and devastating her brother, Malenia's rot has spread from Radahn to blight the rest of Caelid, turning the region into a twisted, grotesque landscape of crimson, its spread only marginally held back by Radahn's forces and their policy to Kill It with Fire.

Malenia is worshipped by the Kindred of Rot, twisted creatures born of the disease who fight Radahn's forces for control of Caelid; Malenia's offspring, including Millicent, are likewise worshipped, due to being born with their mother's infection. Despite her willingness to use the Rot against Radahn, Malenia continues trying to defy the will of the god that infected her. The Kindred of Rot have plans to force either Malenia or Millicent to embrace their destiny and become vessels of Rot, and it is said that if Malenia "blooms" three times, she will ascend to become a true deity — a goddess of rot.

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• Achilles' Heel:
  • Fire, at least for creatures infected by the Rot itself. Virtually every creature in Caelid and the Lake of Rot are weak to flame, and fire is what Radahn's army uses to contain and purge the creatures infested by the Rot.
  • Clean, flowing water acts an antithesis to the Rot. The god itself was supposedly imprisoned beneath the Lake of Rot by the actions of a mysterious swordsman who was aided by a water fairy, and the same swordsman was implied to be the one who trained Malenia in how to use her sword. The Rot has thematic connections to kegare, a Shinto belief in spiritual corruption and decay, which is also countered in Shinto by flowing water.
• Ambiguous Situation: Whether or not Golden Order Fundamentalism is really incapable of curing the Rot. Miquella, once an undisputed master of Fundamentalism, abandoned it after coming to believe it couldn't cure his sister's affliction. Yet one of Fundamentalism's most advanced spells, Law of Regression, is capable of curing all ailments, Scarlet Rot included. It's ambiguous if this is a case of Gameplay and Story Segregation, or if the spell simply isn't strong enough to purge the Rot from Malenia, whose status as the God's primary vessel likely renders her case of the Rot far harder to cure than other infectees. Its even possible the Greater Will might have actively prevented Miquella from using its power to cure Malenia, so as to not risk making an enemy of one of the most dangerous of the Outer Gods.
  • Alternatively, the Law of Regression, as the name implies, returns things to their 'natural', original state, which usually means curing all diseases — but Malenia was infected by Rot in the womb, and was never healthy to begin with. If anything, the Law of Regression might re-inflict the Scarlet Rot back upon her if it were somehow cured.
• And I Must Scream: Creatures infected by Scarlet Rot who don't perish or begin mutating usually start fusing with the rot-infected ground. As shown by Greyoll, they don't have to be dead for this to happen. The mother of dragons is fused to the earth of her own barrow, unable to move or defend herself in any way, yet is still alive as she slowly rots to death.
• Animal Motifs: Arthropods, fitting for a god of decay. The God of Rot itself is a giant scarlet scorpion according to the Scorpion's Stinger item description, the Kindred of Rot resemble humanoid centipedes that can also shoot out web-like projectiles (Pest Threads), and the "bloomings" of the Rot's vessels (like potentially Malenia and Millicent) are accompanied by Aeonian Butterflies.
• The Assimilator: Dying from the Scarlet Rot seems to cause the being to be completely consumed by it, turning into strange, fungal things that can still bleed. Some dragon corpses, as well as the still-alive Greyoll, can be seen with their massive bodies partially consumed by the Scarlet Rot covered ground.
• Body Horror: Victims afflicted with the long-term version of Scarlet Rot (as opposed to the short-duration infection that kills you in seconds, but can be dispelled with boluses) wander about in misery with giant poison mushrooms growing out of their heads. The bulbous, fungal growths throughout Caelid were once living things, and they still bleed if you hit them with a weapon. Even Malenia, the Rot's champion, has her body slowly decaying from the inside out, with three of her four limbs being prosthetic, her eyes eaten away to the point of blindness, and much of her skin being diseased and rotten.
• Butterfly of Death and Rebirth: The Scarlet Rot is heavily associated with flowers and butterflies to the point where butterflies made of Rot are a sign that Malenia has embraced the Rot's power. Adherents of the Order of Rot believe that being infected and transformed by the Scarlet Rot is a beautiful rebirth, with the alien glory of Malenia's Goddess of Rot phase in her boss fight making it clear that they're not entirely wrong (just mostly).
• The Corruption: Many of the outer gods are guilty of this to some degree, but the Scarlet Rot is the most obvious about it. The Scarlet Rot corrupts the very land, causing everything including the sky above to turn into a sickly blood-red and causes most beings, including ancient and powerful things like dragons, to slowly lose their sanity and their body, which begins rotting to seemingly fuse with the land itself, sometimes while the creature is still alive. Certain entities and people will instead mutate into creatures of rot, and the rot itself produces a number of unnatural lifeforms who only exist to cause more rot.
• Despair Event Horizon: Crossing this allows the Scarlet Rot more leeway to possess its victims and transform them. Malenia's ability to resist it is tied in with her emotional state, and betraying Millicent at the eleventh hour of her quest causes her to fall into anguish and bloom into a rot flower. The Rot seems to be actively trying to push its hosts past this point (consciously or not) given that Millicent mentions it causes nightmares on top of the regular physical pain.
• Fantastic Nuke: More like a fantastic bioweapon. Malenia's unleashing of the Rot against Radahn left devestation on the level of a WMD in its wake, with the effects having spread from their battleground and layed waste to all of Caelid.
• Fate Worse than Death: Denied by the Rot itself as well as its adherents and worshippers, but fully played straight in the minds of everyone and everything else ^note potentially excepting, weirdly enough, none other than the Greater Will. Being infected by Scarlet Rot means, at best, a slow wasting death that reduces you to a haggard shell of your former self and eats your mind until you are at a borderline feral state, with not even demigods being immune. At worst, it means becoming a bulbous, grotesque mass of fungus-like flesh growing into the blighted countryside while still conscious, or even being twisted and "reborn" into something else entirely—a creature devoted to Rot whose only purpose is to spread more Rot. Any potential cure for the Rot is also not known to the population at large; the only commonly known method to prevent it is to Kill It with Fire before it can spread.
• Festering Fungus: The Scarlet Rot is heavily affiliated with fungus, with the fungal-like growths across the surface of Caelid and some of the infectees having their heads replaced by giant mushrooms. Interestingly, the way the fungi are arranged and grow alongside other flora resembles a coral reef (albiet a twisted, horrifying version of one).
• Flower Motifs: The Scarlet Rot is strongly associated with flowers, butterflies, and the cycle of decay and birth. While Scarlet Rot typically kills most things infected (physically and mentally), certain compatible individuals will instead mutate into a creature of rot, a process described as "blooming". Malenia is also accompanied with what appears to be rotten butterflies when she lets her Scarlet Rot "bloom" unleashed, and her ultimate rot incantation, the Scarlet Aeonia, creates an eerily beautiful flower-shaped explosion of infectious mist.
• Gameplay and Story Segregation: Zigzagged.
  • Judging from the fact the only means to alleviate Scarlet Rot build up or cure the status in the game are 4 specific consumables and spells: Preserving Bolus ^note which requires rare materials, including one, the Sacramental Bud, that doesn't respawn and can only be farmed as a rare drop from land octopi and dogs in the Writheblood Ruins, Speckled Hardtear ^note A crystal tear formed in places where Erdtree's droplets fall for long periods of time, Flame Cleanse Me spell ^note An Incantation invented by the Fire Monks who had turned against Golden Order by worshipping the Flame of the Fell God they were supposed to guard, which burns the body with flames to cure ailments and Law of Regression spell ^note one of the most advanced Incantations in Golden Order Fundamentalism, which devotees like Goldmask isn't even able to cast due to being based on Intelligence. The recipes of said consumables are generally nowhere near any area where the Scarlet Rot runs rampant, while the spells are either heretical to be learned (Flame Cleanse Me) or too advanced for average practitioners (Law of Regression), meaning it is possible the Scarlet Rot isn't so much incurable as much as the means to cure it being effectively unavailable to most victims who catch it.
  • However, the Scarlet Rot can definitively kill the consciousness of immortal beings like demigods and dragons, even infecting Erdtree avatars. As such, the fact gameplay Scarlet Rot can be expunged by simply resting at a site of grace, and that the player's Tarnished respawns as normal after dying to it both mean this trope still applies.
  • While unstated, we have pretty clear signs that there are just two kinds of Scarlet Rot infection: acute (HP drops very quickly, will eventually go away if you don’t die, the patient functions more or less normally while it's active until they drop dead, can be cured with a bolus or spell) and chronic (slowly rot away over the course of years, excruciating and debilitating pain and reduced level of consciousness and memory, seemingly-incurable). Malenia, Millicent, Radahn, and a bunch of random enemies have the latter, while the former is what can be inflicted in-game with Rot spells and "cured" with the aforementioned methods. The in-game Scarlet Rot status effect rapidly drains health and can kill anything (the damage is percentage-based) without the intervention of magic,^note 16.2% Max HP + 1350 damage per proc over 90 seconds for weapon greases and rot pots. 29.7% Max HP + 1170 damage over 90 seconds some of your spells. 990% Max HP + 7,800 damage per proc over 300 seconds for Malenia's uniquely potent version. but it only retains that form for some one to several minutes, after which it will cease to have an effect (you could simply survive it by out-healing the damage, for example). Meanwhile multiple in-universe characters are dealing with long-term infections that don't kill anywhere near as rapidly but are much more difficult to remove. Backing this is the fact that you can inflict the acute version on characters who are already dying of the chronic version, and the result is a very clear visual difference on their models, usually followed by them dying in seconds (this is especially easy to do on Radahn, who at this point has extremely low Rot resistance to the point 1 Rot Pot will proc the status).
• Godzilla Threshold: Radahn's soldiers have largely abandoned the Shattering, instead devoting everything they have to prevent the Rot from spreading beyond Caelid, even as it strains their resources and leaves them vulnerable to other armies.
• Greater-Scope Villain: While mostly unrelated to the main plotline other than being another source of dangerous monsters the Tarnished has to face, it is firmly the fundamental cause of Miquella and Malenia's subplot alongside the more direct Mohg, as it choosing Malenia as its new avatar caused the demigod woman great pain all her life, and drove Miquella's motivations to find a definitive way to ward off the influence of Outer Gods. After Miquella is kidnapped by Mohg and Malenia loses her dignity in the fight against Radahn, the Scarlet Rot is free to ravage Caelid and the Haligtree to apocalyptic results and turn them into breeding grounds for rot-born creatures.
• Hostile Terraforming: As an alien god that seeks to reshape the entire world in its own bizarre and inhospitable image, the Rot is Elden Ring's poster-entity for this trope. Caelid, the site of the great Scarlet Rot outbreak of the Shattering, almost looks like another planet, complete with an ominous red sky.
• Leaking Can of Evil: The Rot is sealed inside the Lake of Rot, but is still very much capable of interacting with the world at large, from corrupting Malenia in the womb to creating small pockets of Rot throughout the Lands Between.
• Loss of Identity: One of the most feared aspects of the Scarlet Rot is that it doesn't just kill you, it erases your very sense of self. Radahn, once a proud and honorable general, has been reduced to a guttural, feral monster eating the corpses of friend and foe alike. Millicent ultimately decides she would rather die with her memories and ego intact than let the Rot take her and erase her sense of being.
• Lost in Translation: It's essentially the god of kegare, a Shinto concept of spiritual uncleanliness that doesn't really have a Western equivalent, broadly translated as defilement, impurity or corruption, though not necessarily moral, and in fact sources of kegare can be fully natural like (as seen in the Scarlet Rot) disease and corpses. Several item descriptions (such as soap) give short explanations of kegare, but you'll still have to be somewhat familiar with Shinto to get the connection between things like still water and centipedes that are associated with the Rot, and why flowing water opposes it.
• Mystical Plague: The Scarlet Rot is both the most feared disease in the history of the Lands Between and also the manifestation of a partially-sealed outer god. It's even capable of infecting wholly inorganic beings, such as Crystalians, or metaphysical concepts without tangible form like the Great Runes. Going by gameplay, the only things immune to it are lifeless constructs that never had organic material to rot nor a mind to lose (golems, Edtree Burial Watchdogs, etc.- Crystalians don't count because they are sentient beings), illusions, projections, and other such things that aren't really there (Margit, Golden Shade Godfrey, Mohg the Omen), or beings that are completely divine and thus out of the Rot's purview (Radagon & Elden Beast).
• Non-Indicative Name: Despite repeatedly being described with Flower Motifs, the Rot has far more in common with fungi then any sort of flora. This appears to be a reference to real world botanical history, as mushrooms were originally categorized as a type of flower before science advanced enough to recognise the differences.
• Nothing Is Scarier: We know the "god that was Rot itself" has a physical form, and we know it's buried beneath or nearby the Lake of Rot but that is it. We don't know what it looks like other than the fact it is possibly a scorpion, how long it's been there and if it has any chance of escaping. We're not even entirely sure what it is, considering the sealed away presence could be anything from a vassal of the outer god similar to the Elden Beast (considered a god in its own right), a previously chosen champion acting as a proxy much like Malenia (who gets called "Goddess of Rot" in her second phase), or even the outer god itself.
• Physical God: The Scorpion's Stinger weapon confirms whatever divine presence is currently sealed beneath the Lake of Rot is a physical being, quite possibly a giant scarlet scorpion if the description is anything to go by ^note it's "a ceremonial tool used by heretics, crafted from the relic of a sealed outer god"; 'relic' in religious contexts indicates a body part of a holy being, while the description of the Lake of Rot map says "the divine essence of an outer god is sealed away in this land." The Blue Dancer Charm also states a blind swordmaster had defeated this god ages ago, but was only able to seal it away, rather than kill it. However, as described in Nothing Is Scarier above, the true nature of this ancient god remains unclear.
• Sealed Evil in a Can: The Blue Dancer Charm talisman describes a legend in which a fairy bestowed a sword to a blind swordsman, who defeated and sealed way an ancient god of Rot itself. The location of where it was sealed is not known, though it's likely near the Lake of Rot. However, the Scarlet Rot can still bless Malenia to become its proxy and spread the rot.
• Shout-Out: With Gowry's quest being a Whole-Plot Reference to the poem Insect God by Edward Gorey (note that "Gowry" and "Gorey" are spelled the same in Japanese), the Rot's Kindred resembling giant arthropods and its physical form under the Lake of Rot resembling a tailed insectoid (going by the Scorpion's Stinger) is probably also meant as a reference to it.
• Underground Monkey: Many minibosses throughout Caelid are familiar enemies reskinned and recolored to reflect their corruption by Scarlet Rot; usually they gain the ability to spread Rot as an attack while gaining a weakness to fire. These creatures usually have the appellation "Putrid" by their name. Notably, even the servants of fellow outer gods aren't immune; Putrid Erdtree Avatars, which serve the Greater Will, exist, and there are a trio of Putrid Crystalians, alien life-forms affiliated with the Dark Moon.
• Weak to Fire: The Rot's biggest weakness is that its very, very weak to fire. Radahn's Lordsworn have put this to good use, wielding torches and flaming weapons, using walls of smoldering stone to stave off the Rot's spread, and even burning an entire church at the entrance to Limgrave to prevent the Rot from spreading there. They also make use of the Fire Monks' Flame Chariots.

The Frenzied Flame

Aliases: The Flames of Chaos, Yelough

The Lord of Chaos, avatar of cleansing.

The migrants of the Great Caravan were never loved by the inhabitants of the Lands Between. Suspicious and hateful of the outsiders, the denizens of the land eventually turned on them en masse, with accusations of wickedness and heresy. Falling upon the Great Caravan, the denizens of the Lands Between destroyed their home and massacred them, culminating in a terrible act of cruelty: thousands of nomads were executed by being Buried Alive. The few survivors were scattered to the winds. Broken, consumed by despair and hatred, the survivors decided to embrace the moniker of heresy they could not escape. They called out for something, anything, to unleash destruction upon the Lands Between in retribution, consequences be damned...

...and the Frenzied Flame answered them.

An outer god associated with madness, knowledge, chaos, eyes, retribution, and the color yellow, the Frenzied Flame forgoes the usual machinations of other outer gods. It does not seek to form cults or establish dominion, though a few worshippers have nevertheless embraced it, pockets of violent madness standing out in an already violent world. The Frenzied Flame's foremost agent to spread its knowledge is Shabriri, the most reviled man in history, who blasphemed against the Golden Order and preached chaos and retribution. Though Shabriri was killed, the Frenzied Flame didn't let him die; he remains, able to Body Surf between corpses by dint of the Flame's power. More dangerous than Shabriri is the Three Fingers — eerie counterparts to the Greater Will's Two Fingers — manifested to serve a similar role to the Two Fingers; seek someone with the potential to inherit the will and power of the Flame to become the Lord of Chaos, as a true expression of the Frenzied Flame.

Modern adherents of the Frenzied Flame grow mad, yet they boast an impossible well of knowledge and are occasionally possessed of a disturbingly serene lucidity. One, Hyetta of Liurnia, is being groomed by the followers of the Flame to become a Finger Maiden to the Three Fingers. Hyetta claims that the Frenzied Flame despises the Greater Will for fragmenting an ancient source of life, the "One Great," to create the lesser forms of life — from humans to animals to plants — that populate the Lands Between. The Frenzied Flame would see the One Great restored, a wish that necessitates the eradication of all forms of life and the scorching of the entire world by the fires of the Frenzied Flame.

So feared and reviled is the Frenzied Flame and its goal of universal destruction that all who have been uncorrupted by its influence oppose it. Its mortal adherents remained isolated, despised, and shunned, and the Three Fingers were imprisoned in the Subterranean Shunning-Grounds beneath the Royal Capital, sealed by followers of the Greater Will. Still, the Three Fingers remain there even now, waiting for the one who would free them and become Lord of Chaos.

Should the Tarnished embrace the Three Fingers and become the Lord of Chaos, the Golden Order is supplanted entirely and the Frenzied Flame achieves its goal of bringing its purifying flames to all life that exists, culminating in the Lord of Frenzied Flame ending.

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• Ambiguous Situation: Its name may or may not be Yelough, which would make it the only Outer God with a name, but it's never given an explicit confirmation. Yelough only appears three times in the whole game, once as the "Eyes of Yelough" plant that appears in locations affected by the Flame of Frenzy, another time in the Yelough Anix Ruins, which has Frenzied Flame worshippers in it, and the nearby Yelough Anix Tunnels, which has nothing to do with the Frenzied Flame in either its design, enemies or boss (who is instead an Astel).
• The Anti-God: The Frenzied Flame is the closest equivalent to an Anti-Greater Will. Whereas the Greater Will encompasses life, immortality, vegetation and order, the Frenzied Flame represents the end of life, destruction, flame, and chaos, and both employ their own 'Fingers' to choose a vessel to use as a pawn in their schemes. Out of all the Outer Gods at least presently active, the Frenzied Flame and the Greater Will have the most directly antagonistic relation.
• Assimilation Plot: Its most likely end goal. Shabriri and the Frenzied Spirit talk about "incinerat[ing] all that divides and distinguishes" and if Hyetta is given the words of the Three Fingers, she explains that as the Frenzied Flame sees it, all life was once the "One Great" who the Greater Will divided up to make life and souls as humans know them. The Frenzied Flame thinks that this was a mistake that led only to suffering, so it seeks to melt everything back into its original form as the One Great.
• The Bad Guy Wins: If the Tarnished inherits the Frenzied Flame, they'll become the Lord of Chaos who will burn the Elden Ring, the Erdtree and likely all life, which — whatever the motives might be — is what the Three Fingers and its master want achieved.
• Body Motifs: Eyes. The Frenzied Flame inflicts Eye Scream on its adherents, but even as they lose their sight, they are filled with knowledge beyond mortal ken — suggesting that they must lose their sight of the tangible world to gain true knowledge.
• Body Horror: The Frenzied Flame is heavily associated with eyes — or rather, the lack of eyes. Humans and animals touched by it have their eyes burned out, jets of yellow fire emerging from the empty sockets in their place, and the swollen, pus-filled eyeballs are fed to adherents as "grapes".
• Brown Note: An unusual example; the Fingerprint Stone Shield is heavily implied to be branded by the Three Fingers with its fingerprints, serving as "messages". Getting bashed by this shield causes Madness build up, suggesting the mere act of touching the fingerprints causes Frenzy to spread onto you.
• Chaos Is Evil: "Evil" might be stretching it for a formless, alien deity, but its goals would certainly result in the death of all living things and its followers are threatening and sinister. The Frenzied Flame is heavily associated with chaos, to the point of occasionally being known as the Flame of Chaos, and Shabriri desires for chaos to take the world. Interestingly, the Frenzied Flame's desire to return life to its primordial state of the One Great gives it some affiliation with the original definition of chaos as well as the modern version.
• Cosmic Horror Story: Even more so than any of the other Outer Gods, openly speading madness, destruction, and corruption.
• The Corruption: The Frenzied Flame, while less extensively spread than the Scarlet Rot, causes the animals and people that it touches to go insane and infused with the flame itself, and causes unnatural fruits and vegetation like the Eyes of Yelough to grow.
• Crazy Sane: Adherents of the Frenzied Flame grow mad, sometimes violently so, but also gain tremendous insight and wisdom of Things Man Was Not Meant to Know.
• Despair Event Horizon: The Frenzied Flame seems drawn to people who cross it and begin to curse the world. The Great Caravan is the most notable example, but Castellan Edgar’s questline ends with him infected by it as well, after his desire to avenge his beloved daughter degrades into murdering random travelers. Frenzied Flame incantations are also used by certain Leyndell soldiers on Mt. Gelmir, where the most horrific battle of the Shattering was (and sort of still is being) fought.
• Earn Your Bad Ending: The Lord of Frenzied Flame ending is treated as a proper Bad Ending, with Melina abandoning the Tarnished and all life being scorched by the Frenzied Flame. It's also eminently avoidable: the game piles hint upon hint that the Frenzied Flame is bad news, only growing more obvious the closer the player gets to the Three Fingers, culminating in an uncharacteristically passionate plea from Melina to not pursue this action. Even if the player embraces the Three Fingers, they can purge the Frenzied Flame using Miquella's Needle, meaning that if the ending is achieved, it is certifiably the player's fault.
• Expy: Of Hastur as the King in Yellow, specifically his depiction in later Call of Cthulhu RPG sourcebooks: a yellow-colored force of entropy from the cosmos who spreads madness to his cult of followers, is empowered by negative human emotion, and takes various avatars to increase its power in the land. The Frenzy sigil even looks like the Yellow Sign.◊ Note that Hidetaka Miyazaki is a self-admitted fan of Call of Cthulhu, has cited nondescript tabletop RPGs as one of his main inspirations for Elden Ring, and that one of the locations hosting Frenzy in-game is called the Yelough Anix Ruins.^note Yelough is obviously an alternate spelling of yellow, while "anax" means king in Greek. Yellow King Ruins.
• Evil Is Burning Hot: A deity of omnicidal mania that primarily manifests as mind-destroying yellow fire.
• Eye Beams: Most Frenzied Flame incantations involve blasting gouts of flame from your eyes.
• Eye Scream: The first symptom of the Frenzied Flame taking hold (aside from murderous insanity), is the eyes growing diseased, swollen, and yellow. Either the eyes fall out intact (or get clawed out by their owners) and become Shabriri Grapes, or just straight up burst and become Yellow Embers, with the afflicted getting Fireball Eyeballs in their place. Hyetta eats Shabriri Grapes to feel the 'distant light' (i.e. the Three Fingers), and once she does find it and receives the Three Fingers' wisdom, she says that her eyes are melting.
• Equal-Opportunity Evil: Uniquely the only Outer God that doesn't appear to want one of the Empyreans as its vassal, being seemingly content with any host strong enough to not completely lose their mind upon being touched by the flame.
• Gone Horribly Right: The Frenzied Flame was awakened by the survivors of the Great Caravan. While some of the wandering merchants descended from the Caravan do seem to be adherents and will even use Frenzy abilities if aggroed, others seem to fear the Frenzied Flame just as much as anyone else, with one nomad in Liurnia outright warning the player from approaching the Frenzied Flaming Village to the northeast. It seems these nomads realized something that would kill all life would include them in the "all life" category.
• Light Is Not Good: The Frenzied Flame, as expected of a god of fire, is heavily associated with light. It's yellow flames can be seen lighting the darkness, and Hyetta refers to a "light behind her eyes" as she is slowly corrupted into serving as its Finger Maiden. Its association with knowledge also fits the trope per the familiar concept of the "light of knowledge". Yet the Frenzied Flame is an Omnicidal Maniac which wishes to put all living things to the torch.
• Mystical Plague: The Frenzied Flame is contagious, though to a lesser extent than the Scarlet Rot. The whole point of its various incantations is to spread it to others. In gameplay this just kills them, but whole villages overtaken by the Frenzied Flame can be encountered while traveling, guarded by soldiers with a yellow flame painted on their shields to warn people away from them.
• Nothing Is Scarier: Like the Scarlet Rot, despite the spread of Frenzy and its madness in certain regions of the Lands Between and how universally reviled its influence is, remarkably little is known about its origin. While it supposedly first appeared to the Great Caravan, there are certain hints such as the existence of Cathedral of the Forsaken suggesting the Frenzy "sprouted" forth from the "seeds" spread by the Three Fingers, who served an ancient god supposedly buried in the sacred tomb of frenzy acolytes. Like with Scarlet Rot, it is never made clear what this god is supposed to be — possibilities include a previous Lord of Chaos or a vassal higher ranked than the Three Fingers, who is never referred to as a god even by frenzy adherents — or if it is even dead.
• Not Quite Dead: The Cathedral of the Forsaken is heavily implied to be a tomb housing an ancient god who originated the seeds from which Frenzied Flame sprouted forth. But given the Frenzy influnce is very much present and active in the Lands Between ever since the Great Caravan awakened it, this raises serious doubts if the deity is truly dead.
• Omnicidal Maniac: The Frenzied Flame plays with this trope. Its flames only exist to corrupt all life and the land with Frenzy, with Shabriri claiming its purpose is spread chaos to the world. However, while its objective certainly involves killing all life, Hyetta claims it actually desires to melt them all back to their primordial form, a being who is called "One Great". Thus, while the Frenzied Flame's influence is omnicidal, it isn't necessarily because it wants life itself gone — simply restored to what it considers proper. Of course, for all things currently living, the difference is mainly academic.
• Physical God: Apart from the many forms of The Corruption which Frenzied Flame can cause, the Outer God who originated Frenzy appears to have had a physical manifestation at some point in ancient history, as the Fingerprint Stone Shield found in the Cathedral of the Forsaken explicitly mentions it was part of the tomb of an ancient god. As Nothing Is Scarier above has explained, the nature of this god is more or less Riddle for the Ages.
• Power Born of Madness: As noted, the Frenzied Flame is strongly associated with frenzy, madness, and insight through insanity. The Great Caravan merchants were blessed with the maddening flame when their minds fractured from crossing the Despair Event Horizon, Maidens of the Three Fingers are trained to develop clarity through madness, and incantations of Frenzied Flames involve producing fire through the eyes — or to be more precise, the mind — so much so that a fully realized Lord of Chaos has their heads burn away into a sentient ball of flame, implying their mind is literally burning with Frenzy.
• Put Them All Out of My Misery: While the Flame itself (allegedly) just wants to burn the world back to its primordial state, the people who wield it have usually crossed the Despair Event Horizon and just want to burn the world. This would have been most pronounced in Kalé‘s cut questline, in which his discovery of the massacre of the Great Caravan led him to beg the player to use the Frenzied Flame they called up to destroy everything, after trying and failing to do so himself (he reached the Three Fingers but they didn’t accept him as a Lord). Hyetta also claims that all of the people who gave her "grapes" felt such despair as to wish they were never born.
• Rage Against the Heavens: According to Hyetta, the Frenzied Flame believes the Greater Will was mistaken in creating individuality, life and souls in the Lands Between by dividing the One Great, and that it was this action which brought about all suffering, afflictions and curses. Their primary goal is to struggle against the Greater Will and its forces and undo this mistake by melting everything in the world back as one.
• Recurring Element: Like the Dark Soul and its followers, most notably Kaathe, in the Dark Souls series, the Frenzied Flame is the antithetical power of the Top God of the setting (Gwyn and the First Flame in Dark Souls, Marika and the Greater Will in this game) that promises a great change to the world order and to elevate the Player Character into the lord of the new age - unlike the Dark Soul, which was ambiguous in its danger at best, the game doesn't hide that the Frenzied Flame is a purely negative entity and its path is a case of Earn Your Bad Ending.
• Rodents of Unusual Size: Despite item descriptions saying that it only affects humans, there are also frenzied rats encountered in and around the Ailing Village and Frenzied Flame Village. Presumably this is because they ate the corpses of frenzied humans (i.e. the same reason rats drop Humanity in Dark Souls 1).
• Straw Nihilist: Not the Outer God itself, who at least seems to be following a 'higher' purpose in its mass genocide, but its worshippers and servants definetly count. None of them other than Hyetta seem to care about the Frenzied Flame's Assimilation Plot, and are more in it to cause chaos to ravage the world and kill everyone due to a mix of despair-caused madness and nihilism.
• Things Man Was Not Meant to Know: This is the Flame's specialty. The more thoroughly its followers are touched by its madness, the more impossible insight they gain — culminating in Shabriri bellowing that chaos should take the world and Hyetta asserting that all life is a mistake that needs to be corrected.
• Underground Monkey: Several types of enemies have variants that are afflicted with the Frenzied Flame and attack with Frenzied Flame incantations. These include the Cuckoo troops at the Frenzied Flame village and some of the Leyendell Soldiers at Mt. Gelmir.
• Unusual Euphemism: The swollen, chaos-filled eyeballs that its adherents feed to would-be Finger Maidens are euphemistically referred to as "grapes," seemingly because the Eye of Yelough, a corrupted plant touched by the Frenzied Flame, grows grape-like fruits that look similar to human eyes. Hyetta, at least, had no clue what she was actually eating until told by the Player Character.

The Formless Mother

Aliases: The Mother of Truth, The Blood Star

Mohgwyn Palace, lair of her slaves

Mohg was one of the children of Marika and Godfrey. Born an Omen, he was hated and despised, sent in shackles to the Subterranean Shunning-Grounds beneath the capital alongside his brother, Morgott. While both brothers eventually escaped the Shunning-Grounds and rejoined society at large, Mohg was not so fast to reconcile as his brother. Going into hiding, Mohg saw the Shattering as an opportunity to seize power and gain dominion over the Lands Between. To do that, he would need the influence of an outer god to challenge the Greater Will — and so he called upon the Formless Mother.

One of the newer gods to arrive to influence the Lands Between, the Formless Mother, also known as the Mother of Truth, is heavily tied to Mohg and his ambitions. The Mother is, as she is described, a shapeless god without form; she is associated heavily with blood, pain, wounds, murder, violence, and an extremely twisted form of love and affection. Craving agony of her own, the Mother grants power to adherents who injure her; her burning blood emerges from injuries to manifest in the mortal realm, scalding those who earn her followers' ire. Every incantation of the followers of blood is in fact a ritualistic injury inflicted upon their insatiable god. Mohg, the Mother's earthly champion, has been granted burning blood of his own, a "gift" the Formless Mother has also bestowed on his twin brother Morgott — whether he wants it or not.

Following their god's example, disciples of the Formless Mother likewise relish in blood and pain. Taking some of her blood into their body, their fingers decay into sickly half-dead flesh with a constant drip of fresh blood from beneath the fingernail. Devoid of any sensation except for an ever-present, sweet pain from a perpetually-fresh wound, these disciples christen themselves the Bloody Fingers. Responsible for assassinations and murder across the Lands Between, their cult ultimately has one singular goal: to kidnap and corrupt Miquella, Mohg's half-brother and an Empyrean, to serve as a Puppet King with Mohg reigning as consort, the Formless Mother supplanting the Greater Will as the dominant godly force in the Lands Between.

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• Ambiguous Gender: The Formless Mother is the only outer god referred to with gendered pronouns or titles, including in item and incantation descriptions. Still, it's up in the air whether a formless deity that exists outside of space can even have a gender in the human understanding of the term, and Mohg may simply be projecting onto her.
• Ambiguously Related:
  • She's implied to have some relation to Omens and their 'accursed blood', but it's not known how much. She chose an Omen as her prime apostle, and Mohg is described to have had his accursed blood set on fire when he encountered her, and the Mohgwyn's Sacred Spear describes her as an "outer god who bestows power upon accursed blood." Notably, Morgott's cursed sword also has an effect similiar to Bloodflame, which is an odd standout on his otherwise holy-themed arsenal. It's not known if she's just, in an Outer God's twisted way, sympathetic to the Omens, if she finds their cursed blood just a convenient way to exert her influence, or if she's somehow the origin of said cursed blood.
  • Some members of the Fire Monks wield a type of magic called Thorn Sorcery that summons blood-red barbs and briars from their self-inflicted wounds, the similar motifs (as well as the art's focus on self-inflicted suffering) strongly imply the "Blood Star" that taught these monks in their dreams is actually the Mother.
• Arc Villain: As she's responsible for bestowing Mohg her power and his dream of reshaping Miquella as his consort. This makes her a greater scope variant for Miquella and Malenia's story since as an Outer God she's never dealt with directly. She doesn't have much relevance to Elden Ring's story otherwise.
• Bad Boss: Potentially to Mohg. He seems to view himself as an ascendant Big Bad with the favor of an obedient patron deity, but any denizen of the Lands Between is at risk of misinterpreting the whims of an outer god. It's worth noting that Mohg's belief that his patron would resurrect Miquella led to Miquella's death, thus depriving the Greater Will one of its Empyreans, and despite all the Human Sacrifice, Miquella still hasn't come back.
• Blood Magic: The source of the Blood Oath school of Incantations, which consists of casters literally carving into her body and ripping out her veins to do things like create sprays of blood that burst into flames or summon swarms of flies. She can also harness the blood of living beings as a medium to manifest her power, and seems to be fond of bloodshed just for bloodshed's sake, giving Mohg a cult which promotes killing in her name. Her followers maim themselves using her blood, and use these injuries to invade and kill other Tarnished in their name and in hers.
• Body Horror: If you can consider the air around Mohg to be her "body", then he's inflicting this on her constantly. Every spell he uses is caused by quickly mutilating the Mother and using her blood as a weapon.
• Combat Sadomasochist: An odd example, as her sadomasochism is used for others' combat. Using any Blood spell is described as causing a wound to the Formless Mother, causing her blood to manifest for the caster to manipulate. The Formless Mother actively encourages her followers to use her like this.
• Complete Immortality: Implied. The Formless Mother is technically the only Outer God the players can 'harm' through the use of Blood Oath spells and Mohg's spear, stabbing through a red portal and splashing her blood onto your enemies; of course, she craves wounds, and is a cosmic beings of such proportions that human-inflicted wounds would never be able to kill her, if such a thing is even possible.
• The Corruption: A subtler example compared to other Outer Gods, but still present: animals corrupted by her influence grow bloody warts all over their body similiar in appearance but distinct from creatures corrupted by the Scarlet Rot, and causes them to inflict magically-induced bleeding. On humanoids, or at least Albinaurics, her blood corruption causes the skin to turn blood-red and grow small horns on their heads, and allows them to (painfully) channel blood magic with their own bodies. She seems to have an effect on the land as well, as areas influenced by the Bloody Fingers have huge clumps of solid, seemingly coagulated blood ammassed on the ground.
• Evil Is Visceral: A deity associated with cruelty, blood, and murder, the base of operations for her followers is a lake of bubbling blood led by a grotesque monster with a horn growing into his eye!
• Human Sacrifice: Her followers commit murder to empower themselves and her as well, and Mohg at least believes that with enough sacrifical blood, Miquella will be reborn into a biddable puppet.
• Love Makes You Evil: The Mother and her followers express love and affection (which, for her followers at least, appears to be genuine in an extremely twisted way) by viciously harming and abusing the targets of their desires. This extends to the Mother herself, who craves wounds and whose followers ecstaticly maim and injure her formless body as a sign of devotion.
• Mythology Gag: The Formless Mother is very likely a reference to Formless Oedon. Other than the similar epithet, they're both eldritch gods heavily associated with blood, both are tied to a slumbering infant god, both are associated with a Catholic aesthetic (Oedon having chapels dedicated to him, the Formless Mother's main spot of worship being a fortified cathedral), both are the figures of worship of a Religion of Evil focused on blood and whose leader aspires to ascend to godhood, and both are completely physically absent from their respective games.
• Non-Indicative Name: Her alternate title, the "Mother of Truth". Her adherents are secretive and deceptive, and she herself is implied to be manipulating Mohg.
• One Bad Mother: One of the most overtly malevolent deities in the setting is called the "Formless Mother."
• Red and Black and Evil All Over: The primary color scheme of a god associated with blood and murder is, you guessed it, red and black.
• Sadist: Mohg's overtly sexual and very depraved intentions for Miquella color a lot of what we know of the Formless Mother as well. She seems to enjoy receiving wounds, not unlike a real-life masochist, but her followers use her burning blood to maim and kill on her behalf, and seem to take pleasure in doing so. As seen in Yandere below, adherents of the Formless Mother almost seem incapable of differentiating between cruelty and affection.
• Then Let Me Be Evil: As an Omen, Mohg was looked at as a demon and shunned by society. The Formless Mother encouraged him to become the monster that everyone saw him as.
• Yandere: Both of the major emissaries of the Formless Mother, Mohg and Varre, have a twisted and disturbing obsession with "love," and seem to think that the primary way to show it is through inflicting pain. That the Mother's followers show fealty to her by maiming her, and that she welcomes and even craves these wounds, indicate that it's a mindset learned from their patron goddess.

Destined Death

Aliases: The Rune of Death, The Black Flame, Deathroot, Ghostflame

The Rune of Death, bound

Long before the Shattering, a "twinbird" descended on the Lands Between as an envoy of an outer god of death. Mothering the Deathbirds, she and her offspring served as Psychopomps, leading spirits into the afterlife and commanding wandering spirits with the power of "ghostflame". Hated and feared by adherents of the Golden Order, the twinbird and her offspring were driven into hiding, but a few Deathbirds still remain in the Lands Between.

Once an Empyrean, the Gloam-Eyed Queen forsook the Greater Will in a past age. Obtaining power from an unknown entity of tremendous power, she acquired the blackflame known as "Destined Death", said to be able to kill even the unkillable demigods. Marika's half-brother, the great beast Maliketh, defeated the Gloam-Eyed Queen and seized the power of Destined Death for himself, using it to scare his nieces and nephews into compliance with Marika's decrees. Still, scattered adherents of the Gloam-Eyed Queen remain. The Blackflame Monks and Godskin Apostles are still able to use the power of blackflame to spread death and chaos across the Lands Between.

When Godwyn the Golden, firstborn of Marika, was killed in the Night of the Black Knives, some of the Rune of Death that killed him became bound in his corpse. Twisting into the Prince of Death, Godwyn's power spreads through the Lands Between as deathroot, creating a Zombie Apocalypse in the form of Those Who Live in Death, a plague of corpses that will not stay in the earth. Empowered by some deathly force beyond the ken of the Golden Order, the Prince of Death has gained disciples who further the power of Those Who Live in Death.

Though each of these could be disparate manifestations of separate death-based outer gods, they are heavily implied to be the work of one singular entity — a being with dominion over death, black fire, and the undead. The power of the Prince of Death's Staff, derived from the Destined Death that Maliketh seized from the Gloam-Eyed Queen, empowers both the ghostflame and Death sorceries of the Deathbirds; in addition, the Mausoleum Knights who protect the bodies of slain demigods use the wings and eclipse symbols of Deathbirds, and the Eclipse Shotel associated with them can inflict Deathblight, an affliction born from the Prince of Death. All of these indicate they are most likely separate manifestations of the same power, who have intervened in the Lands Between ever since the arrival of the twinbird. Destined Death's current goals seem tied in with Those Who Live in Death: it, or at least its adherents seem to view death as sacred, and undeath as a natural part of the life cycle. They despise the adherents of the Golden Order for hunting them.

Completing the questline of one of its disciples, Fia, allows the power of Destined Death to suffuse the Golden Order in the Age of the Duskborn ending, ensuring undeath becomes a natural and accepted part of the cycle of life.

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• Alliterative Name: One of their names is Destined Death.
• Ambiguously Related:
  • There appears to be some unspecified connection between fire and Destined Death. The black flame of the Godskin, created by the Gloam-Eyed Queen, is capable of killing gods who are otherwise untouchable. The bodies of those killed by Destined Death itself are burnt with black flame, as shown with Iji's body during Ranni's questline (killed by Black Knife assassins) and Ranni's own burnt flesh. Ghostflame is created when the bones of the dead are burnt. Lastly, the fire of the Giants, while incredibly powerful, is unable to actually burn the Erdtree without Destined Death being released as well. All of this indicates that flame and death are closely connected.
  • There is also an unspecified connection between Destined Death and Melina. At some point Melina was given a prophecy, that
  The one who walks alongside flame,
  Shall one day meet the road of Destined Death.
  • In the normal route, this presumably refers to Melina sacrificing herself as 'kindling', and meeting a destined end; but if they do follow through with the Lord of Chaos ending, then the Player Character becomes the one 'walks alongside flame', and Melina promises to deliver them their earned "destined death." There are other hints that she has a connection to the Gloam-Eyed Queen, who wielded Destined Death, particularly her sealed eye being purple or gloam-colored.
• Ambiguous Situation:
  • Whether there are multiple outer gods associated with death who have intervened at various times throughout the history of the Lands Between, or whether it is the work of a singular entity. As mentioned above, the game heavily implies there is a singular outer god but stops short of outright confirming it.
  • For that matter, how much the god(s) is(are) involved with each event. The Gloam-Eyed Queen almost certainly received Destined Death from a greater power, but whether or not her Godskin's god hunt is a decree given by said power or the Queen's own initiative remains a mystery. The spread of the Deeproot and the Deathroots which cause Those Who Live in Death to rise is also never explicitly stated to be its attempt of spreading influence, and it is possible it happens simply because Godwyn's Death-afflicted body was buried under the Erdtree and caused the roots to mutate, without any divine intervention from its outer god.
  • In fact, is Destined Death itself even an Outer God at all? There's a distinct possibility that while there IS an Outer God that represents Death - the Deathbirds are proof of this - the Rune of Death itself could be just that: a Rune. Immensely powerful, but essentially a magical, mindless program that imposes the 'order' of death into the things it imbues, not too dissimiliar from the Elden Ring itself. Bound because of the way some factions, such as the Godskin, the Black Knife assassins and necromancers, would use its power for dangerous reasons rather than the source of power itself being inherently malicious.
• Animalistic Abomination: The Twinbird that arrived in The Lands Between in ancient times was probably not a "bird" as we understand the concept. Going by associated iconography, it had two heads, black and red feathers and it was huge. If the description of it descending down from the heavens is literal, then it flew through space from another world to get here. Somehow it mothered the Deathbirds, these freaky living skeletons that can control the blackflame, despite being the only one of its kind. Most disturbing of all, it has the ability to influence the souls of those who die in The Lands Between and can even control them with its unique powers. Eventually The Golden Order declared war on it and chased it into some hidden, unknown place far away from the Erdtree.
• Animal Motifs: Heavily associated with birds, especially carrion birds like crows and vultures which are frequently misunderstood scavengers; this ties into the belief of Destined Death and its followers that death is a natural part of life. Notably, the Deathbirds look vaguely like grotesque vulture chicks.
• Arc Words: "Destined Death" refers to several things in-universe; it's a phrase important to both the Godskin cult and later on Those Who Live in Death, an essence granted to the Gloam-Eyed Queen which was taken by Maliketh upon her defeat, a title adopted by Maliketh, and one of several epithets which might belong to an outer god. Its true meaning seems to be something close to We All Die Someday.
• Came Back Wrong: Those Who Live In Death are unable or unwilling to reincarnate to the Erdtree but can't fully die as Destined Death is sealed, so the end result is the Deeproot type of death that make them zombies and skeletons.
• The Corruption: Though initially not indicated to be an outer god's influence, the Deathroot spreading from the Prince of Death Godwyn’s body is this. It spreads and mingles among the Erdtree roots, causes Those Who Live in Death to rise as well as infecting various lifeforms across the Lands Between with reproductions of Godwyn's "face" somewhere on their bodies. However, due to the lack of information pertaining to the characteristics of Destined Death, it is impossible to determine if the spread happens as an innate part of the Outer God's influence (like the blood growths of the Formless Mother, the growth of Eyes of Yelough in Frenzyflame-touched lands, and fungi that grow from Scarlet Rot), or as a result of Godwyn's unique situation (he's technically alive but soul-dead, resulting in his mutation, and he's buried under the Erdtree's roots, which might be spreading the Death from him) corrupting the current order, as dead demigods usually don't cause Deathroot growth (Ranni and Godrick's corpses don't grow any).
• Dem Bones: Those Who Live in Death are shown to be either zombies or this trope. Notably however, they seem to be sapient and are capable of forming groups and even revere the being from which they originate; the Prince of Death Godwyn.
• Dark Is Not Evil: Possibly. Destined Death initially seems malevolent, what with the Zombie Apocalypse and The Reveal of Fia killing D. But if Fia is tracked down, treating her nonaggressively has her articulate her desire for Those Who Live in Death to exist within the Golden Order, and she seems genuinely grateful and happy if worked with. Notably, Melina does not interfere to stop the Tarnished from achieving the Age of the Duskborn ending as she does with the Lord of Frenzied Flame ending, showing that she at least considers Destined Death more positively than the Frenzied Flame — though given the nature of the Frenzied Flame, that's a fairly low bar to clear.
• Darkness Equals Death: Destined Death is strongly associated with darkness, the night, and the eclipse. Everything about its essence are dyed in black, the Deathbirds only show up in Lands Between at night, and the Mausoleum Knights use the eclipse symbol both to hold the powers of Destined Death at bay (Eclipse Crest Greatshield) and to harness it and inflict Deathblight (Eclipse Shotel).
• The Ferryman: Tibia Mariners are presented as archetypal skeleton boatmen in the vein of Charon, alluding to the common theme of a "river" separating the living and the dead.
• Gameplay and Story Segregation: In the lore, both deathblight and blackflame are capable of killing immortals and inflicting True Death. Yet in gameplay, both deathblight and blackflame are status effects that can be endured or staved off, and even after dying to it the player Tarnished will respawn as normal. While this can be assumed to be a side effect of Maliketh sealing Destined Death away having weakened both, in the story itself the Deathblight sickness manages to kill Rogier permanently despite being Tarnished, suggesting it is still strong enough to truly kill at least the Tarnished resurrected by Grace.
• Godzilla Threshold: The Erdtree refusing entry to anyone, making it impossible for the Elden Ring to be repaired, is enough of an 'oh shit' moment for the entire world to make unsealing Destined Death a necessity.
• The Grim Reaper: An entity affiliated with death and skeletons. Its servants the Tibia Mariners even look like traditional depictions of the Reaper, simply trading in the scythe for an oar (which incidentally makes them look similar to Charon from Classical Mythology).
• Leaking Can of Evil: Due to the Black Knife Assassins stealing a portion of the Rune of Death and killing Godwyn, the Rune of Death is present in the Lands Between in the form of Deathroot. This is one of the rare cases where it leaking is worse than it just being unbound: if it was fully unbound, the dead would just stay dead, but since the Golden Order's 'immortality' is still present, the people who die in areas affected by Deathroot are instead returned as undead.
• I Love the Dead: Those Who Live in Death and adherents of the Prince of Death seem to be fond of, or at least tolerant of this, with Fia as the most prominent example. At the end of Fia's questline, she conceives a "child" with Godwyn's corpse using the vitality she has gathered and the two halves of Cursemark of Death, gestating them and giving birth to the Mending Rune of the Death-Prince.
• Immortal Breaker: This is why the Rune of Death and the powers derived from it are particularly feared: it can inflict the very concept of death on beings that otherwise don't have it. The Black Knife Assassins imbued their knives with just a fragment of the rune, and that was enough to kill Godwyn, a demigod that should have been immortal. The black flame that was used to the Gloam-Eyed Queen, the original possessor of Destined Death, and her followers were used to kill demigods and skin them. The Deeproot spreading from Godwyn's body is also capable of inflicting a sickness upon Rogier, dooming him to a slow and permanent death despite his Resurrective Immortality as a Tarnished. Later this becomes important, as unleashing Destined Death is necessary so that the Flame of Ruin can affect the otherwise indestructible Erdtree and burn away the thorns blocking the way inside.
• Kill the God: The Black Flame of Destined Death, originally wielded by the Gloam-Eyed Queen and channeled by her Godskin Apostles, are continually referred as godslaying flame, and their main weapons against champions of the Erdtree and possibly those of the outer gods. Even after the Queen's defeat, the Godskin continues their hunt well into the present time.
• Psychopomp: The deathbirds are said to guard the ashes of the dead and guide them, and have command over wandering spirits with the power of ghostflame.
• Purpose-Driven Immortality: Subtle, but the elements are present. The oldest known death worship in the Lands Between ("In the time when there was no Erdtree, death was burned in ghostflame.") came from the Deathbirds, and they were known for burning the remains of the dead with their ghostflame and raking their ashes — a role meant to be. Ancient priests who became guardians of these birds also went through the "rite of Death" to mark their oaths, sworn to a distant resurrection — an oath sworn duty. Finally, the Godskin Nobles are so old they are compared to the primordial crucible, and the cult continues to hunt gods and the kins of gods long after their Queen had been defeated by Maliketh — an ancient legacy. In short, each and every order who worships Death has an element of this trope.
• Red and Black and Evil All Over: The Rune of Death itself takes the form of a red-and-black ethereal cross that oozes a fog of darkness and glows a faint shade of red; however, it's not 'evil' as it is more extremely dangerous to mess with. The Twinbird is also described this way.
• Sealed Evil in a Can: Again, not evil, just dangerous, but it was deemed something that couldn't be allowed in the Golden Order, so Destined Death was bound and Maliketh made its warden. This didn't stop the Black Knife Assassins from stealing part of it, causing the Night of Black Knives and the appearance of Those Who Live in Death in the Lands Between. In order to avoid this happening ever again, Maliketh bound Destined Death to his own body; unfortunately, the player Tarnished needs Destined Death to be fully unleashed to reach their ultimate goal, so Maliketh has to fall.
• Technicolor Fire: Different factions will have access to either cold ghostflame or black flame. Ghost flame is blue colored fire that comes from burning bones and black flame is aimed against gods.
• We All Die Someday: The apparent true meaning behind the phrase "Destined Death". Melina's Final Speech as she burns herself in the Forge of the Giants seems to allude to this.
  "The one who walks alongside flame, shall one day meet the road of Destined Death. Good-bye."
• Zombie Apocalypse: The current plague of Those Who Live in Death might be Destined Death using Godwyn's body as a conduit to spread Deathroot throughout the Lands Between, which causes the dead to rise. Downplayed because these zombies appear to be sapient and are far from the worst thing happening in the Lands Between during the events of Elden Ring, and downplayed further if the Age of Duskborn ending is chosen, in which undeath becomes a natural part of the cycle of life, thus removing the "apocalypse" part altogether.

The One-Eyed God

Aliases: the Fell God, the Flame of Ruin, Giantsflame

Its eye manifested on the last Fire Giant

Unshackled fire is an affront the Eternal Queen cannot abide. When Marika first established her kingdom in the Lands Between, a neighboring civilization existed — one of giants who lived in and worked with fire. To strengthen the hold of the Golden Order in the Lands Between, Marika went to war with the fire-wielding giants. The conflict was long and calamitous, with images and memories of the giants used as icons of fear and terror even now, but ultimately Marika prevailed: the giants were wiped out.

At the heart of the giants' civilization was a forge of ever-burning flame that granted their civilization life and power. Unable to put out this unquenchable flame even with the full power of the Elden Ring, Marika cursed the last surviving Fire Giant to immortality, binding him to both tend and guard the flame forevermore, locking it out of reach.

In truth, the flame of the giants was a manifestation of a god that empowered the giants' civilization. The giants were servants of the flame and inhabitated by it, as proven by the one-eyed faces on their torsos. The success of Marika's war led to almost all knowledge of this entity being destroyed. It is known to have an obvious link to fire, and appears to require adherents to sacrifice something in exchange for protection. Even its epithet is unknown, with the phrase "fell god" being an appellation inflicted after the fact by fearful enemies. It is also known as the "corrupt flame" and "flame of ruin", and sometimes as the "One-Eyed God" for its depictions as a grotesque cyclops.

Though the power of the fell god diminished almost to nothingness without followers to work through, the ever-burning flame still remains. Furthermore, the Fire Monks set to guard the fire alongside the last giant have become beguiled by it, forming a modern cult that has resurrected both the worship and powers of the fell god, albeit in a twisted form. During the battle with the last Fire Giant, the Giant offers up his leg as sacrifice and manifests a one-eyed face on his torso, seemingly channeling the power of the fell god to become the "One-Eyed God". Afterwards, Melina offers herself to empower its flames to burn the Erdtree, thus realizing the ancient fear of Marika's Golden Order.

Though it does not directly influence any endings, the flame of the fell god is what allows the Tarnished to ascend the Erdtree and claim the Elden Ring in the first place.

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• Ambiguously Evil: The One-Eyed God is the only Outer God outright called evil by the game's lore and its other moniker as 'The Fell God' quite literally means "The Cruel/Terrible God", but how much that is distorted through the lenses of the Golden Order that defeated it is unclear. One one hand, the Fire Giants were very territorial beings who frequently got into fierce conflicts with the other inhabitants of the Mountaintops such as the frost dragons or the people of Zamor, and that might have been influenced by their god - on the other hand, its only apperent actions in-game has it respond to the desperate cries and sacrifice of the last Fire Giant to empower it against the player, which would ironically make the One-Eyed God the most actively protective Outer God of them all. On top of that, gaining the power of the One-Eyed God is vital for the Tarnished to finish their journey, and it seems more than happy to respond to the sacrifice of the appropriate 'kindling' even after you just finished killing its last follower.
• Ambiguous Situation: When the Fire Giant offers up his leg and manifests a cyclopean face on his chest similar to depictions of the fell god, gaining fire magic in the process, what is actually happening? Did the fell god simply grant the Giant some of its favor? Is the Giant channelling or manifesting the power of the god? Is the god possessing the Giant? Is this related to the depictions of the god living "within" the giants? The possibilities are tantalizing, but none are ever made concrete. Alexander calls the giant "practically a god" so he, at least, thinks it was a godly power.
• Cyclops: Usually portrayed as this, giving rise to its nickname the "One-Eyed God". The Fire Giant manifests a similar face on his chest after he seemingly invokes the fell god.
• Equivalent Exchange: While very little is known about the fell god, it appears the outer god operates on this. Many of its Incantations burn the user in exchange for beneficial effects or blessings, Melina must sacrifice her body and life to the Forge of the Giants to invoke sufficient power for burning the Erdtree with its flames, and the Fire Giant only begins spewing flames in earnest after he rips his left leg off, burns it, and raises it to the heavens as if in offering — before the fell god answers by opening the eye and the mouth on the Giant’s body, becoming the “One-Eyed God” previously alluded to by a few enemies and items.
• Evil Is Burning Hot: While it's less Obviously Evil than other fire-associated entities like the Frenzied Flame, the Formless Mother, the God-Devouring Serpent, and so on, it's an enemy of the Greater Will, and Marika called it an enemy of life in general. Considering how the Lands Between have flourished under the Erdtree since the war against the giants, the balance of evidence suggests that she was right.
• Expy: Of Balor, ruler of the malevolent Fomorians from Irish mythology, who is likewise a giant possessing a single eye which wreaks destruction when opened. Balor is also considered the personification of the scorching sun, just as the fell god is associated with flame, making the similarities between the two all the stronger.
• Hive Mind: An Implied Trope. The giants were both the servants/slaves to the fell god yet it also inhabitated them, and it seems to either grant the Fire Giant its power or outright take control of him during his battle's second phase, implying that the giants are the fell god to an extent. This would certainly explain why its power broke when they were nearly all wiped out.
• Leaking Can of Evil: Maybe. Despite its power (and/or itself, depending on if the flame and the Fell God are one and the same) being confined inside the Forge of the Giants and all but one of its original worshippers were completely wiped out, the Fell God's influence is still somewhat felt on the realm. The Fire Monks who were supposed to be its jailers and observers started to worship it instead, and began spreading outside of the Mountaintops into the rest of the Lands Between; though it's unknown if this is because they were influenced by the flames, or if they started to willingly worship it.
• Not Quite Dead: The One-Eyed Shield description states the deity once worshipped by Fire Giants is believed to be slain by Marika during the ancient wars. While it is possible Marika had killed a manifestation or proxy of the fell god, the fire in the Forge of the Giants said to contain “the presence” of the fell god remains ablaze and undying despite her efforts, meaning the god is very much alive and present. The Fire Monks, Adan, and the last Fire Giant encountered by the Tarnished can still call forth its flames, and both the Giant as well as Melina can sacrifice body parts to invoke its presence to accomplish tasks, with the Giant manifesting a face in its chest that looks nearly identical to ancient depictions of the fell god.
• Playing with Fire: The fell god is very heavily associated with fire, and indeed may even be the ever-burning flame in the Forge of the Giants, and grants fiery incantations to its followers — at a price.
• Slavery Is a Special Kind of Evil: Zigzagged. The Fire Giants were described as the fell god's slaves, yet they also benefitted from its patronage and fought on its behalf. The fell god was also described as being "within" the Fire Giants, and they may have been "slaves" in the extent that they were lesser members of a Hive Mind ruled by the god.
• Small Role, Big Impact: The fell god has the smallest influence on the world of Elden Ring compared to any of the outer gods save the dragon god, yet its ability to burn the Erdtree is what allows the finale to happen at all.
• The Reveal: An attentive player will piece together that the fell god and the One-Eyed God are the same entity. During the battle against the Fire Giant, the second phase leads to a cyclopean face manifesting on the Giant's chest that is identical to depictions of the fell god, leading to the reveal in question: the god is still here, and is still capable of interceding in the world..
• Villain of Another Story: The One-Eyed God led the Fire Giants, who themselves were antagonistic to a number of forces, such as the dragons living in the mountains whom they hunted and the people of Zamor who were their Arch-Enemy, and finally to Marika's empire. The defeat of the Fire Giants and the One-Eyed God (implied to have culminated in an actual direct fight between Marika and a manifestation of the god itself) was one of the key victories that allowed the Golden Order to form and take control of the entire Lands Between.
• Wham Shot: When the Fire Giant manifests a face on his chest identical to depictions of the One-Eyed God.

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