What Happens In Elden Ring? The Game’s Story, Part 6: Mountaintops Of The Giants

You’ve defeated Morgott and made your strategy to the Erdtree, solely to find the way in which ahead is blocked. During your journey by way of Elden Ring, your purpose has all the time been to make your strategy to the Erdtree and seize the title of Elden Lord, however despite the fact that you have acquired numerous Great Runes at this level, some power continues to be barring you from coming into the tree and claiming what’s yours. There’s extra to the story of what is going on on with the Erdtree and the Elden Ring, however we can’t uncover it for a while. Right now, we have now to determine easy methods to go ahead, and the search is about to take us to the lands of a individuals Marika and the Golden Order really conquered: the Mountaintops of the Giants.The frozen lands to the north of Leyndell appear to be some that few go to, which additionally makes them one thing of a protected haven for some. It’s right here that two extra demigods have tried to make their properties: Malenia and Miquella, the kids of Marika and Radagon. Finding these two Shardbearers–or Malenia, at least–is not simple, however doing so reveals a complete lot extra in regards to the story of Elden Ring and what has occurred within the time between the Shattering and now.As all the time, this text incorporates tons of spoilers.More Elden Ring story explainersThe path of heresyFinding the Erdtree blocked does not go away you with loads of choices. Your solely actual plan of action at this level is to return to the Roundtable Hold and go to Finger Reader Enia and the Two Fingers to ask for assist. After all, the steering of grace led you thus far, so why would the Erdtree be sealed up? Isn’t grace born of the Two Fingers and the Greater Will? Haven’t you been following some divine plan all alongside?Heading again to Enia is…attention-grabbing. The Two Fingers, it appears, weren’t very nicely ready for this improvement, and they do not know what to do. You see them go inflexible as they level excessive within the air, and Enia says that they are communing with the Greater Will. This, apparently, can take an especially very long time, seemingly due to the gap between the Lands Between and the Greater Will, which just about leaves you hanging.From right here, you check with Enia in addition to Melina, and each have the identical reply: Burn the Erdtree to interrupt the thorny seal blocking the way in which inside. This, each will let you know, is a cardinal sin, a fully horrifying factor to do. After all, all life flows out and in of the Erdtree, or so we’re led to imagine. Souls return to the Erdtree once they die, and individuals who do not return wind up as undead monsters known as Those Who Live in Death. It shouldn’t be immediatley clear what sort of penalties setting the large golden tree on the middle of the world on fireplace would have on the Lands Between, however there does not appear to be another choice for claiming the Elden Ring. The world cannot actually keep the way in which it’s, with no gods to maintain it from crumbling and stagnating.Melina, no less than, appears to assume this isn’t simply the one choice, however the objective for her existence. She thinks the Lands Between want the return of indiscriminate demise in an effort to repair what has occurred, and to return demise to the world, the Erdtree must be destroyed. Up till now, her purpose by way of this whole journey was to make it to the Erdtree and attempt to uncover or recall why she had come to exist within the first place–she tells you early within the sport that she was created by her mom for a particular cause, however she’s misplaced observe of what that’s over time. We do not know who Melina’s mom is, though the involvement of the Erdtree strongly implies Melina’s mom may be Marika (though there are loads of different theories about Melina, and we have now no definitive strategy to show or disprove any of them). Once you have made it to the tree, Melina involves imagine that her objective is to destroy the tree and restore demise to the world.After defeating Morgott, the Two Fingers will go inflexible. According to Enia, they’re communing with the Greater Will, however they haven’t any knowledge to offer–forcing you to take issues into your personal fingers.Enia appears curiously on-board as nicely, maybe for her personal causes. Though the Finger Reader signifies that burning the Erdtree is a cardinal sin, she’s not particularly emphatic about stopping you; after one fast warning, she mainly says, “Well, up to you, do what you want.” You can also’t get any data from the Two Fingers, who spend the remainder of the sport making an attempt to commune with the Greater Will. Enia additionally very a lot suggests that you’re going to be ready ceaselessly to listen to from the Greater Will, subtly suggesting that you’ll have to take issues into your personal fingers. If you speak to a different Finger Reader Crone in your strategy to the Mountaintops of the Giants, she begs you to show again, and even says, “Who would dare put you up to such a task? Most certainly not the Fingers!” Maybe the Roundtable Hold’s Finger Reader is not precisely reliable.Still, there’s not a lot alternative in any other case, so the plan is to go to the east finish of Leyndell and the Grand Lift of Rold, which may take you to the mountains. You first must enterprise by way of the Forbidden Lands, a kind of no-man’s land between Leyndell and the Mountaintops. The space’s location is attention-grabbing, as is its proximity to Leyndell. It means that Marika closed off this whole space to everybody, and virtually nobody has gone north since. We do not have all of the solutions as to the reasoning for this, however since we’re headed there to discover a fireplace able to burning down the Erdtree, we are able to intuit that the giants had been a serious menace to the Golden Order–even after they had been defeated. Passing by way of the Forbidden Lands, you may take the Grand Lift of Rold to the Mountaintops, beginning a journey to the highest.Before venturing to the height, although, your path may take you to a secret place throughout the mountains. It’s a spot the place the downtrodden of the Lands Between have sought out, and the trail to succeed in it’s hidden and guarded. That place is Miquella’s Haligtree, the place one other age may need begun for the Lands Between, if not for the interference of others. You can face the demigod Malenia and declare one other Great Rune if you happen to go there. But first, we’ll cowl the climb up the mountain.Marika’s first struggleYour purpose within the Mountaintops of the Giants is to assert the Flame of Ruin, a remnant of their tradition and the “Fell God” they worshiped. We do not know a lot about this Fell God, however we do know that it was a hazard to the Erdtree itself–the Fire Giants’ flame was the one factor able to burning the tree, and that made the giants and their Fell God a serious menace to Marika’s energy and the Golden Order.Marika’s struggle towards the giants allowed her to seal away the one actual menace to the Erdtree: the Flame of Ruin.When Marika first rose to godhood and took Godfrey as her Elden Lord, they waged struggle on the giants first. You can truly observe Marika’s path by way of the Lands Between primarily based on the place her church buildings are established, with the First Church of Marika discovered within the Mountaintops. The path winds south, with Limgrave and the Weeping Peninsula being the final locations she took over. Leyndell may need existed earlier than Marika confirmed up, however it appears very seemingly that she was answerable for fortifying the capital into a spot of nice power, and evidently its location and fortification may have been, no less than partially, about walling off the trail to the Mountaintops past. Even although Marika defeated the Fire Giants, she discovered she may by no means utterly put out their flame, so she took precautions towards it ever getting used towards the Erdtree. Some of these precautions are acknowledged outright, however we are able to speculate that Leyndell itself is a precaution towards anybody ever reaching the Mountaintops once more. With the giants’ defeat, the age of the Erdtree and Marika’s rule may really start.Godfrey was a fierce warrior, however he and Marika did not defeat the giants alone. They had assist from a wide range of allies from the giants’ personal lands. One of your first stops on the way in which up is the Zamor Ruins, a destroyed city populated by Zamor Knights. These individuals had been notably attuned to winter, frost, and chilly generally, and we’re informed they had been mortal enemies of the giants. When Marika confirmed up wanting to overcome the giants, the Zamor Knights threw in with the Golden Order and helped within the struggle towards their outdated enemies. It does not appear as if the Zamor got here out notably nicely regardless of being on the successful crew, however–like the remainder of the Lands Between, their city is in ruins, despite the fact that considered one of their champions is honored with an elaborate tomb. Much farther south, yow will discover an Ancient Hero of Zamor confined in an evergaol, though there’s not loads of details about the way it wound up there or why.Godfrey and Marika additionally had the good thing about betrayers within the ranks of the giants: the trolls. Those huge purple guys you have been seeing all around the Lands Between, generally serving as warriors and infrequently dragging caravans behind them, had been as soon as allies of the giants. They turned coat when Godfrey and his warriors confirmed up, which is why the giants all appear to be lifeless, however trolls are nonetheless alive and nicely in numerous locations. Like the Zamor, although, it does not seem to be the trolls actually got here out on prime due to their allegiance to the Golden Order. Sure, they’re nonetheless alive, however we often see them appearing as little greater than menial labor. It may be as a result of they’re huge and dumb, however we all know of no less than one troll, the Caria blacksmith Iji in Liurnia, who’s clever sufficient to converse like some other character. Since so many non-humans wind up as servants or slaves within the Lands Between, we’d guess that even betraying the giants wasn’t sufficient to actually get the trolls within the good graces of the Golden Order. In reality, the one individuals who actually appear to deal with the trolls with a lot respect are the Carians, who allowed them to tackle expert jobs, like smiths, and even raised some to knighthood.Also aiding the Golden Order, it appeared, had been the Fire Monks, a gaggle of people who hail from the Mountaintops of the Giants. I’m not precisely certain if the monks had been a gaggle who existed earlier than the struggle or in the event that they had been a gaggle created from the Golden Order. It looks as if the latter, because the “most ancient” of the Fire Monks’ incantations was one which protected the champions of the Golden Order from the facility of the giants’ flames. After the giants had been defeated, the Fire Monks had been charged with guarding the Flame of Ruin. Over time, although, it appears they turned from guarding the flame to worshiping it. Their armor is usual after the giants they helped destroy, and their incantations feed its energy. There are even some Fire Monks in Liurnia as they chase after a person known as Adan, Thief of Fire. You can discover Adan within the Malefactor’s Evergaol, and defeating him earns you the Flame of the Fell God incantation, suggesting that the Fire Monks know the Fire Giants’ Outer God nonetheless exists, they usually’ve been guarding that secret, both on Markia’s behalf or to maintain that data from her and the Golden Order.The Fire Giant and the Fell GodThe ravaged, frozen our bodies of giants are scattered all all through the Mountaintops, displaying the aftermath of their battles with Godfrey and Marika.Before lengthy, you may discover the giants themselves, they usually positively fared worse than the Zamor or the trolls. Their large our bodies are frozen alongside the mountain path, their guts ripped out. Later, we’ll see precisely what is going on on with these chest holes–which the trolls have, too. For now, although, you’ll be able to largely see how the battle has gone. In reality, there is just one big who survives: the Fire Giant boss you may quickly attain.As the giants had been overwhelmed, it is stated that Marika herself killed the Fell God these giants served, though that does not appear to be completely correct. Incantations and lore associated to the giants means that the fell god exists throughout the giants themselves, in addition to within the flames they conjured with their talents. Marika discovered the Flame of Ruin and the god associated to it could not be utterly defeated, so she cursed one Fire Giant to stay on the mountain alone, tending to the flame for eternity.The Fire Monks appear to worship the Flame of Ruin, and they’re maybe not the one ones involved in it. You additionally discover finger creepers, the disembodied fingers spider-like fingers, unfold all around the Mountaintops of the Giants. We discovered these initially in Caria Manor and once more hanging round within the sewers of Leyndell, and as we talked about briefly within the Volcano Manor piece, they strongly resemble the fingers of Praetor Rykard, Lord of Blasphemy. We know that Rykard sends brokers out into the remainder of the Lands Between to attempt to purchase the issues he must develop his energy, and that he is rekindled a deal with magma sorcery at his dwelling within the volcano. A man who loves blasphemy would seemingly be very within the Flame of Ruin and the cardinal sin it will enable him to commit, so it does not seem to be a lot of a stretch to think about that these hand creatures may very well be Rykard’s makes an attempt to be taught extra in regards to the flame for himself.Eventually, you may discover the Giants’ Forge, and the final Fire Giant, who guards it. Fighting this man, you may quickly discover that he has a face on his chest, full with one large, horrifying eye. This is the attention of the Fell God, and it appears to be what the lore means when it says that the Fell God is inside all of the giants. This can also be apparently what was torn out of the giants and the trolls–the literal eye of their god.Marika cursed the final Fire Giant to have a tendency the Fell God’s flame eternally, seemingly after realizing that she may by no means completely put it out.Lore surrounding the giants is the place we get attention-grabbing details about Radagon and his kids, as talked about again in Part 3. Defeating the Fire Giant can unlock a whip known as the Giant’s Red Braid, which fills within the element that each one giants have pink hair–and then particularly notes that Radagon, who additionally had pink hair, hated this side of himself. Red hair additionally seems incessantly amongst Radagon’s kids. Was Radagon a large, or half big? We do not know for certain, however that one lore tidbit raises some questions in regards to the champion of the Golden Order–elements we’ll dig into somewhat deeper quickly.Killing the large opens the trail to the Giants’ Forge and the Flame of Ruin. When you get there, Melina will seem at your facet, thanks, and use herself to kindle the Flame of Ruin to burn the Erdtree. Though, that does not must occur. You may need met somebody known as Shabriri close to the place you first entered the Mountaintops of the Giants, who counsels you to discover a strategy to save Melina again in Leyndell. If you comply with his recommendation, yow will discover a strategy to kindle the flame your self, with out sacrificing Melina, by giving your self to the Frenzied Flame.Melina appears okay with fulfilling her objective and, seemingly, ending her existence, although. As the inhabitants of the Lands Between look on, the Erdtree burns, spreading ash all through the land. But you quickly end up awakening someplace strange–a crumbling mausoleum floating within the clouds. This is Farum Azula, and it is the place the place you may declare the opposite factor it is advisable to full the destruction of the Erdtree: Destined Death.From right here, you’ll be able to learn on about what you discover in Farum Azula and in Leyndell once you return to the Erdtree. Or you may search out the ultimate two demigod Shardbearers nonetheless hanging round within the Lands Between. Those final two Shardbearers are Malenia, Blade of Miquella, and Mohg, Lord of Blood. Their tales are intertwined and each could doom the Lands Between in their very own method.