The Elden Ring Plot: Game Endings Explained

In the Elden Ring plot, there are a total of about 6 types of endings, but in fact, it is divided into 3 main endings. They include that “the protagonist Tarnished chooses to become Elden Lord”, “the protagonist Tarnished follows the Three Fingers“, or “the protagonist Tarnished becomes Ranni's mate“.

Elden Ring Plot Summary

First, we should take a quick look at the game's plot in order to understand the process from the beginning when the main character Tarnished is called back to the Lands Between as well as the purpose of becoming Elden Lord. Basically, if you just follow a straight line and ignore all the side quests or hidden bosses, the path to becoming Elden Lord is quite simple. It can be summarized as follows.

- The Tarnished hear the call back from the Lands Between. The protagonist is a Tarnished without a Finger Maiden, so he is supported by Melina.

- Through the Roundtable Hold, the protagonist knows it is needed to collect Great Rune from the demigods of Queen Marika to be able to form the complete Elden Ring. This helps him become the Elden Lord.

- In fact, 2 pieces of Great Rune are enough to go to the capital Leyndell. This seems to have been simplified compared to the original because according to the first Elden Ring plot, you have to collect 100% of all Great Runes from the Demigods.

- Proceed to the central throne of the Erdtree, and defeat Morgott the Omen King. However, the Tarnished cannot go inside to meet Queen Marika.

- Melina said that she needed 2 things to unlock the lock. The first thing was the giant's never-ending fire that is to burn the roots outside. The next is the Rune of Death for the purpose of breaking the seal.

- In order to be able to use the flames in the giant's forge, which also requires a conductor, Melina is willing to sacrifice.

- The protagonist runs to the land of giants, kills the Fire Giant, and lets Melina guide the flames from the smithy, burn down the outer part of the Erdtree.

- Defeat Maliketh who is protecting the Rune of Death and return to the capital Leyndell.

- Before being able to meet Queen Marika, the player must also encounter Godfrey - the first Elden Lord, who was banished and became a Tarnished but has now returned.

- Defeat Godfrey and enter the core of Erdtree where we learn the true secret of the Elden Ring plot. It was that Marika is the one who destroyed the Elden Ring as well as she and her husband Radagon, being the same entity.

- Defeat the fusion of Radagon with Marika, then destroy the Elden Beast - the true embodiment of the Elden Ring, it is also the final boss of the game.

In the end, players will have choices corresponding to the endings below, read on for detailed explanations one by one.

The First Ending: The Tarnished Become Elden Lord

After defeating the Elden Beast, the player will be given a choice of whether or not he wants to become the next Elden Lord, replacing Marika as the new owner of The Lands Between.

If the player accepts this option, the Tarnished will use his Great Runes to connect with the rest of Queen Marika's body, creating a complete Elden Ring. Thereby, he receives its power to ascend to the throne of the next Elden Lord. This ending will be divided into 4 secondary endings, depending on which Great Rune the Tarnished chooses as the connection.

Age of Fracture

This is the simplest and most intuitive ending in the Elden Ring plot. After defeating the Elden Beast, the protagonist will repair the Runes left over from Marika's body and the Great Runes he got from the Demigods, thereby, restoring the Elden Ring to its original state.

The protagonist takes this power and becomes the next Elden Lord, ushering in a new era called the Age of Fracture.

Basically, Age of Fracture can be called a smooth ending, which means it doesn't change anything. The protagonist simply restores the Elden Ring to the time before it was destroyed by Marika, fails to break the immortality curse that still exists in The Lands Between, and does not create any mutations, in addition to being the first Tarnished to become Elden Lord.

Age of Duskborn

It is somewhat similar to the first ending, but when repairing the Elden Ring, the main character will use the Mending Rune of the Death-Prince as the central part. That caused the Elden Ring to completely transform. When he becomes Elden Lord, the new dynasty will be called the Age of Duskborn.

To understand this ending in the Elden Ring plot, we have to talk about the first Demi-God to be killed as Godwyn the Golden. After the assassin used a dagger inlaid with a fragment of the Rune of Death, Godwyn was murdered and his spirit disappeared. But this Demi-God's physical body still exists, it is buried deep underground in the capital Leyndell, surrounded by the branches of the tree of death called Deeproot.

Godwyn became the Death-Prince and spiritual leader of a group of people called Those Who Live in Death. These people were cursed with immortality after Marika took the Rune of Death from the Elden Ring, making it impossible for them to escape after death. The main character will meet Fia - a Deathbed Companion.

Fia takes the 2 Cursemark of Death shards that drop when a Demi-God dies and fuses it with Godwyn's flesh and blood to create the Mending Rune of the Death-Prince. This has the same effect as the Rune of Death, which is to bring death back to The Lands Between.

When the protagonist assembles this Rune to complete the Elden Ring, it will remove the immortal curse, freeing Those Who Live in Death. This ending seems to be a bit better than Age of Fracture because it at least lifts the immortality curse.

Blessing of Despair

This time the Rune used is the Mending Rune of the Fell Curse. When using this Rune, the main character casts a terrible curse, affecting all creatures on The Lands Between.

It caused Erdtree to dry up, the land around it withered, and thick sandstorms to rise. This is in fact the Bad Ending in the Elden Ring plot. This curse is 10 times more terrible than the curse of immortality, it is called Seedbed Curse.

Mending Rune of the Fell Curse was created by Dung Eater. He is a cursed butcher and is imprisoned deep in the sewers of the capital. Dung Eater was born with a strange curse that also made him scary. When Dung Eater kills someone, he will also stain that person's body and spirit. That unfortunate spirit will not be able to return to Erdtree, forever locked up and wandering aimlessly, suffering terrible pain.

Unlike the immortal curse, the Seedbed Curse curse tortures that bad person forever, not only himself but also his children, relatives, or descendants for many generations to come. This can be considered the most terrible punishment, the most evil curse in the Elden Ring plot. When the main character meets Dung Eater, the butcher curses himself to later bring back the Mending Rune of the Fell Curse to make the whole world suffer like him.

Age of Order

This is the final choice among the endings of being Elden Lord. In this time the Mending Rune of Perfect Order is used to restore the Elden Ring. This can be seen as a journey to restore glory to the Golden Order, the service of the Two Fingers, and the royal family, specially dedicated to Erdtree and Queen Marika. The name Golden is also named after the golden light emanating from the magic tree.

The main character will follow the journey of Brother Corhyn and Goldmask, who are members of the Golden Order. Goldmask is a scholar searching for the secrets of Erdtree, and Corhyn adores him and wants to follow Goldmask to learn.

While researching Erdree, Goldmask became suspicious when he saw the names of Queen Marika and Radagon standing next to each other. Later when he learned the truth that Marika was Radagon, Goldmask had completely collapsed, even wanting to use the fire from the giant's forge to purify it.

The meaning of Mending Rune of Perfect Order is to mock Marika, a god who is as mean and deceptive as mortal creatures. There were other people in the Golden Order who knew about this, such as Sir Gideon Ofnir, The All-Knowing, but he also did not want to reveal it.

The Second Ending: Resist Erdtree and Accept Three Fingers

What are Three Fingers and Two Fingers? What is the difference between them? The Elden Ring is originally the power of a space god named Greater Will, Queen Marika is only its container.

Greater Will has followers, the most loyal one is Two Fingers. Basically, Two Fingers is also an invisible entity, but its power is much less than Greater Will. Two Fingers' mission is to serve the Marika royal family, select the Demigod children who are likely to succeed her, and appoint someone to both trains and look after them. The Golden Order also worships the will of the Two Fingers, loyal to Queen Marika.

Three Fingers can also be a subordinate of Greater Will. However, it is the exact opposite of Two Fingers. It is not only disloyal to Greater Will but also deeply disgruntled with the Golden Order. A somewhat free and mad entity, the Three Fingers wanted to create a chaotic world where everything was engulfed in the frenzied fire it created.

The fire of the Three Fingers is also what can burn down Erdtree. This is also a way to save Melina because the Tarnished will take her own body to become a living torch. After defeating the Elden Beast, instead of restoring the Elden Ring, the protagonist summons the Three Fingers down through his body, burns down Erdtree and engulfe The Lands Between in the flames of chaos.

This is a rather special ending in the Elden Ring plot. If you follow Three Fingers, even though Melina is saved, the player will not become Elden Lord. On the other hand, all creatures on The Lands Between were driven mad by the flames of the Three Fingers, and the world was considered to have completely collapsed.

This could be a hint for the game's next DLC, as after Melina was saved, her damaged left eye reopened. Melina also said that she will continue to search for the main character in order to give back what he owns.

The Third Ending: Follow Ranni

The final ending in the Elden Ring and can also be considered a good ending is the choice to be the mate of Lunar Princess Ranni. The player will not restore the Elden Ring, instead letting Ranni become the new God in place of Marika. She will summon one of her main gods in the form of a moon, casting darkness over the world. The main character Tarnished is also Ranni's life partner, living together forever by her side.

Among the Demigods, Ranni and the twins Malenia - Miquella were chosen to succeed Marika. However, Ranni doesn't like her fate arranged. Two Fingers sent two guardians to look after and supervise Ranni, but they later became more loyal to her.

To break free from this bondage, Ranni planned to steal a fragment of the Rune of Death, give it to the Black Knife assassins, and assassinate Godwyn. If Godwyn lost his soul leaving only his body, on the contrary, Ranni's soul would exist without a body. Ranni lost part of her memories, until she met the main character Tarnished.

Ranni asked the protagonist to deal with the assassin sent by Two Fingers, then restore her body. If Two Fingers succeeds in doing it all, Ranni will come back to life completely and choose Tarnished as her mate. She will temporarily go away to summon a new Master God to replace Greater Will, turning the world into the shadow of the moon.

Although Ranni has a rather dark and somewhat negative personality, this is probably the best ending in the Elden Ring storyline. At least Tarnished had a wife and wasn't afraid of being stabbed in the back like Marika had thrown out of Godfrey.

And those are 6 endings in the Elden Ring plot, but there are still a lot of things that are quite confusing especially the ending of Age of Duskborn and Lord of the Frenzied Flame. Since it hasn't fully explained the Three Fingers, as well as Fia's role with Godwyn, it's highly likely that the answer will be in the upcoming DLC.