King Radagon

Hey! I have to put a disclaimer here. I am NOT a professional Japanese speaker, translator, localizer or ANYTHING of the sort so PLEASE do NOT expect 100% accuracy or precision. Thank you.

So, when Elden Ring released, a Japanese and English subbed trailer also came out. If you know anything about Miyazaki games, it's usually best to always check out the Japanese version to find lore. However, in this case it's not that clear since we also have an English Writer for the Lore. So that means that it's entirely possible the game's lore has a very accurate English Translation unlike the other games.

Despite this, I was able to get the transcript of the trailer:

裾せ人は、 帰ってくる. かつて失くした、祝福に導かれて.

黄全律は、どうしようもなく壊れてしまった.

想せ人よ お前もまた、エルデンリングを求めるのか. 愚かな野心の火に焼かれならば、その火ごと消してくれよう. 戦い、そして死め. それは終わりなき呪いだが英雄ば、王は、そこからしか生まれない.

...のう, 秘せ人風情が不遜であろう.

地に伏せよエルテンリンタを掲げよ…我らすべてのために.

So, let's discuss the first thing ever said "裾せ人" which seems to literally translate to "Someone who Hems" or stitches something together/fixes something. This is obviously referring to the mission of the Protagonist, to fix the Elden Ring with the pieces spread across the Lands Between. So, it seems the translation was very off.

The Golden Order "黄全律" is translated as the Golden Rule or the Golden Ratio. In Mathematics "Two quantities are in the golden ratio if their ratio is the same as the ratio of their sum to the larger of the two quantities." So it seems that the Golden Order is something equitable to something bigger with smaller parts within it. So basically a Leader that has more power with smaller Members on each side, so I'd say this is an accurate translation.

The curse uses the Kanji "呪" specifically a Curse that has been brought by a Magical Force. This is the same Kanji that refers to the Undead Curse in the Dark Souls series. However, a curse in Japanese Mythology is always started by some Magical Force so this isn't anything spectacular.

Lord as in Elden Lord seems to be "人風情" which seems to translate to a Person of Elegance and Sophistication. The phrasing "秘せ人風情が" implies that we are trying to secretly become this Lord instead of becoming one officially, which is what we're doing sort of.

So... Elden Ring got announced! And it seems that more lore has also been released. First off, it seems the protagonist is called 'The Tarnished" and the lands are constantly being referred to as the "Lands Between". If you remember, in the leaked trailers, it was specifically referred to as the Riftlands.

It seems that we, The Tarnished are appointed to brandish the Elden Ring itself for some sort of power. We are also tasked to become an Elden Lord, whatever that means. It also seems this Elden Ring is the source of the Giant Tree, the "Erdtree".

The Queen of the Lands Between is a Woman named "Marika the Eternal" most likely an immortal Queen... Not new from Miyazaki. Marika's offspring, considered Demigods, now hold the Shards of the Elden Ring, the shards being called the "Great Runes" and due to the power of these Runes, it created a war called The Shattering and meant the abandonment of something called the Greater Will, whatever that may be.

In the trailer, it showed many things such as multi-handed monsters, pots with hands(yes really) and a lot of Giants. Dragons also exist, which is unsurprising. The game seems to contain many bosses. The game also seems to still contain Early Modern English which is a welcome sight.

Finally is most likely the Firekeeper of this game, she has no name as of yet but she speaks about the Golden Order and how it is in complete disarray. It's most likely something Divine but it's not clear.

So, we have learned about the Riftlands which is presumably the country/place in which Elden Ring takes place in. Let’s get definitions out of the way first. What is a rift?

In geology, a rift is a linear zone where the lithosphere is being pulled apart and is an example of extensional tectonics.

Typical rift features are a central linear downfaulted depression, called a graben, or more commonly a half-graben with normal faulting and rift-flank uplifts mainly on one side. Where rifts remain above sea level they form a rift valley, which may be filled by water forming a rift lake. The axis of the rift area may contain volcanic rocks, and active volcanism is a part of many, but not all, active rift systems. (source)

So, with this we can presume the lands are just a bunch of rifts or cracks in the ground. Now, in the trailers we don’t really see anything like that. Anywhere, but we might see a Rift Lake from where the Dragon Lands. Though, this isn’t likely: 

And the next thing about the Riftlands is the ruins. In all that we see there are just many broken places and architecture. The architecture and the themes of the Riftlands seem very Celtic as well. Not only that some parts feel almost Dwarven. Which is still Celtic but holds a more fantasy and homebrew feel, not entirely connected to reality.

We also have all of the Castles in the trailers which honestly all vary in style. We have a very Celtic castle and then we have a more French Style castle in other places. Of course, we have no idea what that means or why its so inconsistent. It’s possible that the Riftlands are a cultural Melting Pot of sorts which we see in real life as well. Or at the very least the Older Settlers were more of a Celtic type and now many kinds of people now settle in. That is what happened with Bloodborne with the older parts resembling more Pthumerian architecture and the further up, the newer the architecture is. In the trailers we seem multiple castles, whether these are places we have to go, this also leads back to a 4chan leak we had last year where it says there are 8 Kingdoms. With this information and the fact we see so many, this is probably true and there’s 8 kinds of people inhabiting the Riftlands.

Next we have environment and such, In the leaks we see regular land, fields and snow. Meaning the land, as we can guess, is extremely large and varied without say like Dark Souls 1 and 3 where the only snow area was through a painting or with Irithyll and the reason it’s so cold is due to a permanent moon. It seems like it’ll be natural and much cleaner.

Then we have the possible importance of the Moon. In a lot of shots we see the Moon. In Celtic Lore the Moon is a great source of power and has many gods associated with it. It is basically a divine thing and here it seems it is no different. In the Boss Fight cutscene it seems the Moon’s power is being used or the Moon is being protected. Whether its because it is powerful or possibly it contains the secret of the titular Elden Ring is unknown as there is no information. The Moon in everywhere its shown is a beautiful blue and shines the sky very nicely.

Then we have the World Tree, this isn’t the same name it has most likely, but it’s definitely what this is. The World Tree is a common mythological thing where it holds many of the world’s secrets or places. This is presumably the case with Elden Ring too. Though, this could just be a very, very large tree such as an Arch Tree from Dark Souls. There seems to be a few of these in the world though but maybe not to this stature. But we won’t know until we get more, anyways. What these trees mean could be anything to people living in them or a portal to another plane. Whichever it is, it is an interesting world asset and will definitely have a great aesthetic.

Let’s talk religion. Already we can tell Elden Ring will feature an organized religion such as Bloodborne (Blood and Great Ones), Sekiro (Buddhism), Dark Souls (Way of White) and Demon’s Souls (Church of God). We can tell due to the amount of religious clothing and not to mention the literal cathedral we see with a lot of seats. This leads back to the Moon where it is likely that the Moon is worshipped due to its Great Power. It’s also assumed that the Elden Ring is linked to this religion in some fashion which wouldn’t be surprising in the slightest. The boss we were shown can only be described as a religious leader of some sort, the clothing basically gives it away. 

Next, let’s talk about the Giants. As I said in my previous post, Giants seem to be enslaved, they are literally chained and forced to be walked. They also seem to be impaled with some sort of stake, why this is I have no idea. This immediately opens the world up to multiple kind of beings, such as Dark Souls. We have yet to see other kinds of creatures but I assume again by the leaks, Elves will be involved and possibly other types of creatures.

Now we get to Dragons. Dragons are very cool. But all we know is that they just exist, sadly we don’t get much about them. It seems they appear in open air and possibly in catacombs, which is kinda terrifying.

(Circled it)

And let’s talk about the Sea of Fog. It was mentioned once and was said that the way we(the Player Character) manage to get through the Riftlands is through that. Assumedly it is not a real Sea but only just a vast and large area where there is just a lot of fog and it leads to the Riftlands, it is not known if the Sea holds any power or mystique all we know now is that it just is a space between.

Lastly, let’s talk about the Sky. Yes! The Sky. In the trailers we see Sun and Moon but we also see a Red sky, very cloudy. And this actually may have some importance. It’s the exact same sky in the trailer.

I have no idea what this sky means but it’s obviously something that happens when the world changes, which has been a thing since Dark Souls.

And extra note about races, whatever that guy is, it seems that brute men are in this world too, I guess? Doesn’t seem like a Giant, but yeah. Not to mention there’s also the thing with him fading away but I’ll be honest, I have NOTHING on that, I can’t even guess what that’s about.

To go off of lore the first thing we see is crouching and sneaking, which leads into a surprise attack, which is a first for Souls! A welcome change too. Then we see catacombs... unsurprising for any Souls player, along with a skeleton, another common enemy. In this scene we also witness a campsite, which is a rare, if not an unseen sight in any game thus far. 

Then we see... A Dragon! Yes, they exist in Dark Souls but usually as a hidden boss or whatnot, but this seems like a regular-ish occurrence, similar to Skyrim. It’s an outside fight on a field with ruins. We also see magic, which is unsurprising. It closely resembles the Homing Soulmass from Dark Souls

Next we see our first regular Enemy. I have no idea what it is other than a bipedal large swordsmen. It seems it can be staggered.

Next we see our first boss! Well, supposedly... Regardless, it seems to be a thinly limbed creature with a Shield. Also in this scene we see that Magic Weapon also returns. 

It wears a cape, a green cape too which could be important. Regardless, the creature screams when hit.

Next we see another new thing, which is Horse riding! First in the series. And we see it riding in a snowy area which is unique and seems very vast which adds to the idea of it being a very large open world game.

And the most interesting part to me is what we see next. Which is a very very large World Tree. World Trees aren’t new at all, if you’ve played Dark Souls I, the game begins with one, literally. This one closely resembles a Chaos Tree, this tree also is very high into the sky. The roots also seem to be spreading into the sky.

There’s also walls and ruins, this could be a demonic world, or something other, we just don’t know. Not to mention the sky is similar to that of the trailer while the sky in the other parts is “normal” at least normal to what we see on Earth.

Next we do see Horseback Riding and then combat simultaneously. This is unsurprising as many games do that, but it’s still cool!

Lastly, we see a city.

Moonlight and it has a castle as its setting. It’s quite beautiful, especially with the starry sky. What this city is can be anyone’s guess. I presume it’s a college, city or castle for royalty. The statue seems to have something growing on the bottom and possibly near the play bar on the video, a person or npc of great stature is standing. 

Sadly, this is all I can gather at the moment, this might not even be the full trailer? And not to mention the trailer was very low quality. Regardless, I hope you enjoy! I don’t want to get into the tiny details right now, so I’ll leave it here.

UPDATE: Another trailer has been LEAKED with more lore and worldbuilding!

So, another one! This one is much more interesting and drops some location names, including the entire setting’s name.

First shot is very interesting. It’s of the World Tree and the surrounding area.

As we can see, there’s a long bridge and a large Tower. Beyond seems to possible be a church. Next we see another castle with a very interesting design.

I can’t say much about this castle as nothing about the lore is known, it could be a city we can explore, could not be. This is all we see of it, it’s quite interesting, next we see another dragon and this time it lands on shallow water. Then... We see something very interesting. Giants.

They seem to be enslaved and are carrying around cargo, this is actually similar to Giant’s role in the Dark Souls universe. Then we see a face made of rock, it seems to have hot spots with lava or fire .

Then we get scenes of characters and this really interesting large Goblet?

And during this, we hear about the “Sea of Fog” and “Riftlands” and with this we can presume that to get to the Riftlands, one must cross the Sea of Fog, why we have to is unknown but it’s presumably so we can seek the Elden Ring. The Riftlands are presumably what we will be exploring in the entirety of the game. We are told that the Riftlands are the very edge of “The Map” aka just being the edge of the world/continent/etc... Then we get a sight of an ruin/castle or city.

And then this trailer ends. 

UPDATE: Leak 3 and 4!

So we have yet ANOTHER leak... This one begins with a slight view of a city, presumably. 

I have no idea what it is but it looks large and frankly beautiful. Then we see a really large underground city.

And then we see an underground place, with a very large statue, if this is connected to the previous city is unknown.

Then we see Catacombs and a player holding a torch.

Then we see a door opening in an undoubtedly Dark Souls way. Into a possible Cathedral. An archway above.

Then we see a clip of the Player Character walking across a broken floor.

Then we see the Player Character jumping across Rooftops and many fortifications in the distance. 

Lastly, we see what can only be assumed to be a giant wheel with a bridge in the distance. Bridges seem to be very common in the environment.

4th Leak

For this leak we have the Player Character locked in a cutscene in a strange room. 

This leads to the boss rising, it is a humanoid with very strange robes. With a weapon.

The boss then walks towards the Player Character and we get an interesting shot. 

Behind is a Moon and water. I have no idea what this means or why it’s here. Is it just magic, is the Moon important? Most likely this is an important boss, if we’re lucky this is the final boss. But, we don’t know.

Another thing is we see these orbs, possibly even globes in this shot.

It’s probably just a wizard thing, but we’ll see. This is the end of the leaks for now.

This game’s environment seems to be in tons of ruin, lots of run down things. It’s really cool and I really enjoy what they’re doing. If more leaks get... well, leaked, I will update this post. Just keep in mind NOTHING shown here is equitable to the final game, Miyazaki is known to change things last minute and for all we know nothing in this post is final and could be changed dramatically. Nevertheless, enjoy.