Even after the recent trailer revealed at Summer Games Fest 2021 there is still much left to uncover about Elden Ring. Shortly after the trailer's release, however, Elden Ring director Hidetaka Miyazaki revealed some further details regarding the action-RPG's story, not the least of which are details regarding player characters, mysterious warriors known as the Tarnished.
Like the Chosen Undead of specific details regarding the Tarnished, but moments throughout the recent gameplay trailer reveal a few key facts. First, the Tarnished are yet another cursed people bound to some task by their status. This is a fairly common backstory for many of FromSoftware's playable characters. Additionally, the Tarnished are outsiders who are returning to the lands present in Elden Ring in search of the eponymous artifact. Voiceovers in the trailer describe the Tarnished as people "guided by grace once lost," and who are "emboldened by the flame of ambition." The specifics of their quest and how it relates to the world, however, are unknown.
Even so, FromSoftware is opening the floodgates of Elden Ring info bit by bit leading up to the game's release in January. Several days after the initial release of the gameplay trailer, world and characters of Elden Ring, and offered clues as to how players are expected to interpret the game's events.
How Miyazaki Thinks Players Should Interpret Elden Ring
According to IGN's video, all living residents of the game's setting (known as the Lands Between) are blessed by an artifact known as the Elden Ring - a mysterious source of power represented by the appearance of the mythical Erdtree. This blessing is the aforementioned "grace" which the Tarnished have lost. Unlike other beings from the Land Between, the Tarnished have lost their connection to the Elden Ring, and their eye has lost the telltale golden aura which reveals one's blessing. When the Elden Ring mysteriously shatters, the Tarnished are called to retrieve the ring's pieces from their owners (the game's bosses) and reform the ring.
As Miyazaki put it, the main theme of Elden Ring centers around how the player "approaches or treats this newfound grace and this return to the land they were once banished from..." In true Soulslike fashion, the player's interpretation of the story matters just as much as Elden Ring's story itself. For instance, the player's return to the Lands Between after an apparent disgrace opens the way for multiple motivations for the player to roleplay. Is it an opportunity for redemption or revenge? Will they treat those who exiled them with comion or contempt? These are the kinds of questions the player must answer themselves as they progress through the game.
In essence, FromSoftware wants the Tarnished to be the foundation of how players experience their game, and to do that it has offered players a variety of choices. These have more to them than just Elden Ring's varieties of gameplay and armor choice. They are about how the player experiences Elden Ring as a character in its universe. As such, the Tarnished are designed to be multi-faceted. A major theme the developers used when deg bosses was a "dichotomy of heroism and ruin." Based on Miyazaki's comments, it seems as if FromSoftware wants this quality to extend to the player's character as well.
Source: IGN
