In the world of Elden Ring, FromSoftware's newest dark fantasy "Soulslike" RPG, the intellectual magical art of Glintstone Sorcery has fallen far from its glory days; when Lord Godfrey and Queen Marika the Eternal created a Golden Order of imperial and supernatural might, the old Sorcerer nobles lost both their political influence and their ability to read fate in the movements of stars. The realm called the Lands Between is full of ruins and relics testifying to the long-faded triumphs of Glintstone Sorcerers - particularly in the Weeping Pennisula and the starry underground catacombs of the Siofra River, discovered by an enterprising if callow Tarnished called Ascalon the Astrologer.
In the ScreenRant article called "Elden Ring's Early Game Secrets," readers were introduced to one of the author's Elden Ring PCs - a young, fresh-faced Tarnished called Ascalon, granted the equipment, attributes, and Glintstone spells of the Astrologer class. As the author of this article played through Elden Ring and searched for interesting bits of game lore, a narrative was woven around their Astrologer PC, characterizing them as an enthusiastic seeker of knowledge who investigated the mysteries of the Lands Between in the hopes of restoring Glintstone Sorcery to its former glory.
After a series of misadventures in the Fringefolk Hero's Grave dungeon (unlocked using a rare Stonesword Key) Ascalon the Astrologer finally made their way into the Limgrave area of Elden Ring, receiving a Spirit Summoning Bell from the Witch Renna, learning new Sorcery spells from the heretical Sorceress Sellen, and getting ensnared by a magical "transporter trap" in the Dragon-Burnt Ruins of Agheel Lake. Whisked away to the Sellia Crystal Tunnels, a prisoner of indentured rock-people and spike-spewing insect wardens, the flustered Ascalon finally managed to escape back to the surface, discovering the long-lost institute of magical learning called Sellia, the Tower Of Sorcery.
Elden Ring Weeping Peninsula Field Bosses Drop Glintstone Sorcery Spells
After several fruitless attempts to assert his magical dominance and breach the barriers over the entrances to Sellia, the Town Of Sorcery, Ascalon...did not give up, per se. No, no! He simply realized this wasn't a challenge he was meant to unravel right away; better to return to Limgrave, grow more knowledgable from uncovering the mysteries there, and return to solve the riddle of Sellia another day.
(Privately Ascalon was glad Instructor Sellen wasn't there to see him flail about like an utter fool).
After finally making their way back to Limgrave, Ascalon the Astrologer rode south towards the Weeping Pennisula, searching for new ruins or new secrets that could tell him more about Glintstone Sorcery and its history.
He found a set of ruins overrun with shield-banging demi-humans. He found their queen, a pale creature of fearsome size and lanky limbs. And most surprising of all, he saw the Queen raise a Glintstone-tipped scepter aloft, from which shards of crystal shot forth in a spreading hail.
Just yesterday, Ascalon would have confidently stated that Demi-Humans weren't advanced enough to wield Glintstone Sorcery. As Ascalon rode Torrent through a hail of sorcerous attacks and shrieking demi-human reinforcements, he realized he knew less than he thought.
In the Demi-Human Forest Ruins, located in the Weeping Pennisula (south of Limgrave proper in Elden Ring), players can fight the Demi-Human Queen mini-boss, a large, slow-moving version of the quasi-feral Demi-Human enemies encountered in certain corners of Limgrave. After defeating this boss (fighting on horseback is a good way to whittle it down with hit and run attacks) players will receive a Sorcery spell called Crystal Shard (said to have been derived from the "faint cogitation of the Crytallians") and the Demi-Human Queen's Staff, a Glintstone Sorcery Catalyst with an interesting description: "Glintstone staff styled as a scepter. A gift once given to the demi-humans to foster peace, it can be wielded even by those of low intelligence. Sneered at by fools in the academy."
The three sentences in this description are short, but their implications are many; first, war was once fought between the demi-human enemies of Elden Ring and a group of Sorcery-wielding humans, the scepter-shaped staff being a (somewhat patronizing) peace offering. The unknown sorcery-wielding human faction (potentially the Royal Academy of Raya Lucaria) seems to have viewed the Demi-Humans as a dumb and primitive species; the Demi-Human Queen's Crystal Shard sorcery, however, requires 18 Intelligence to cast, far higher than the starting Intelligence score of the Astrologer class. The "primitive" nature of the Demi-Humans in Elden Ring, it would seem, is a product of bigotry and rumors spread by "fools" rather than actual fact.
It was a thing of nightmare - dozens if not hundreds of screaming stone faces merged into a ball, a guardian of the Witchbane Ruins that spewed bolts of magical energy into the sky like an erupting volcano. Ascalon's Glintstone projectiles sloughed off it like rain on oilcloth; drained of their focus, the young Astrologer was forced to hack it apart with their well-worn falchion, charging in and out on horseback before it could discharge more magical calamity.
Eventually, the ball of faces crumbled into dust, and Ascalon was free to descend down the staircase it had guarded. Within, a dank chamber of rusty cages, torture equipment, and a prisoner bound to a wall with fetters of ice. A prisoner with a very familiar set of robes and a large stone mask.
"Sellen!" Ascalon rushed over and knelt by his Glintstone Sorcery Instructor's side. "Golden gods, are you alright?"
Elden Ring's Witchbane Ruins Held Many Suprises
In the Witchbane Ruins, located in the western portion of Elden Ring's Weeping Pennisula area, players can slay an Arcane Sphere Of Faces and enter the dungeons beneath - an actual prison-type dungeon, rather than the notional dungeons of fantasy. Two things of note lie within this ruin: a Sorcery spell called Ambush Shard (described as a "night sorcery" wielded by the sorcerer assassins of Sellia) and a prisoner with the same clothes and headpiece as Sellen, the Glintstone Sorcery trainer players of Elden Ring can find in Limgrave.
It's unclear whether Sellen and this imprisoned sorceress are the same. She doesn't seem to recognize the Tarnished PC, cursing her captors deliriously every time the player tries to talk to her. Sellen also doesn't talk about ever being held captive when the player meets them again - at least not in the early game.
Elden Ring's Mistwood Area Has A Secret Entrance to A Haunted Underground City
At first, Ascalon thought it was just another ruin – a tomb like the thrice-detested Fringefolk Hero's Grave, filled with buried treasures and traps to dissuade dungeon-crawling adventurers and explorers.
His assumptions, like many of his assumptions over the past few days, were swiftly dashed when the elevator he stepped on glimmered with azure magical light, and started to descend down...
...and down..
...and down...
...until eventually Ascalon saw an impossible sight: a vast, tall underground city beneath a starry sky. Was the sky a carved-out cave ceiling decorated with Glintstone lights, he wondered? Or did the makers of this city do the impossible and steal stars from the heavens to adorn their chthonic abode?
Both possibilities excited the Tarnished Astrologer. Here, at long last, surely he could discover the glories of Sorcery his ancestors had wrought, long before the rise of the Elden Ring and the Golden Order!
Ascalon the Astrologer did not, in fact, find profound magical secrets in the Siofra River Well - at least, not the magical secrets he had in mind. The Siofra River, located far beneath Elden Ring's Mistwood area, is an underground expanse of ruined buildings filled with strange torchlit ruins beneath a starlit sky. Strange arcane enemies haunt this area - crackling balls of lightning, ghostly apparitions of minotaur-like Ancestral Followers, and slow but tough stone-skinned humanoids who occasionally cast versions of the Oracular Bubble or Great Oracular Bubble spells players can find in the Siofra River area's highest points:
Sorcery of the claymen who served as priests in the ancient dynasty.
Produces a magical bubble that drifts towards foes before it naturally ruptures.
Charging increases the delay before the bubble pops.
The claymen search for lost oracles within their bubbles.
The item descriptions for these two Glintstone Sorcery Spells give a name to the stone-skinned enemies Ascalon encountered - Claymen - and a glimpse at their historical roots as priests for an ancient dynasty that seems to predate Godfrey and Marika's own dynasty of demigods. The use of "Oracle" and "Oracular" in these spell is another nod to the divinations and fate-readings conducted by ancient staff-wielding Glintstone Sorcerers - feats of magic made impossible by the Golden Order and the metaphysical laws it enforces over reality.
Golden Order Discoveries In Elden Ring
This may well be why the purloiners of the Rune of Death shattered the Elden Ring – with the Golden Order destroyed and the Demigods decimated, reality may well revert to its former state and restore Glintstone Sorcery to its full potential.
Every time Ascalon lit one of the braziers beneath the pillars, a torch flickered to life atop one of the obelisks lining the entrance to the ancient temple. Eight obelisks in total, eight pillars to find and light.
Ascalon was no fool. He knew this could very this puzzle could be a trap to ensnare hapless explorers or a seal to the prison of an ancient force of evil. Everything in this haunted, underground river city was trying to kill him. Why would this strange, sealed-off temple be any different?
Even so, Ascalon persisted, galloping on horseback past the horned apparitions and their cruel magical arrows, tracking down each brazier in this empty space. They were Tarnished, after all; as long as Grace continued to bless them, death was but a delay. More importantly...they really, really wanted to know what would happen.
Perhaps that was the the true curse plaguing the Lands Between, Ascalon mused; not the shattered Elden Ring, not the Rune-maddened Demigods, but curiosity, pure and simple.
