This is perhaps the first time I've written it but it shall not be the last; I love stories. Moreover, I love storytelling. Stories have been a part of human culture ever since we first discovered how to communicate. Stories are how we teach, how we learn and how we speculate. A story told right is one that will last for generations.
We experience stories and storytelling every day in our books, on TV, at the movies and in games. Each medium has its own special quirks unique to it that makes it difficult to translate elsewhere. That isn't to say that games can't have moments that can be 'cinematic'; but that you can't tell a story you told in a movie the same way you tell it in video games, and vice versa. Just look at video game movies; like the mess that was the Assassins Creed movie. Games are expected to be 10-20 hours long on average, giving the story plenty of time to juggle two entirely unrelated stories such as an assassin in the present and his ancestor. However, in the movie there was just no time and so all the moments of the movie set in old Spain were stripped of story and left as just impressive feats of action with no context. Storytellers must always be cognizant of the medium they are utilizing and always play to its strengths, or else the final product suffers.
This brings me to Hidetaka Miyazaki. Miyazaki is renowned as a visionary game director and storyteller who greatly benefits each project he heads. So much so that he has built a reputation for his company, From Software, as being master craftsmen responsible for a slew of high concept masterpieces. Dark Souls in particular absolutely enamoured me with its unique take on storytelling, told in a way that one could only do by utilising the strengths of storytelling in games. At some point I intend to write a full blog on the specific ways that Dark Souls revolutionises storytelling whilst simultaneously returning the art form to its spiritual roots. For now I just want to establish that this is man who is a master of his craft and who understands how to work within his medium.
Enter George R. R. Martin. Another renowned storyteller in his own field. Say what you will about season 8 of Game of Thrones, (And 7 while we're at it.) but for all the time the show was directly adapting his work it was a one-of-a-kind rollercoaster that pushed the art of TV shows further than they had ever gone before. And the books are good too. George R. R. Martin has a long and rich career of writing for films, TV and, of course, books. He is an incredibly talented and subversive storyteller who respects his audience enough to deliver them tales that ring with the utmost authenticity.
What do these two auteurs have in common? Elden Ring of course! Elden Ring is the latest From Software project to get a sly tease and a vague trailer. Marketed as a meeting of two great narrative minds, Elden Ring promises to deliver a challenging story, with classic souls gameplay and a concept that is 'bigger' than anything From Software have produced before. Whatever that means. All I know is that as an amateur writer I find the collaboration of one of my heroes with an author I greatly respect to be absolutely fascinating. That is why I will now proceed to break down the stark, haunting, weird teaser that was dropped during the Xbox conference for any nugget of insight I might glean.
First I decided to provide a transcript of the disparaging old man who narrates the trailer:
I doubt you could even imagine it,
That which commanded the stars
Giving life its fullest brilliance.
The Elden Ring.
Oh, Elden Ring!
Shattered by someone, or something.
Don't tell me you don't see it.
Look up at the sky, it burns!
Then I realised that all sounds more like a sermon then anything concrete enough to draw actual information from. But it's all we have to go on so let amateur analysis commence!
Right away the viewer is berated for being a dullard and told of the importance of this seemingly omniscient, godly presence known as the Elden Ring. I feel that it's important to note the reverence in the tone and feel of the trailer suggesting an almost religious feverance within the speaker. Whatever this Elden Ring is, the trailer man seems to hold it in as high regard as the first flame from Dark Souls, A lynch pin the holds the whole world together. Or rather held.
'Someone or something' (Real specific there, pal) managed to break this force of such omnipotent power and the backlash of this event appears to be have caused something catastrophic. 'The Sky... burns!'
Now I'm done listing the bleeding obvious, lets dive into rampant speculation.
When the voice first speaks, we're greeted with the image of this old man sporting about five arms too many and holding a severed forearm above his crowned head. For me, this image immediate evokes the concept of creationism, with the many armed figure reminding me of beings like Kali from Hinduism or... well... Arceus from Pokemon. Okay, hear me out! Arceus was another character based heavily around the idea of the creator deity represented in many religious cultures. And he had 1000 arms. Allegedly. We never saw them.
If this image is supposed to represent a creator of some kind, is it so far to assume that he might be some form or representation of the 'unimaginble' concept that is the Elden Ring? Unlikely. Chances are he is just our narrator and the man who will greet us at the beginning before giving us a whisper of a motive and sending us on our merry way. But I can speculate.
Also, there is a moment when the servered arm twitches as though it is still alive. I don't know what this is meant to denote but it might be a reflection of what I have gathered to be the core theme. Familiarity with Hidetaka Miyazaki's work had taught me that it ain't a Miyazaki game without the theme of decay. But perhaps with 'Ring' in the title we could be looking at a theme of renewal too. Like the ouroboros, the serpent eating its tail, The Elden Ring could be the process of death and rebirth symbolised by... a twitching severed arm... Yes I know I'm grasping here, just work with me.
Now we see the smith, hard at work at his forge. Several of the shots of this trailer revolve around showing him off, so he or his work is clearly of importance here. The man himself appears to be cracked and burnt as though his skin is made of porcelain and at the moment he finishes whatever it is he is forging, the man falls to his knees like his toils have finished him off.
What is he crafting? It's hard to say as the shots are specifically constructed in order to block the viewer from seeing but the obvious answer would be the Elden Ring. I know that clashes with my earlier theory but we're going to treat it as an open relationship. I can't shake the vibes of Lord of the Rings this shot gives me, either, as though The Smith is pounding away at the one ring like some hairy Nordic Celebrimbor. I'm not a big fan of the idea that The Elden Ring is just a piece of jewelry but with a shot like this is hard not to draw Tolkien parallels. I know George R. R. Martin is a Tolkien fan so this may just be a thematic send up but the prominence of this image in the trailer implies something more concrete.
One hypothesis I have is that this Smith is a god, or The God, crafting the divine entity that is the Elden Ring. Hence the cracked, porcelain skin to indicate that he isn't human and the intentionally obscured perspective to indicate that he works at something beyond earthly comprehension.
Another observation I made is that one shot shows The Smith striking his anvil, and at the moment after he does the cracks and his back grow as though the act of making this ring is destroying him with every strike.
Next we get a couple of enduring images of two individuals that I have decided to label The Burnt Lady and 'Gilgamesh'. I named the former for her burnt hand and fiery plume and the latter for his resemblance to Gilgamesh as he appeared in Final Fantasy Type 0. These two are perhaps the only human characters we seen in the entire trailer and are indicated as such by their wear and tear. The Burnt Lady has a badly scolded arm and fits what seems to be a prosthetic onto her left shoulder. 'Gilgamesh' is seen staring up and screaming into the heavens as the narrator equates the shattering of The Elden Ring and the burning of the sky. As he screams, 'Gilgamesh's' garments seem to be beginning to catch ablaze, as though the narrator was being literal about the whole sky thing.
Perhaps this references a mechanic in which the longer the player remains within the force of the red sky the more they catch on fire.
Tenuous, I know.
Maybe the absence of the sun within these shots is also important. If The Elden Ring 'Commanded the stars' and the Ring ain't around no more, the sun might be decaying as a result. We do get a glimpse of something beyond the sky when The Shatterer charges but I will get more into my theory on that, next.
'Gilgamesh' seems to be a lone survivor sitting amidst some sort of battlefield (Just like in Final Fantasy Type 0) with some very large weaponry nearby. He looks almost as though he is surrendering to his fate as the burning sky swallows him up. This tell me that the world we are being shown is undergoing some sort of doomsday scenario in the absence of The Elden Ring. Maybe this is the world players will get to explore; but I suspect that, given Miyazaki's previous bodies of work, that what we see is the prequel to our story. We will likely see the world in the aftermath of it's apocalypse and walk among the dead, just like dark souls.
I chose to separate The Shatterer from The Burnt Lady and 'Gilgamesh' because I believe this scene comes from earlier than those two. For one, he is the only character we see outside who is not burnt, for two, he is the character we see when our narrator mentions the 'something or someone' who shattered The Elden Ring. Also, we even see the sun clearly behind him as he charges not faded like it is in 'Gilgamesh's' shot.
The Shatterer (Assuming he is the one who shatters The Elden Ring) seems reminiscent of Dark Souls' iconic Black Knights from their matching scorched obsidian armour and shared penchant for long halberd's. In Dark Souls, the Black Knights were the spirits of Lord Gwyn's silver army sacrificed in the linking of the first flame. Perhaps this Shatterer is a dark reflection on them, a being that lives in a world of enlightenment who shatters The Elden Ring and brings darkness upon the land.
Do note that I do not believe that the scene the see depicts the shattering of the Elden Ring, The Shatterer appears to be ganking some poor golden armoured guy who doesn't even have a guard up, but I have chosen to equate him with the words that accompanied him. Of course he could just be a nobody and I'm looking into him way too much. That is likely. I should move on.
The trailer concludes how I have already described. The Smith finishes his work and falls to his knees spent/ possibly dead, some otherworldly presence seems to ooze from his workspace and we get a fleeting glimpse at a lady overseeing his work. The Forewoman, as I have called her, seems godly too. She is present within this dark abyssal void, for one, and she shares The Smith's pale, milky complexion. Beyond that her presence is an absolute mystery. The narrator has already trailed off to go chase kids off his lawn by the time she shows up and we see so little of her that it's hard to even guess at her role. I suppose her relevance will remain one of the many mysteries that this game raises. And maybe even answers. If we're lucky and eat our greens.
Needless to say I'm already heavily invested in this game. I've always loved the dreamy, ethereal essence of the From Software trailers and the way the seem to beg you to unravel its layers of secrets. Now I can say I've devoted a blog's worth of speculation to the matter and perhaps now my hungry heart can rest until more is revealed. Don't count on it though.
If you have any ideas yourself, please comment down below. From my nonsensical ramblings you can see that there are no wrong guesses here. At least none that are any more wrong.
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