Elden Ring: What is Destined Death?

gamerant.com:

Even though it’s been over a month since its launch, there are still a lot of questions about Elden Ring. It’ll likely be some time before someone out there pieces it all together in a believable and understandable way. Yet, one of the biggest questions thus far is what is Destined Death? It’s a story element that surfaces a lot, playing a major role throughout the story and in each of Elden Ring’s endings.

Some believe Destined Death is simply death, while others believe Destined Death itself to be one of Elden Ring’s Outer Gods—or a Lord/aspect of this Outer God. No matter what players do, however, they unleash Destined Death back into the world.

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First, it’s worth looking at how death works in Elden Ring from a lore standpoint. There are beings in Elden Ring who have experienced a sort of half-death. What this means is that their physical body can die, but their mind can live on. For example, Ranni used the Rune of Death to kill her physical self to avoid The Greater Will’s control. Another “style” of death can be seen with Godwyn and Fia, as beings whose spirits never return to the Erdtree, or Those Who Live in Death.

Those whose spirits return are eventually resurrected by the Erdtree, and it seems this resurrection can go awry. It appears that the Outer God related to the Scarlet Rot can infect people severely through this resurrection, which lore suggests is the result of Malenia’s Scarlet Rot in some way. It’s not really explored in-game, but some think this Outer God is sealed away beneath Lake Rot.

Either way, this means there is common death, a partial death, living in death, and Destined Death. Many associate the latter with common death. While it makes sense,