How Elden Ring Incorporates Irish Culture & Mythology Into Its Design
EldenRing's lore finds much of its origins in Irish myth and culture. Many open world titles based in medieval fantasy settings tend to find more inspiration in English or Norse mythology. But Elden Ring instead looks to the Emerald Isle's folklore, which teems with both absurdist stories about men suddenly turning into fish and epic poems following heroic knights.
The Irish influence on Elden Ring makes sense when considering the country's and game's pasts. Players enter the Lands Between at a time that feels relatively early in its history: Marika is only the first goddess to be consort to an Elden Lord, after all. However, players soon find that dragons and giants once filled the region while a floating temple marked Elden Ring's sky, all before humans ever lived there. In a similar way, Ireland has a written history that extends much further back than other European countries, but this was originally buried due to Catholic missionaries reconfiguring Irish myth to fit into the Christian faith (e.g., the story of the Milesians being promised Ireland by Moses). The expansive histories of both Ireland and the Lands Between make them excellent subjects to study on how cultures of the distant past — even if buried — influence the present.
Related: You Haven't Found Everything In Elden Ring Yet
Perhaps as a consequence of their similar histories, Irish myth and Elden Ring's loreresemble each other. As Inverse has found, specific characters and events mirror the stories of Ireland's first settlers and later its kingdoms. The inhabitants of the Lands Between thus may find their ancestral roots not in the Siofra River like Elden Ring makes its players believe but in the Emerald Isle instead.
Elemer of the Briar — the boss of
Read more on screenrant.com
