The Tarnished Is Elden Ring's True Villain
is chock-full of characters with gray moral codes, but its true villain might just be the Tarnished. is set in a world where life is dangerous and safety uncertain. Most characters put their own needs first, out of hunger for power or bare necessity. The player character and protagonist, the Tarnished, is no exception — but their violent actions are often driven more by ambition than by a need to survive.
Most characters are not what they seem, often presenting themselves as the Tarnished's ally before revealing selfish motives. Others are downright sinister, sabotaging the Tarnished or just attacking them on sight. But even alongside ’s hardest bosses and most menacing enemies, the Tarnished could be the greatest offender, because their actions have the most far-reaching and catastrophic consequences of any character.
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The events that set 's plot in motion begin with Queen Marika shattering the Elden Ring, plunging the world into an extended war between demigods. By the time the player takes control 5,000 years later, the feuding demigods are locked in a stalemate. Then the player cuts a violent path across The Lands Between, reviving a war that otherwise might have gone forgotten. The demigods may have had it coming, but the Tarnished slaughters countless others: neutral Raya Lucaria students, ’s two different kinds of outcast Albinaurics, the isolated Fire Giant. Even if the player attempts to keep the peace, many innocents must be killed in order to progress, leaving the Tarnished with blood on their hands.
has multiple story paths, but no happy ending. The Tarnished can choose to defile the world, or burn it all down. They can choose to
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