This random Elden Ring merchant points to a secret ending with a twist

gamesradar.com:

One of Elden Ring's darkest endings is first teased by an innocuous hand-written note sold by one of the nomadic merchants found throughout the game. 

As reputable FromSoftware sleuth VaatiVidya highlighted in a recent video, the merchant who sets up shop near the southern gate of Raya Lucaria academy will sell you information on a "Frenzied Flame Village" to the northeast of the academy. This note actually cautions you to avoid the village, but if you go there anyway, you'll find another note teasing a frenzied ruler located underneath the city of Leyndell. 

The notes don't stop there, either. If you go through the sewers of Leyndell and work your way to the very bottom, you'll fight one of the greater beings mentioned by Gideon Ofnir in the later stages of the game. And if you push through the secret altar in the back of that boss' arena, then lure a frenzied NPC to destroy a tent concealing a nearby collectible, you'll get yet another note which hints at how to resist the frenzied flame with a special item, which really brings this story arc full circle. Of course, this note doesn't tell you that getting that item involves beating the hardest boss in the entire game (and arguably the whole Souls franchise), but that's a problem for later. 

This whole quest chain takes you through some of the most dangerous environments and deadly bosses in the entire game, all while setting up a harrowing (but thankfully reversible) ending route, and it all starts with a single scrap of paper from a random merchant outside a magic school in a swamp. If that ain't Elden Ring in a nutshell, nothing is. 

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