Elden Ringfans have pointed out a curious detail that is carved into the outside of Maliketh’s arena. Crumbling Farum Azula, one ofElden Ring’s final regions, is a region where time operates differently than in the rest of the Lands Between, but even that is up for debate in a community that dissects mere pieces of armor with fierce scrutiny.
Elden Ring’s lore abides by the FromSoftware traditionof obscurity, ambiguity, and misdirection. The freedom that FromSoftware afford players when exploring is just as present when attempting to glean answers from narrow descriptions. A perfect example of this is the Twinbird Kite Shield, a seemingly innocuous and insignificant piece of protective gear. However, this particular shield is acquired upon the defeat of a Deathbird in Leyndell nearby a Minor Erdtree, and the description claims “the twinbird is said to be the envoy of an outer god, and mother of the Deathbirds.”
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An image, uploaded to Reddit by u/Hollow_Mage, focuses in on the architecture that surrounds Maliketh, the Black Blade’s arena, and the caption asks why there is a depiction of the Twinbirds just above the entrance. The comments were, unsurprisingly, split, and unable to even agree that the carving represented the Twinbirds. At first glance,it could be Dragonlord Placidusax, a secret boss hidden away in the eye of the storm, but the former Elden Lord once had more than two heads, casting doubt on this theory.
With what is known ofElden Ring’s history, it is evident that very few, if any, of the entities, cults, and deities that exist following the Shattering of the Elden Ring are eternal. The Greater Will,the Outer God responsible for the Golden Order and creation of the Elden Ring, usurped the previous hegemony. Before even that, as indicated by the Explosive Ghostflame description, there was a time with no Erdtree, “when death was burned in ghostflame,” and cites Deathbirds as the wardens of that fire. This all suggests that whenever the mother to the Deathbirds lived, Farum Azula existed then too, in a time before the Erdtree and the wars waged by the Demi-gods.
However, theBeastmen of Farum Azula are a thornin the side of that logic, as they were clearly not burnt in Ghostflame, but preserved in tombs. Fundamentally, so much of this is down to speculation, especially when theorizing about an entity which has only a few lines dedicated to it in the entire game. And that is what makesElden Ringso compelling, a rich and enthralling universe with such little exposition that players can be left begging for more.
Elden Ringis available now for PC, PS4, PS5, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X/S.
