Tarnished are those who have lost the Erdtree's grace and were banished from the Lands Between/died. The Erdtree just wants you to get the Elden Ring back duh. I forget who (maybe Varre or the santa merchant) in the beginning after the tutorial goes into detail about the lost sites of grace, but from what I've gathered it is basically the erdtree yearning for someone to reclaim the elden ring and become elden lord. Highly recommend people rewatch the opening cinematic after Godrick it helped me understand a little bit more of what the fuck im doing
everyone treats you like shit (foul tarnished) because they're demi-gods
Godfrey was murdered by [REDACTED] and Marika shattered the Elden Ring in grief. For their failure, his personal guard were stripped of grace and banished.
Uh, EDIT I mixed up Godwyn and Godfrey. Godfrey lost faith and was banished with his men fighting the giants, Godwyn was his son and successor and was killed sparking off the whole shattering. GRRM don't use only characters with your initials challenge.
still have no idea why the tarnished were banished.
I'll have you know I just spent the last hour running through Limgrave areas trying to find relevant lore and turns out, Melina will tell you at the Church of Marika/Pilgrimage site of graces if you talk to her while resting:
slight spoilers depending on how far you may be in the game?
[Marika]
Spoken echoes linger here. Words of Queen Makira, who vanished long ago. If you wish, I will share them with you.
In Marika's own words. My Lord, and thy warriors. I divest each of thee of thy grace.
With thine eyes dimmed, ye will be driven from the Lands Between. Ye will wage war in a land afar, where ye will live, and die.
[Pilgrimage]
Then, after thy death, I will give back what I once claimed.
Return to the Lands Between, wage war, and brandish the Elden Ring.
Grow strong in the face of death. Warriors of my lord. Lord Godfrey.
um actually you just have to die a lot and get good to understand why the story is actual good and not just "a guy did something hubristic and now everyone is a monster" 6 times in a row.
To sum up - Tarnished are a bunch of dead heroes that were resurrected to try to become the Elden Lord, restore the broken Elden Ring, and revive the Golden Order that ruled the world prior to the Shattering. The Shattering was an apocalyptic civil war between the Demi-gods, children of the great godess Marika. The war started when the Elden Ring shattered and the demi-gods became mortal and able to die. Your character is Tarnished, part of a group of quasi-immortal humans who serve the Two Fingers religious faction and can gain immense power. Most of them are dead heroes from a bygone age resurrected to repair the aforementioned Elden Ring, but your character is an outlier - A nobody, with no power and no great accomplishments, resurrected for unknown reasons.
That's a basic sum-up of the Lore that is presented to the character in the opening introduction. Not that some narrators may be unreliable.
deleted by creator
Tarnished are those who have lost the Erdtree's grace and were banished from the Lands Between/died. The Erdtree just wants you to get the Elden Ring back duh. I forget who (maybe Varre or the santa merchant) in the beginning after the tutorial goes into detail about the lost sites of grace, but from what I've gathered it is basically the erdtree yearning for someone to reclaim the elden ring and become elden lord. Highly recommend people rewatch the opening cinematic after Godrick it helped me understand a little bit more of what the fuck im doing
everyone treats you like shit (foul tarnished) because they're demi-gods
deleted by creator
What abc said, but to clarify
spoiler
Godfrey was murdered by [REDACTED] and Marika shattered the Elden Ring in grief. For their failure, his personal guard were stripped of grace and banished.
Uh, EDIT I mixed up Godwyn and Godfrey. Godfrey lost faith and was banished with his men fighting the giants, Godwyn was his son and successor and was killed sparking off the whole shattering. GRRM don't use only characters with your initials challenge.
I'll have you know I just spent the last hour running through Limgrave areas trying to find relevant lore and turns out, Melina will tell you at the Church of Marika/Pilgrimage site of graces if you talk to her while resting:
slight spoilers depending on how far you may be in the game?
[Marika] Spoken echoes linger here. Words of Queen Makira, who vanished long ago. If you wish, I will share them with you.
In Marika's own words. My Lord, and thy warriors. I divest each of thee of thy grace.
With thine eyes dimmed, ye will be driven from the Lands Between. Ye will wage war in a land afar, where ye will live, and die.
[Pilgrimage] Then, after thy death, I will give back what I once claimed.
Return to the Lands Between, wage war, and brandish the Elden Ring.
Grow strong in the face of death. Warriors of my lord. Lord Godfrey.
deleted by creator
God, I missed that entirely. I apparently missed many opportunities to talk to Melina.
How did you play for 200 hours and not know what a tarnished is
Souls games are pure dogshit at storytelling actually
they're arcade games
um actually you just have to die a lot and get good to understand why the story is actual good and not just "a guy did something hubristic and now everyone is a monster" 6 times in a row.
deleted by creator
To sum up - Tarnished are a bunch of dead heroes that were resurrected to try to become the Elden Lord, restore the broken Elden Ring, and revive the Golden Order that ruled the world prior to the Shattering. The Shattering was an apocalyptic civil war between the Demi-gods, children of the great godess Marika. The war started when the Elden Ring shattered and the demi-gods became mortal and able to die. Your character is Tarnished, part of a group of quasi-immortal humans who serve the Two Fingers religious faction and can gain immense power. Most of them are dead heroes from a bygone age resurrected to repair the aforementioned Elden Ring, but your character is an outlier - A nobody, with no power and no great accomplishments, resurrected for unknown reasons.
That's a basic sum-up of the Lore that is presented to the character in the opening introduction. Not that some narrators may be unreliable.