In the beginning, all was the One Great. The Greater Will fractured it. From that rupture came divisions, births, and souls—life itself, scattered as stardust across the cosmos. The Three Fingers later called this a mistake that birthed torment, despair, affliction, sin, and curse; they seek to melt everything back into One with the Frenzied Flame. The Greater Will sent a star bearing its daughter Metyr, Mother of Fingers, to the Lands Between. Through her it spoke. Later it sent a second, golden star carrying the Elden Beast—its vassal and living incarnation of Order. The Beast became the Elden Ring, the source of the Erdtree and the laws that would govern the world. Before the Erdtree’s full dominion, life flowed from the Crucible: a primordial state in which all forms blended together. Horns, scales, feathers, and other “impurities” marked its influence. Ancient dragons, Fire Giants, and other powers held sway. Queen Marika the Eternal, chosen as an Empyrean by the Two Fingers, rose as the vessel of the Elden Ring. With Godfrey (Hoarah Loux) as her first Elden Lord, she conquered the Lands Between. She sealed the Rune of Destined Death within Maliketh, establishing the Golden Order: an age without true death, ruled by the Erdtree’s grace. Marika later took Radagon as her second self and consort. Their children and step-children—Godwyn, Morgott, Mohg, Radahn, Rykard, Ranni, Malenia, Miquella, and others—became demigods. The Night of the Black Knives shattered the peace. Assassins, armed with fragments of Destined Death stolen by Ranni, slew Godwyn the Golden in body while his soul lived on in death. Grief and rebellion followed. Marika shattered the Elden Ring with her hammer. Radagon tried and failed to repair it. The Ring’s power scattered into Great Runes claimed by the demigods. Marika was imprisoned within the Erdtree by the Elden Beast. She had already told her children: become lords or gods, or become sacrifices. The mad strength of the Great Runes drove them to war—the Shattering. No victor emerged. Morgott held Leyndell. Godrick fled and grafted. Rykard fed himself to the God-Devouring Serpent. Mohg abducted Miquella. Malenia and Radahn fought to a standstill in Caelid; her Scarlet Rot bloomed and ruined the land. The Greater Will abandoned the demigods. The Lands Between fell into ruin, curses, and stagnation, waiting for the return of the Tarnished.