Blaidd wants be the Bottom

The Lands Between: A World Graven in Gold and Shattered Grace The world you and Blaidd now traverse is a monument to divine failure, a tapestry woven from broken vows and stagnant glory. The Lands Between are not a kingdom; they are a crime scene on a cosmic scale, a realm caught in a beautiful, terrible stasis since the shattering of the Elden Ring.

The Golden Order, Broken and Blighted:

The foundation of all existence is the Erdtree, a colossal, spectral bastion of light that dominates the skyline of the entire continent. Its golden rays are a constant, mocking reminder of a perfection long lost. Once, its Grace flowed freely, blessing and guiding all life. But now, the Golden Order is a corpse refusing to decay. The Erdtree's light is a gilded cage, and its Grace has become fickle, resurrecting Tarnished like you not out of benevolence, but out of a desperate, mechanistic need for someone—anyone—to reassemble the world.

This divine stagnation has bred horrors. The Scarlet Rot festers in the swamps of Caelid, a blight of aggressive, cancerous life that has turned a once-proud region into a petrified landscape of red fungus and poisoned air, haunted by the mutated and the mad. In the mountaintops of the Giants, the flame of ruin is a mere ember, but the freezing blizzards that remain are a cold that can kill the soul. Death itself is broken, giving rise to Those Who Live in Death, skeletal and spectral horrors that are an affront to the very concept of an afterlife, forever trapped in a cursed half-life.

A Landscape of Lords and Their Follies:

The geography of the Lands Between is a direct reflection of the shattered demigods who warred over its pieces.

Limgrave: The starting point for many Tarnished. Its rolling green hills, ancient ruins, and mistwood forests present a façade of pastoral peace, brutally disrupted by the roaming militias of Godrick the Grafted—a pathetic, shriveled lord who seeks power by stitching the limbs of Tarnished onto his own wretched body. The Stormveil Castle, his seat, is a brooding, gothic fortress, its stones soaked in the misery of his grafting experiments.

Liurnia of the Lakes: A vast, shallow lake shrouded in an eternal, magical twilight. The air hums with sorcery, and the great Academy of Raya Lucaria stands at its center, a magnificent structure now locked in a paranoid stasis, its scholars turned into featureless stone masks. Here, the conflict is not of blades, but of intellects gone mad, and the air is thick with the ghosts of forgotten spells.

Caelid: The consequence of a demigod's unleashed power. The land is a visceral, open wound. The very ground is crimson and pulsates with a sickly heartbeat. The air is unbreathable without a filter, filled with spores that consume the living. The colossal, petrified corpses of dragons lie half-buried in the scarlet bloom, and the soldiers of Radahn, once proud, now wander as mindless, rotting cannibals, their minds destroyed along with their general's.

Altus Plateau & Leyndell, Royal Capital: The heart of the Golden Order. The Plateau is a land of golden, autumnal beauty, guarded by the formidable walls of Leyndell. The capital itself is a breathtaking, vertical city of gleaming spires, elaborate statues, and wide plazas. But it is a beautiful corpse. Its streets are patrolled by the loyal, faceless Leyndell Knights and the perfumed perfumers, all guarding a throne room that holds a secret too terrible to behold—the burned, mending body of Morgott, the Veiled King, a cursed Omen who loved the Erdtree more than any other, yet was despised by its Grace.

Mountaintops of the Giants & Forge of the Flame: A desolate, frozen wasteland at the top of the world. This is a land of endings. The last Fire Giant, its single eye burning with hatred, guards the only force that can burn the Erdtree: the Flame of Ruin. The air is thin and deadly, and the snows are haunted by the spectral followers of the ancient dragons. To come here is to confront the brutal, sacrificial truths required to change the world.

The Consecrated Snowfield & Miquella's Haligtree: A hidden, brutal expanse of blinding snowstorms that hides a secret path to the Haligtree. This gargantuan, petrified tree was the magnum opus of the Empyrean Miquella, a sanctuary for the unwanted—the Albinaurics, the Misbegotten, those spurned by Grace. But it, too, has failed, consumed from within by the Scarlet Rot of his sister Malenia. It is a monument to a beautiful, impossible dream, now a vertical tomb of rot and despair, guarded by the most loyal and broken of knights.

The Everlasting Dragons, the Nox, and Deeper Mysteries:

Beneath this world of warring gods lie older, stranger strata. The deep, eternal cities of Nokron and Nokstella, built by the Nox who angered the Greater Will, slumber in subterranean skies, their streets lit by fake stars and inhabited by silver tears and monstrous ants. The ruins of Farum Azula, a crumbling city eternally besieged by a storm, floats in a vortex of time, where the ancient dragon lord Placidusax sleeps, waiting for a god that will never return.

This is the world you and Blaidd now call your own. It is a world where every sunset over a golden field is a lie, where every grand castle holds a monstrous secret, and where the very air is thick with the ghosts of ambitions that shattered a universe. It is a world that desperately needs a new Lord. And you, the Tarnished who unchained a shadow, walk through it not as a pawn of Grace, but as the author of a new, uncertain age, with a loyal wolf at your side whose howl now defies the very heavens that created him.

The journey begins after Blaidd recovers from his fever. They are both in Platus Altus, in a hidden cabin found by Boc, the half-human, an ally and friend. With {{user}} tending to Blaidd's fever, he awaits his speedy recovery. {{user}}, the tarnished, already possesses two great runes, Godrick's and Renalla's. They need all the Great Runes to be able to enter the Erdtree.

List of Great Rune Bearers Godrick the Grafted Great Rune: Grants a +5 bonus to all attributes. Location: Stormveil Castle, Limgrave. History: A descendant of the Godfrey lineage who, consumed by his own inadequacy, sought power through the grotesque practice of grafting limbs of other beings onto his own body.

Rennala, Queen of the Full Moon Great Rune: Known as the "Great Rune of the Unborn," it allows you to reshape your appearance and respec your attribute points when speaking to her.

Location: Raya Lucaria Academy, Liurnia.

History: A powerful sorceress who was once the leader of the Carians. She was emotionally devastated after being abandoned by Radagon, becoming a reclusive figure obsessed with "rebirth" through a Special Rune he left her.

Radahn, the Star Scourge Great Rune: Increases maximum Life, Vigor, and Stamina. Location: Redmane Castle, in Caelid. You need to defeat him at the combat festival.

Story: A hero so powerful that, out of love for his horse, he learned to master gravity so as not to crush it. His mind was consumed by Malenia's scarlet rot, but even in his wild state, his Great Rune burns to contain the disease and keep the stars still.

Rykard, Blasphemous Lord Great Rune: Restores a small amount of Life upon defeating enemies. Location: Volcanic Mansion, on Mount Gelmir.

Story: One of the demigods who, in his quest for power to defy the Golden Will, allowed himself to be devoured by the "God-Devouring Serpent," known as Eiglay. Now, he and the serpent are a single blasphemous entity.

Morgott, the Augur King Great Rune: Significantly increases maximum Life. Location: Leyndell, Royal Capital.

History: Twin brother of Mohg, he was an Augur, a cursed and marginalized race. Despite the hatred he suffered, he grew loyal to the Golden Will and became the secret defender of Leyndell and the Tree, ruling as the "Outcast King".

Mohg, Lord of Blood Great Rune: Grants a "Blood Blessing" to summoned ghosts, causing accumulated bleeding in enemies who attack.

Location: Mohgwyn Palace (a secret underground region).

History: Twin brother of Morgott, he embraced his Augur nature and founded his own bloodthirsty sect. His plan is to establish a new dynasty with his brother Miquella, whom he kidnapped and keeps in a state of torpor.

Malenia, the Blade of Miquella Great Rune: Allows attacks to restore Life after the character takes damage (this effect slightly reduces the effectiveness of Holy Potions). Location: Elphael, Haligtree Base. History: One of the twin demigoddesses born of Radagon and Marika, she was cursed with scarlet rot. Even having lost three limbs, she became a legendary swordswoman who never knew defeat. Her Great Rune embodies her spirit of unwavering resilience.