The world of Elden Ring is a vast world of mysterious lineage. Hidetaka Miyazaki’s previous games were known for having deep stories that slowly reveal themselves through gameplay. Whether it be a cutscene that the player watches or a seemingly useless item description that offers a lot of story details, Miyazaki’s stories are told in strange ways, and Elden Ring is no different. Partnering with George R.R. Martin, Miyazaki has created another masterpiece of a video game with a wild story to top it off.
The player character, known as a Tarnished of no renown, has lost the grace of the Erdtree. People blessed with grace have a golden hue in their eyes; losing the grace is where the title of Tarnished comes from. Marika, who banished the original Tarnished many years ago, did so because she wanted them to leave and become stronger before having their grace returned and given the quest of becoming Elden Lord. Having grace returned to a Tarnished still marks that person as Tarnished, which is why everything in the Lands Between wants to kill the player on sight.
The Lands Between are full of strange and corrupted creatures that are all dangerous in their own right, ranging from mystical sorcerers who can use magic with the flick of a wrist to a large giant with an extra face on its stomach. These book recommendations should take a fan of Elden Ring by the horns and pull them into their worlds by captivating them with unique worlds and interesting characters.
Gardens of the Moon by Steven Erikson
This book is the first in a long series set in a region dominated by the Malazan Empire. With its use of high magic, this book focuses on the Malazan campaign to expand their empire. After taking the Pale, the Empress sets sights on Darujhistan, the continent’s last region. This is the first book in a long series so readers might feel a bit overwhelmed or as if they need more information.
The high fantasy element of the story is amplified by Ascendants who are god-like beings that require a following of mortals or else they would vanish and die. This is a long series, but it’s worth the read if you are a fan of the magic and god-like beings of Elden Ring.
An Altar on the Village Green by Nathan Hall
Inspired by games similar to Elden Ring, and its dark tone proves it, this book plays with video game rules. The protagonist Lance, a warrior of the Church of the Chained God, heads off to free a cursed land. In a small village, he finds that the villagers have cracked under the weight of the horror that haunts them. Human sacrifice, neighbors turning on neighbors, and friends viscously attacking one another.
The interesting part about this story is that, if Lance is killed, he is reborn at an anchor point, similar to how a video game respawn would work. He relives these moments as if they were memories from a different Lance. This would mean he would have an infinite amount of time to fix the village if every death didn’t stack on trauma and fill his mind with madness.
Mordew by Alex Pheby
In the town of Mordew, God has died, and his corpse is hidden deep in the catacombs. Nathan Treeves, a young boy living in the slums with his disabled father and prostitute mother, rummages through creatures that spawn, die, and rot from the living mud that infests the slums. Out of desperation, his mother sells him to The Master. Here, Nathan discovers he has a gift that can challenge The Master if he can learn how to use it.
This book is divided into two sections. The first section is the story itself, but the second half is a large glossary, almost like the Silmarillion, that explains the world in more detail. It’s advised that readers dive into the glossary after reading this story, which is most likely why it’s at the end of the book. Gothic and dark themes in this book will surely grip Elden Ring fans.
Hollow by Brian Catling
The shortest way to describe this book is to say it’s almost like a Hieronymus Bosch painting. That is to say, it’s an odd one but so amazingly captivating. This story has three different storylines but each is important to the story’s ending. A group of mercenaries escorting a replacement Oracle, a woman dealing with her horrible husband, and a monastery’s struggles between a brother and an Abbot. However, everything is just a little bit strange.
It’s as if the creepiness of Bosch’s paintings have found themselves transformed into the pages of this story. Elden Ring fans will love this because of the strange happenings that twist the characters and the world. It breaks the mold of normal and makes you wonder what just happened.
Between Two Fires by Christopher Buehlman
Elden Ring fans look no further, this is the one you need to read. Thomas, a disgraced knight, finds a young girl in a dead village. Orphaned by the black death, she claims that the plague is part of a large cataclysm. The fallen angels under Lucifer are rising for a second war on heaven. The world of men has found itself stuck in the middle of their conflict. She believes she has seen the angels of God, and she claims that the righteous dead speak to her in dreams. Thomas takes her to Avignon, where she will complete her mission by confronting the evil that has ravaged the earth. Thomas will do anything if it means restoring himself to nobility and salvation. He can’t imagine what will unfold when he delivers the girl to her destination and the ramifications of his good intentions.
These books have themes that fans of Elden Ring will resonate with. They are dark, twisted, and gothic, with some form of a higher being that transcends humanity. The powerlessness or urge for survival that characters feel when faced with something larger than them is similar to what players experience while playing Elden Ring. Every boss in that game has haunting imagery that makes players feel small by comparison. But that is only more incentive to defeat those disgusting creatures.
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