Developer FromSoftware has a long history of including a series of self-referential items and characters across its roster of games, which has already continued intoElden Ringin a number of ways. However, as is often the case with the developer’s add-on content,Elden Ring’s upcomingShadow of the ErdtreeDLCwill mean new lore for the Lands Between, and possibly solidify some connections between FromSoftware’s latest titles and its various spiritual predecessors.
Of course, as fans of the FromSoftware catalog and most recentlyElden Ringmight already be aware, the idea of connecting all the developer’s titles is often seen as controversial. That being said, while it may not have been the intended canon for theSoulsborneseries to all be connected, there is a lot that can be learned about the strength of the themes that FromSoftware designs into its games and lore by tracing these links across games.
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A Rundown of Fan-Favorite FromSoftware Call-Backs
There are a number of items and characters that appear across most FromSoftware titles, with some being spiritually related and others being directly pulled across all universes. Fans ofElden Ring’s build varietyand the items that can boost them, like the Blue Dancer Charm, might recognize that the item’s utility of increasing damage at low equip load previously appeared asDark Souls 3’s Flynn’s Ring. Starting small with items like this that have similar uses in and out of combat, FromSoftware clearly isn’t against bringing concepts from one game to the next, especially if they’re popular among fans.
On a more specific note of things that are directly lifted from one game to the next would have to be the Moonlight Greatsword and the character Patches. A favorite among fans, theMoonlight Greatsword appears across many FromSoftware games, ever since the secondKing’s Field, where it was the final tool crafted by the White Dragon Seath in order to defeat the Black Dragon Guyra. Patches, on the other hand, has made appearances as a cowardly enemy and trickster from as far back as the earlyArmored Coregames, throughDark Soulsand intoElden Ring.
A Look at Trees from Dark Souls' Great Hollow to Elden Ring’s Erdtree
Apart from the items and utilities lifted from game to game, there are also a handful of themes that FromSoftware appears to be interested in spreading throughout its entire catalog. One of the most pronounced themes is that of trees, something that is often used by the developer to indicate life, decay, and the gargantuan scope of the world that might otherwise go unseen.
Reaching back to long beforeElden Ring’s Erdtreewas the focus of fans hunting down FromSoftware’s sprinklings of lore, the firstDark Soulsintroduces the presence of the Great Hollow, a giant tree that the rest of Lordran appears to rest on top of. Another strong tree theme appears inSekiro: Shadows Die Twice, where the Divine Dragon (a white dragon wielding a Korean variant of the Moonlight Greatsword) is depicted to both live inside a giant tree and be one with the natural obelisk.
Even thefirst phase ofSekiro: Shadows Die Twice’s Divine Dragon fightincludes pruning the unkempt roots so that the full creature would lift through the clouds and fight the player head-on. These themes go much further into the design of the Divine Dragon, as the enemy model itself can be seen to have bark across its body to symbolize the life that it gives, as well as rot beneath the bark to show the decay that came from being abused by its worshipers.
Finally, fields of trees appear all over the FromSoftware catalog, from the endless forest that extends out beyond Ash Lake inDark Souls, to the countless Erdtrees in the final boss room againstElden Ring’s Elden Beast. In more than one case, these expanses of giant trees almost appear to imply that there are more worlds than the ones that are explored within the game they appear. A prime example comes fromBloodborne, as the Hunter’s Dream and various Nightmare Frontiers appear to all be on top of giant pillars or trees, with hundreds more in the distance that could house even more deities and greater wills.
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Patches Could Be the Ultimate FromSoftware Deity
Circling back to howElden Ringcould use the opportunities presented byShadow of the Erdtree’s expected exploration ofElden Ringlore, exploring this new DLC could lead to closure for some characters. This could include Patches, who has already had an impressively revealing questline inDark Souls 3’s DLC that shows the nature of the character and does some work to set up one common theory to connect back toBloodborne. In the case of Patches, he appears in the Ringed City DLC as the friendly NPC Lapp, who will help the player through boss fights and guide them toward the end of the adventure.
This new look at Patches through the lens of Lapp reveals an impressive amount about the character, as this appears to be a version of the trickster who hasn’t become jaded by his experiences in the bleak, grimdark worlds of FromSoftware. It sets up the backstabbing behavior forPatches across his many FromSoftware appearances, largely as a world-crossing figure who punishes the greedy and does whatever he can to survive from one location to the next.
More than anything though, it also sets up a framework that each of these worlds and their deities have only led to ruin, which in turn gives Patches the broader perspective to be distrustful by the timeElden Ringcomes around. From this interpretation of the character, Patches could be the connecting thread that extends across all of these worlds, usually killing off faithful followers of respective deities until he finds the player willing to fight and kill these lords.
This perspective from Patches also helps to hit the consistent theme that the characters who covet power and use it to rule, likeDark Souls' Gwyn orElden Ring’s Greater Will, are doomed to be usurped by the player. If so, Patches could be the most influential figure in FromSoftware’s whole franchise, killing unworthy players and assisting proper god slayers.
Elden Ringis available now for PC, PS4, PS5, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X/S.
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