Elden Ring, a game where you play as a character chosen by an entity called the Greater Will to restore order to the Lands Between. Along the way, you learn how the land came to be due to the selfish actions of many conflicting parties. Some view the Greater Will as cold, others project their ideals upon it, few see it as good. But the Greater Will isn't the only deity in play, there are those known as the Outer Gods who meddle on the affairs of mortals, and try to bring about their will above the Greater Will. But why are the gods at war in the Lands Between, why are people adamant in worshipping some of them in spite of their selfish nature, and why is it that the Greater Will is viewed as cold and distant when context clues point to it being more caring than it's portrayed? In this essay, I will talk about the Greater Will and the Outer Gods from Elden Ring, how context clues point to their true nature, and how they operated in the previous and current order of the Lands Between. To be clear, it'll mostly be based in speculation, but with logical conclusions and connections, so please don't take my word as absolute and instead take it as you will.

To begin, we'll talk about the Greater Will, it's position as a god, and how there's more to it than just fingers. The Greater Will is the creator of the Elden Ring, the supernatural mechanism that maintains order in the world of Elden Ring. Currently, the only things we actually know about it are that it communicates through its messengers "the fingers", it can appoint new gods, it can affect the nature of the world itself, and hearing from word of mouth that it's cold and distant. But this is official information from the game, context clues in and out of game indicate more. Lore in game states that life was once all united as something called the One Great. When the Greater Will created the Elden Ring and the Elden Beast, the One Great was shattered and from it sprang all life. From this, we can safely assume that the Greater Will is the supreme creator god in Elden Ring. As for the Outer Gods, they themselves were also created by the Greater Will, as well as the Fire Giants. To prove this, we have to look closely at what the Greater Will is most associated with: Fire! Since the creation of the Elden Ring, destined death was created as part of it, and is represented as a black and red flame. What's more, the incantation "Flame Protect Me" protects oneself from the black flames. As for the god of the Fire Giants, we can safely assume Marika used destined death in that battle, but is unable to kill it. Given the fact that a creation cannot destroy a creator, we should be absolutely certain that destined death cannot destroy the Greater Will, and will only work on other gods. This confirms that the Greater Will was the creator of the Fire Giants and further connects it to fire. What's more, the frenzied flame and the Fire Giant god are heavily implied to be one in the same, and uses fingers to communicate as well, and since "Flame Protect Me" is also a Fire Giant incantation, it further solidifies the Greater Will's connection to fire. But what cinches it is the mythology that likely inspired the Greater Will: Norse. From the context in my research, I deducted that the Greater Will is a combination of Yhimr and Odin. Yhimir is the creator giant in Norse mythology where life sprung forth from his body in all places, and we see the Greater Will uses body parts, likely its own, to create envoys (ie the fingers). Though a bit of a stretch, those fingers HAVE to come from somewhere, and the only logical being they could have come from is the Greater Will, and we can confer that from the Odin connection. The god of fire is said to be one-eyed, and that is not necessarily cyclopian. Odin himself had one eye, mainly because he plucked it from his socket and tossed it into the Well of Yhimir to gain omnipotence. If we're to assume the Greater Will is already omnipotent in Elden Ring, then what's with the one eye? Well, we can safely assume it used the eye to create the giants. They have an eye upon their stomachs that open and unleash the fire of their god when they sacrifice something of themselves as seen in the Fire Giant boss fight. It would certainly explain the one-eyed aspect and the Fire Giants' stomach eyes. There's also the fact the Erdtree is essentially akin to Yggdrasil, and fire is heavily associated with giants in norse mythology. Hence why the Greater Will is associated with fire. After all that, how does this connect the Outer Gods being creations of the Greater Will? Well, they're all associated with fire in one way or another:

God of Death: Ghostflame

Formless Mother: Bloodflame

God of Dragons: They breathe fire

God of Night and the Stars: Stars are born of fire.

God of Rot: Fire forestalls the scarlet rot. This will be explained later.

With all this, we can safely assume the Outer Gods were created by the Greater Will. But why are they called that in the first place? Well, because they were once loyal to the Greater Will. Smoughtown explains a lot about the Outer Gods throughout his videos, but as he spoke of the actions of the characters and the gods, I noticed that those who's actions were against the Greater Will caused great suffering, while those who's actions weren't against it we're a great help. This is one of a few things that disprove the Greater Will being cruel and cold. Another thing that disproves that notion is Ranni, who slew her flesh to prevent being controlled by the Greater Will. Like the devil, if she didn't have free will to begin with, she would have been unable to rebel, they both would be programmed only to perform their tasks and nothing else, never programmed to learn. Also, as the player character, we may have been called by the Greater Will to restore the Elden Ring, but we're allowed to do so however we can, and are left to live with the consequences. Not only that, but it could have obliterated Marika for destroying the Elden Ring, but given the context of the circumstances being of desperation rather than malice, Marika was spared and was allowed to continue her duties but under more strict conditions. How does this connect to the Outer Gods receiving their current moniker? Well, they committed acts outside the authority and design of the Greater Will, and thusly caused immense suffering as a result of their selfishness. It's also why none of them can be the new gods of the age, as Mhorgg, the Lord of Blood, needed a god of blood to usher in the Age of Blood, yet the Formless Mother isn't a viable candidate. As for how they ended up in this state, it's obvious they committed egregious sins that caused their descension. As to what these sins are, we need to look at their previous positions in godhood with the Greater Will, and what their duties were.

Let's first talk about the Outer God of Death, and the Outer God of Rot. The Outer God of Death is portrayed as a twin headed bird. In Smoughtown's video on the subject, he theorized that this god of death is also a god of war or rebirth, as Elden Ring's country of origin has a bird that symbolizes rebirth, and the warmongering text found in lore related items associated with this god, trying to make sense of the two heads aspect. However, given the fact that destined death has been a part of the natural order since the Elden Ring's conception, I can conclude that the heads represent the body and soul, given destined death is the passing of those two aspects. This also leads to the idea that this god of death adopted war into its portfolio once it fell from grace. As for the Outer God of Rot, context indicates that it was once a god of reincarnation, and worked alongside the god of death. This god takes a lot of inspiration from Shintoism, with the idea of rot being representative of stagnation, the lotus representing beauty born from the muck of impurity, imagery of scorpions, centipedes and butterflies all representing aspects of destruction, stagnation and transformation, etc. Context implies that this god is a scorpion, what with an in-game weapon being made from the stinger of this god, and the fact that it's inspiration is from the scorpion that can kill the Buddha from the myths of Sun Wukong (hence why the Scarlet Rot can also kill the gods in a metaphorical sense of the concept), further research leads me to believe this god of reincarnation was once a butterfly, since the butterfly imagery is more prominent than the scorpion. So, how do these two gods coincide while they were on duty? Simple: purification and reincarnation. YouTuber MetiNotTheBadGuy, while not an official source of cultural information, he does bring up a good point, brings up an interesting fact about purgatory in shinto as he spoke about Kyojirou, that it's a place where the fires burn away the impurities. If we look at the Scarlet Rot as the impurities of the world, the old process of reincarnation in Elden Ring becomes clear:

The god of death burns the body and soul of the one being reincarnated, removing the impurities gathered throughout their life.

Then using the ashes as compost of sorts, the god of reincarnation rebirths the person in question as a new, pure entity.

As to how they fell, they simply distorted the natural order. In Smoughtown's video on the deathbirds, he theorized the god of death helped to bring necromancy into the Lands Between by discovering the ghostflame, which is created by burning the bones of the dead. At first it would be obvious, since the body would be burnt along with the soul in the process, but this isn't black fire, this is regular fire. Upon the creation of the ghostflame came the wraiths, tormented spirits that lived beyond death, and can be controlled as a form of magic. This likely disturbed the Greater Will as this perverted the order of life and death and caused great torment to the suffering soul of the wraith. Thus, the god of death had its authority revoked. As for the god of reincarnation, it likely attempted to reincarnate someone before they were burned by the flames of destined death. As a result of the impurities remaining, what was reborn was an abomination, potentially the first servants of rot. And so, this god of reincarnation was also revoked of its station, and, still having the power to reincarnate the gods, reincarnated itself into the god of rot.

Next, the god of the Nox, their god of night and celestial bodies. In Elden Ring the stars and celestial bodies are said to tell of the fates of all, even the gods. It is likely this god of night was in charge of maintaining the movement of these celestials, and which was assigned to who. As for how they fell, we need only to look at the name of the race created to serve them, seeing as how the gods mostly had a designated race designed to their specified needs. Nox is the Roman name of the Greek goddess of night, Nyx, and is considered the mother of many gods in myth, and given the Nox utilize Greek architecture, she's a dead ringer for their god of night. This detail leads to the idea that the Nox worship a goddess which explains their more matriarchal system but back on topic. Nyx was known for birthing many gods associated with death, pain, suffering etc, and while this could explain stars like Astel in Elden Ring, it's not likely the god of the Nox was revoked for that. No, Nyx was well known as "the subduer of the gods", she was feared by even Zeus she was so powerful. This clicks with the Nox and their culture as they themselves have used the essence of stars to subjugate others under their will. It is likely they learned it from their god, as there's also a way to subjugate a god's fate in Elden Ring (though results are inconclusive given it's only done in the Ranni questline and she doesn't fall for it). This god of night was likely revoked for attempting to subjugate their fellow god, likely the Greater Will, with this method.

Next is the Formless Mother, who was likely a nature goddess at one point in time. The Formless Mother has heavy ties into Lovecraft, given the Age of Blood results in an Eldritch World of nightmarish horror. After thorough research, the best ties to this Outer God is a combination of the Black Goat of the Woods, and Yhidra. Very likely, this Formless Mother got a little too creative with nature, and used her blood to create something new. Like how an angel mating with a human woman created the abominations known as the nephilim, the blood of the Formless Mother was so incompatible with the creature it chose that it became the abomination known as the gluttonous serpent. This ties back into Yhidra as she devoured other entities herself to grow stronger, and like how the Black Goat's milk created abominations, the blood of the Formless Mother created the first abomination. So another god is revoked of their position.

Lastly, the god of dragons. The god of dragons and its lesser dragon kin were created by the Greater Will to serve as enforcers of its authority and upholders of the law. Smoughtown explains in his video on the dragons of Elden Ring that they're heavily associated with protection, and are shown shielding the world with their stone scales and golden wings in their symbolism. This could mean that the dragons and their god had the duty of upholding the authority of the Greater Will, and protected those who followed the law. However, like the others this god fell too and became an Outer God. Smoughtown further states that the god of dragons have significant ties to Tiamat, the mother goddess of mesopotamian myth, as he states that this dragon god and the dragons themselves have many ties to that myth. At first I thought that it was unlikely that any of the dragons rebelled against their god such as how Tiamat's children did so. However, it was more likely than I thought, since Smoughtown's analysis of the Fire Giants reveal that the trolls were once Fire Giants themselves but renounced their god by removing the eye from their stomachs. Why would the dragons rebel against their god? Because of the significance of Tiamat as the mother of monsters in some interpretations. In Smoughtown's video on the dragons, he theorized, and thought it likely, that the beastmen were once taught by the dragons to grow past their primal and instinctual traits, and that over time some have regressed. However, given the context and pattern of the previous gods, and the fact that evolution doesn't really play a part in stuff like this (life doesn't evolve from some primordial soup in these stories, they just exist as designed by the powers that be), this once again went against the natural order of things, as beasts weren't meant to have sapience (an idea of good and evil), only instinct. This dragon god, however, was not only revoked, but it fled. Why would it flee? Because it was the last god to fall, and the god hunt by the godskins and the gloam-eyed queen was likely around at this time, and was possibly around for a while when the first gods fell.

In conclusion to this part of the theory, the Greater Will is the supreme creator in Elden Ring, it created life and the gods, but they fell as a result of their egregious sins. Although there is a loose end to this, that being the Blood Red Star, it is possible that this is just another image the Formless Mother takes, and since there's another tree in the afterlife akin to the Erdtree that gives off this mimicking grace akin to the Greater Will's grace. With this in mind, the Formless Mother may not only the first to fall, but she's possibly the Lucifer of Elden Ring, mimicking the Greater Will and to be like it, seeing the parallels of both creating life from their bodies. However, until more information comes to pass, this is up in the air for now. Next time, I will be talking about the significance of the God Hunts, the Golden Order, and their true significancies in the world of Elden Ring.