This Tarnished's journey takes him deeper into the lore of Melina ... who exactly is she? There are speculations that she is the daughter of Queen Marika, and even the younger sibling of Malenia and Miquella.. the weapon she wields (the Balde of Calling dagger) and the incantations (Erdtree) she casts only give some clues. (Hopefully the upcoming DLC will explain it all!!!)
(Credit: Nameless Ring/ YouTube)
But whoever she is, Melina's presence is beginning to take a hold on our protagonist.
He may have started as a prophet skilled in Two Fingers, Fire Monk, Dragon Communion and even a bit of Blood incantations but it was the Erdtree and Frenzied Flame spells that gradually had him ... enchanted, as it were. After duelling with many foes, he has also been focusing more -- and excelling -- in his combat skills, wielding the Vyke's War Spear with much dexterity; so much so that he no longer relies so heavily on the mystic (dark) arts.
Today, he finds himself back in Limgrave, at the Fringefolk Hero's Grave, where he will be seeking out the Dragon Communion Seal as he no longer has enough faith to wield the Erdtree Sacred Seal. But his strength in the spear continues to grow ...
I've never played any games from this franchise before but its latest release, Tears of the Kingdom,has this Elden Ring vibe to it (open world!) that I thought 'd give it a look-in. Also how can I resist Minecraft but with better/ superb graphics and possibly an interesting storyline.
So I am one week into TotK and I've been making steady process. But first, a confession: I read the game was patched to mend a "duplication" glitch so I am still playing the very glitched 1.0.0. version. And there is a reason for that.
Just like Elden Ring, the game lets players take whatever approach (mostly) however they want. So on top of the usual real time combat, the gameplay mechanism also offers a powerful new feature of crafting (which is more versatile than the system in Breath of the Wild). Here you can craft machines for combat... and as anyone can imagine, they can be extremely OP. And, as you know, I like being OP.
From the word go (very long tutorial) I knew I was only interested in this new feature and the story itself was gonna take the back seat. However, also a bit like the alchemist/potion build in The Witcher 3, this takes some time to set up and hence the need of the duplication glitch.
Since machines run on battery power, Link (the mute protagonist) only has one miserly battery in early game, and to increase that it involves A LOT of grinding and with tough(er) enemies. But there is a way around it, which is to get hold of the main material, something called the Large Zonaite that is need to create more batteries, and duplicate as many as possible. I think to get max power I'd need to dupe 675 Large Zonaite, which is a bit crazy (since the duping process doesn't always work and it also break the shield that you need) so, for now, I've only duplicated half that amount. Hopefully with that I will be able to grind for the material properly from now (since I imagine I will be semi-OP even with half of the max capacity, esp in early game).
I actually haven't done anything else in the game other than doing the shrines (really for puzzles) to increase Link's health and, possibly, stamina.
But first I'd need to take out one boss to open the "forge" to actually start making those battery cells, which is my next major mission.
Then the setup is (finally, after a week) in place. And it's annihilation time π£π£π£π₯π₯π₯
The more this Tarnished fights in Colosseums across Lands Between, the more his armour set and skills evolve. In the quest for more "poise" (to withstand heavy attacks), he now sports the Veteran chest piece, which he acquired after defeating Commander Niall at Castle Sol Rooftop, as well as the Veteran gauntlets. He, however, wears the Fingerprint greaves because of his affiliation with Knight Vyke, and the Nomadic Merchant's Chapeau... maybe to pay tribute to those (of the Great Caravan) who were persecuted and then ultimately banished by the Golden Order and ended in the Cathedral of Forsaken. Together they give him 85 poise (which is pretty decent).
The Tarnished continues to wield the Vyke's War Spear, focusing on its Faith rather than Dexterity scaling because he is more skilled in frenzy flame spells and the Frenzyflame Thrust than melee attacks. But other than inflicting Madness on himself and others, he also casts Catch Flame (oh yes, remanence of his distant Fire Monk past) and Honed Bolt, a nod to Vyke's affiliation with lightning spells.
But most recently, he decided to also dabble into (the blasphemous) "thorn sorceries"; wielding the Staff of the Guilty to cast Briars of Sin -- a Blood spell.
He has yet "to turn" for fear of retribution from Melina. But, one day, this Tarnished will have to decide whether to sacrifice her or himself -- and be embraced (quite literally) by the Three Fingers -- to become Lord of Frenzy. For now though, he is waiting to learn more about Miquella (upcoming DLC!) ... how will that affect his ultimate journey to become the next Elden Lord? It is also worth noting that it is with the Miquella's Needle that he can cleanse and free himself from being totally consumed by Madness and, perhaps, redeem him from Melina's wraith ...
... and after this Tarnished battled many foes in the Lands Between -- both the brave and the idiotic -- many have come to realise his Prophecy, if not true calling, lies not with Fire but Madness. And that Chaos was his vision. While he still wields the fire-affiliated Blasphemous Blade when travelling, probably as an act of defiance, when he reveals his true identity -- and armour set -- he is not unlike another (great) Tarnished before him: Vyke, Knight of the Roundtable.
According to the Elden Ring lore, there are two versions of Vyke; there is the one who uses Ancient Dragon Cult lightning incantations -- he could be found in the Evergaol on the Mountaintops of the Giants -- and there is one who casts Frenzy Flame incantations -- and he is the invader outside of the Church of Inhibition near the Frenzy Village.
Legend has it that: "No other Tarnished was closer to the throne of the Elden Lord than Vyke. But without announcement, Vyke travelled far below the [Leyndell Royal] capital, and was scorched by the flame of frenzy. Did he make his choice for his maiden, or did some other force lure him with suggestion?"
Contemporary scholars (on Reddit), however, have made these notes:
a) Vyke is Lansseax beloved/lover. She's the Priestess of Dragon Cult, also female Ancient Dragon that took form of a human to communicate with the Cult followers. Only those, who are loved by dragons, can clad themselves in lightning, so says the description of Dragonbolt Blessing and Vyke's dragonbolt spell specifies that Lansseax loved him the most of all Cult members.
b) Dragon Cult is and was in Leyndell ever since the end of Golden Order vs Dragons war. Which was ended by Godwyn who defeated Granssax (likely) and Fortissax, the Mightiest Boulderstone (confirmed) who also is Lannseax sibling. Then he befriended Forti, and started a Cult, because both humans and dragons had the same "Gold" in them.
c) Vyke was tricked, by Shabiri (likely) to use himself as Kindling for the Forge, because being the noble hero, he wanted to protect his human maiden, who otherwise had to be burned in the Forge. And since Shabiri is "chaos incarnate" and Three fingers = Chaos, we can see where did Vyke go. To Three Fingers, as the only way to be a Kindling and survive is to burn yourself in the forge, and only grasped by the Frenzyflame seemed to be able to do this. (eg our Tarnished)
So is our Tarnished to follow the same fate as Vyke as he, too, refuses to sacrifice Melina to start anew?
It has transpired that there are two types of incantation casters in the Lands Between: those whose spells are laced with curses that inflict deadly status, which can cause instant death; and those who wield (often blasphemous) magics like weapons.
This Tarnished, the Mad Prophet, belongs to the latter. Those who have the misfortunate to cross his path (and lived to tell their tale) have seen him cast fire and frenzy spells like missiles. His build is heavy on FAITH, with reasonably high MIND, meaning his incantations are strong on damages. Boosted by the Edtree sacred seal, his castings can be devastating. His frenzy spells, however, are less likely to "proc" the madness status.
Those from the other school, who are extremely well versed in ARCANE and wield the Dragon Communion sacred seal are equally (if not more) deadly. As each spell can almost guarantee madness to be inflicted onto the opponent who, for a brief moment, will be completely paralysed, leaving the caster enough time to execute their final blow.
But as we have previously determined, this particular Tarnished is not likely to have any affiliation with the dragon cult. Instead, it is fire -- and the hellish burning flames -- that have seen many of his enemies fallen below his feet.
