The Tarnished (2024)

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The Tarnished is the player character and protagonist of Elden Ring.

Compelled by the "Flame of Ambition", the Tarnished endeavor to retrieve the Elden Ring and become Elden Lord. In their journey throughout the Lands Between, they encounter various demigods, bearers of Great Runes as well as those likewise Tarnished.

A male Tarnished, determined by their age and vocal type (designated in-game as "Type A"), can be voiced by Wayne Forester, Gary Martin, Ben Norris, Ben Fox, Andrew Williams, and Jack Myers.

A female Tarnished, determined by their age and vocal type (designated in-game as "Type B"), can be voiced by Rachel Atkins, Clare Corbett, Naomi McDonald, Alison Dowling, Kezia Burrows, and Lorraine Bruce.

Biography[]

The Tarnished are a group of exiles and their descendants who were stripped of the golden grace of the Erdtree and banished from the Lands Between long ago. However, with the shattering of the Elden Ring, and the subsequent disillusionment of the Greater Will with the demigod children of Marika, grace has been extended back to the Tarnished with the task of filling the role of Elden Lord that the demigods could not.The player character is one such Tarnished who carries little renown to their name and their past is entirely up to the player to imagine. Despite this, however, the starting classes of the game offer vague elements alluding to their past:

• Hero: A stalwart Hero, at home with a battleaxe, descended from a badlands chieftain.
• Bandit: A dangerous bandit who strikes for weak points. Excels at ranged combat with bows.
• Astrologer: A scholar who reads fate in the stars. Heir to the school of glintstone sorcery.
• Warrior: A twinblade wielding warrior from a nomadic tribe. An origin of exceptional technique.
• Prisoner: A prisoner bound in an iron mask. Studied in glintstone sorcery, having lived among the elite prior to sentencing.
• Confessor: A church spy adept at covert operations. Equally adept with a sword as they are with incantations.
• Knight: A knight exiled from their homeland to wander. A solid, armor-clad origin.
• Prophet: A seer ostracized for inauspicious prophecies. Well versed in healing incantations.
• Samurai: A capable fighter from the distant land of reeds. Handy with Katana and Longbows.

Regardless of their past of lost or non-existent renown, the protagonist is one of the last Tarnished to feel the call of grace and thus, one of the last candidates remaining to earn the stature of Elden Lord.

Abilities[]

While the combination of physical and magical attacks are possible in all soulsborne games, the Tarnished protagonist is especially suited to this fighting style due to the Spirit Ashes and Ashes of War systems. Even a pure Strength or Dexterity build (or Quality) will inevitably make use of them. The former lets you use magic to summon disposable spirit minions for a minor FP cost (and has no relation to your Intelligence or Faith skills), while the latter allows you to attach spells to weapons without meeting any of their skill requirements. A lot of these spells, like all the fire-based (Flame of the Redmanes, Flaming Strike, etc.) and storm-based ones (Storm Blade, Stormcaller, Storm Assault, etc.) scale directly to Strength or Dexterity instead of Intelligence or Faith, further encouraging this playstyle. Some of the Ash of War spells are considered straight-up better than their dedicated sorcery/incantation equivalents, albeit with the disadvantage that you can only have one Ash on a weapon at a time. This is even further encouraged for Faith builds, as one of the seals (Clawmark) scales with Strength.

Personality[]

The quest of the Tarnished may be to bring stability back to a fallen world, but they likely commit several questionable acts to get there, such as killing non-malevolent demigods and monsters, partaking in assassinations to gain an audience with one such demigod, and even commit a cardinal sin by burning down the Erdtree.

The Tarnished's personality is ultimately dependent of the choices the player makes as well as the style of combat they would most specialize in. They can range from being heroic figures who would go out of their way to help others in need, a pragmatist using the dirtiest tricks in the book to get ahead of their foes, or a psychotic madman who doesn't think much else of attacking and butchering anyone in their sight. Players can also play the Tarnished as a brave and determined warrior, a cautious fighter, or even a coward, based on the player's preferred play style.

Their reputation is similarly up to the player's choices on how they should come off as. Initially, the Tarnished is written off as maidenless and hopeless in the grand scheme of things, with Melina and Torrent being the only two characters to show any respect and care for the Tarnished. Even arriving in the Roundtable Hold, the Tarnished is treated as a novice, especially in the eyes of Gideon Ofnir. Eventually, once the player progresses throughout the game, exploring various places, collecting important items and better gear, becoming stronger, and besting demigods and "legends" in addition to claiming their remembrances and the former's Great Runes, the Tarnished becomes more renowned, trusted, and depended upon by many of the characters they would meet throughout their journey. However, while the Tarnished can bring themselves to help others achieve their own goals and ambitions, in addition to forging some odd friendships, they are just as capable of presenting themselves as a deplorable and untrustworthy figure who would promptly abandon and/or attack you if you choose to antagonize them without provocation.

Major enemies would also present differing thoughts about the Tarnished, with most of them citing you as a pathetic weakling (Godrick) or an ambitious fool who cannot possibly save the Lands Between (Morgott). Even Gideon Ofnir, who does eventually come to treat you with respect as the game progresses, would turn against you just before the game's final act, though not before expressing some compliments about your determination. Some enemies, on the other hand, would treat the Tarnished with a measure of respect (Malenia and Godfrey) and would even compliment you should they be defeated in combat.

The Tarnished's ultimate goal would remain consistent; finding and mending the Elden Ring and become Elden Lord in an attempt to repair the damage done to the Lands Between by the Shattering. While a motive shared by other Tarnished, most characters would praise and support you for your efforts. However, the Tarnished could choose to derail their ambitions by instead seeking the the Three Fingers and becoming the bearer of the Frenzied Flame. This will cause Melina to abandon you as a hopeless cause and the Tarnished to become a mad believer of chaos whose ultimate goal is to become the Lord of Frenzied Flame and utterly obliterate the Lands Between, seeing the setting as too pointless to try to fix under the words and beliefs of Hyetta and Shabriri.

External Links[]

• The Tarnished on the Elden Ring Wiki.

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