Legendary writer George R.R. Martin collaborated with From Software and Hidetaka Miyazaki to essentially create the mythology of the world of Elden Ring before the catastrophic Shattering event. The characters involved were often crafted as humans, heroic but flawed in their journeys and adventures. However, as From Software took on the task of converting these characters to entities that would fit into Elden Ring, these mythic heroes and personalities got broken down into something twisted and more suited to occupying a “boss monster” role.
“When Martin wrote these characters, and when he provided that origin story that mythos for the world of Elden Ring, these demigods were much closer to their original form, and maybe closer to human form back then, before the Shattering, before it all started. So it was more up to us to interpret this and say, ‘how did they become such inhuman monsters? And how did the mad taint of the shattered shards of the Elden Ring and its power affect them?’ So that was our job to take these grand heroes and sort of misshape them and distort them into something they were not,” says game director Hidetaka Miyazaki. “And I think if we get a chance to show Martin and if he gets a chance to see the game and see these characters, I think he might be a bit shocked. When he wrote them, he was really envisioning something a little bit more human, a little bit more traditional human drama and fantasy characters. So I hope he gets a kick out of that.”
Miyazaki’s favorite Martin character in the game? A mysterious figure named Rykard. We don’t have any other information on this personality right now other than the name, but they’ll probably be quite a doozy.
“That process of taking these very human characters with flaws but these very dramatic, heroic characters and basically breaking them and making them these misshapen, grotesque monsters… That was a lot of fun for me personally.”
Some of Martin’s characters combined with that signature From boss-crafting technique that has given us elegant executioners like Sister Friede and titanic monstrosities like Darkeater Midir is a recipe for greatness. I have a feeling that the most epic boss encounters in From Software’s suite are going to have some stiff competition when Elden Ring arrives.
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