Elden Ring Nightreignoccupies a weird place in canon. Director Junya Ishizaki described the story as being “completely separate and parallel”, taking place “after the events of the Shattering”. We see trickles of that through character Remembrances like the Executor’s, in which they mourn the Erdtree’s loss and seek to paint their own. How much time has passed since our lowly Tarnished rose to fight gods isn’t clear, but Nightreign seems to show us the world left in their wake.
you’re able to read more about where Nightreign fits into the canon withIGN’s interview.
That has some fun implications, especially withDark Soulsbosses thrown into the mix (did Gwyn’s pantheon rule before the Empyreans?). But what stood out to me most throughout my playthrough was the final boss, an oddly familiar figure who I can’t help but speculate might be tied directly to our adventures in the Lands Between.
Spoilers for Elden Ring Nightreign.
The Age Of Stars, Or The Age Of Nightlords?
InElden Ring, we meet a young witch occupying the body of a porcelain doll,the Lunar Princess Ranni. She invites us into her service, grooming us to become her consort. To prove our loyalty, we slay assassins, venture beneath the earth into ancient cities, and uncover prized artefacts key to her plot, such as the Fingerslayer Blade. In turn, we are given access to the Cathedral of Manus Celes, and thus the Dark Moon Greatsword, which was “bestowed by a Carian queen upon her spouse”, symbolising Ranni’s full moon sigil.
So, whenthe fallen Shape of Night rose to reveal himself as HeolstortheNightlord, shrouded in darkness with only a glowing blue blade illuminating his silhouette, everything clicked into place. That’s Ranni’s consort. He certainly fits the bill, wielding a weapon that looks identical to the Dark Moon Greatsword, even using its weapon arts, while dripping with imagery befitting the Lunar Princess. But it goes beyond mere aesthetics.
When we defeat Heolstor, the final boss, we’re awarded the ‘Night of the Lord’ Relic. It details his backstory, which is vague even by FromSoftware standards. But the little we can glean from it sounds an awful lot like our lowly beginnings as Tarnished. His journey began in a country that “lay in ruin”, which could be referring to the Lands Between in the aftermath of Ranni stealing Death and Marika shattering the Elden Ring. It’s here that he was felled by an unnamed ‘hero’, becoming “Just another body in a great pile”.
Much like our Tarnished, death was little more than a nuisance for Heolstor. “Eventually he awoke, crawling out from underneath the others”. That should sound familiar: it almost seems to be describing our death against the Grafted Scion, after which we awoke in the Stranded Graveyard, crawling out of the corpse pile into Limveld.
The Night Aspect is described as a “hazy figure”, and the purposefully obscured language could be because every Tarnished is different, and there’s no true backstory.
What happened after his reawakening isn’t clear, but at some point, he “cursed the world”. It isn’t spelt out how, but we’re told that “from the sky poured down a great rain”. This is likely referring to the Night’s Tide, the circle that closes in on us every time we undergo an Expedition, which means that Heolstor enveloped the Lands Between in darkness. That sounds eerily similar to “the chill night that encompasses all”, which Ranni promised in her Age of Stars ending.
If we assume Heolstor is her consort, then he would have helped to usher in an age without the Golden Order, aiding the woman who stole Death and who even admits that she is on the search for “the dark path”. From the perspective of those living in the Lands Between, the Erdtree’s burning, followed by the death of the gods themselves, could easily be seen as a curse.
Since Nightreign runs “parallel” to Elden Ring, this could be a divergent path where the Tarnished helped to solidify the Age of Stars, as opposed to the other branches, like the Frenzied Flame or Duskborn, that exist in their own pockets of time. That means Heolstor could very well be our Tarnished, fallen from grace, abandoned and alone, clinging to a world they left in ruin.
FromSoftware Has Done This Before
It might sound far-fetched for Elden Ring Nightreign’s final boss to be a player character, but it wouldn’t be the first time. InDark Souls 3, the final boss is the Soul of Cinder, an amalgamation of everyone who ever linked the First Flame. That means that they have the moveset and spells of the player, as well as the very first to offer themselves as kindle — Gwyn.
Dark Souls’ endings were always far simpler: either you linked the flame, or you didn’t. And even if you didn’t, the cycle would continue anyway, as someone else would come along. That made an idea like the Soul of Cinder a lot easier to reconcile without declaring any one ending ‘canon’. But Elden Ring’s endings are more involved and varied, making Heolstor a more distinct opponent.
Assuming he is Ranni’s consort, he is every Tarnished who pursued the Age of Stars (which was a lot of you), lending to his striking iconography that evokes the Lunar Princess more than anything else. It’s fascinating to imagine how different he might look had he embraced the Frenzied Flame, or what kind of world Elden Ring would be under such chaos. That might be exactly why FromSoftware is so hesitant to confirm Nightreign’s place in Elden Ring’s future.
Ironeye’s Remembrance confirms the presence of other ‘worlds’, which is very similar to Solaire voicing concerns about how long his ‘world’ will remain in contact with yours.
There are some slight holes in the theory, like why the Grafted Scion would be described as a ‘hero’ and not one of Godrick’s many abominations, but everything else snaps into place, so it’s easy to handwave the discrepancies. Maybe in hindsight, the Scion’s valiant attempt to stop the Night Aspect before they could rip the Lands Between apart made them a hero. Whatever the case, I’m sold — Heolstor is our Tarnished.
