The lore of Elden Ring is about as harsh and as miserable as it gets. Civilizations are collapsing, people are suffering, and the whole world just might be coming to an end pretty soon, and at the center of all this pain lies a select few characters that have arguably gone through far more than anyone, and frankly, deserve a better life.
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Some were afflicted by a horrible curse, others taken down a path that they never intended to follow, but the thing that ties them all together is a sense of hardship that they will likely never escape, even in death. Fate was never kind to them, and while the player may try their hardest to save or help them, in the end, those efforts are almost always too late.
8 Blaidd The Half-Wolf
Loyal Till The Very End
Details:
- Devoted ally to Ranni
- Died confused and manipulated
Blaidd begins as a steadfast ally connected to Ranni’s quest, with his rough exterior hiding a truly noble heart. Throughout his questline, he tirelessly searches for Ranni’s elusive allies, displaying a sense of duty that feels both poignant and selfless, and those early interactions paint him as grounded, humorous, yet deeply committed to his role as protector.
Yet as the story unfolds, Blaidd’s fate bends toward tragedy. Misled by his conflicting loyalties, he becomes corrupted, standing as an impediment rather than an ally during critical moments. When players finally confront him towards the end, he is but a shell of his former self, and his last words resonate with confusion and sorrow rather than villainy, and the fight itself plays out like an act of mercy against an old friend as opposed to a real foe.
7 Millicent
Innocence Cursed Away
Details:
- Afflicted by scarlet rot through no fault of her own
- Tragic fate with no way out
Millicent’s plot is one of Elden Ring’s most harrowing side stories. Introduced as a wandering warrior corrupted by the Scarlet Rot, she embodies the cruelty of fate and how forces beyond one’s control can shape identity. Her gradual rot affliction and the Tarnished's efforts to assist her highlight her resilience and vulnerability, and although players are confronted with hard choices that affect her ending, none fully cleanse her suffering.
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Millicent's loyalty to her mentor, Gowry, and persistent courage make her a standout among the long list of characters, and even after fully completing her questline, Millicent’s end is bittersweet at best. The sense of loss and wasted potential embedded in her storyline makes her fate feel sad at best and downright unfair at worst.
6 General Radahn
A Fallen Hero Buried In Madness
Details:
- Sanity eroded over time
- Constant cycle of violence
General Radahn’s tragedy unfolds across both the base game and the DLC, transforming him from a fallen war hero into one of the Lands Between’s most heartbreaking figures. In the main game, Radahn is introduced as a demigod of immense strength, a gravitational sorcerer who once held the very stars in stasis to protect Sellia, going so far as to master gravity magic to continue riding his beloved horse Leonard.
However, his duel with Malenia left him rotting from within, his mind devoured by Scarlet Rot. By the time players meet him at the Radahn Festival, he is a feral husk wandering Caelid’s wasteland, still clinging to instinct and battlefield muscle memory, with the festival itself framed as an act of mercy where warriors gather to grant him an honorable death he can no longer claim for himself. The DLC deepens the tragedy, as Radahn's younger self is resurrected and reshaped as Miquella’s Promised Consort, his corpse repurposed as a vessel in a divine scheme he never consented to. He becomes a pawn in another’s vision of godhood, reduced to a tool of someone else’s destiny and unable to fight back.
5 Smithing Master Hewg
Hammering Away At His Own Mind
Details:
- Cursed by Queen Marika
- Begins to forget everything over time
Hewg’s presence in Elden Ring is quietly impactful yet woefully underrecognized. As a smithing master, his role is to craft and enhance the very tools that define the player’s journey, but from a lore perspective, there is far more to him beneath the surface. Imprisoned within Roundtable Hold, he is bound by Queen Marika’s command to forge a weapon capable of slaying a god, unable to leave the place and unable to refuse the wishes of a higher power.
Despite this, Hewg pours genuine care into his craft, often muttering about his promise to create such a weapon outside his conversations with the player. As the Erdtree burns and the world shifts, Hewg begins losing his memory, his mind deteriorating even as he continues hammering steel for a cause that may destroy him, and at the end of the day, he is not a warrior seeking glory or a demigod grasping for power, but a slave who remains loyal to a broken system, clinging to purpose because it is all he has.
4 Morgott, The Omen King
Burdened By His Own Fate
Details:
- Protects the city despite being exiled
- Imprisoned due to Omen nature
Born an Omen, Morgott was shackled and hidden beneath Leyndell simply for existing. Omens are reviled by the Golden Order, their horns seen as accursed signs, yet despite lifelong imprisonment and rejection, Morgott remained fiercely loyal to the Erdtree, rising as the secret protector of the capital, and defending it from ambitious demigods who sought to tear it apart during the Shattering.
Unlike his twin Mohg, who embraced rebellion, Morgott clung to faith in the very system that despised him. He assumes the throne not for glory but to preserve order, and even in death, he calls himself the “Last of All Kings,” clinging to dignity in a world that denied him legitimacy. So, after all of that shame and pain, he certainly deserved much more recognition as Leyndell’s true guardian.
3 Maliketh The Black Blade
Failure Of A Personal Kind
Details:
- Abused despite devotion
- Treated more like a beast than a person
Maliketh’s entire existence is defined by loyalty. As Queen Marika’s shadow, he was created for one purpose, which was to serve and to contain the Rune of Death. When a fragment of Destined Death was stolen and used in the Night of the Black Knives, Maliketh internalized the blame, sealing the rune within his own flesh as penance, then isolating himself in Farum Azula, carrying the unbearable weight of a failure that was never fully his.
His tragedy lies in his unwavering devotion to a master who ultimately shattered the very order he protected. Marika’s rebellion against the Greater Will renders Maliketh’s sacrifice meaningless, yet he continues guarding Destined Death to the end. He deserved freedom from a role imposed at creation, not an eternity defined by guilt and abandonment, and when confronted, he fights desperately, not for ambition, but because loyalty is all he has and ever will know.
2 Thiollier
The Sweet, Sweet Release
Details:
- Life-long devotion for nothing
- Forced to destroy the thing he loves
Thiollier, introduced in Shadow of the Erdtree, is defined by his devotion to St. Trina and, by extension, Miquella’s vision. Soft-spoken and introspective, he clings to faith in a gentle god who promises compassion in a brutal world, and his journey through the Land of Shadow reveals a man desperate for meaning, seeking comfort in dreams rather than confronting the harshness of reality.
As Miquella’s grand design unravels, Thiollier is forced to come to terms with the truth, despite his best attempts to cling to whatever shred of the past remains. He still believes himself to be the chosen one, but it is the Tarnished who hears her words instead, leading him to become enraged by jealousy, until he finally accepts St. Trina's wishes and eventually sacrifices himself to help the player in the final battle against Radahn.
1 Midra, Lord Of Frenzied Flame
The Flame Consumes All
Details:
- Clinging to the last threads of sanity
- Centuries of unimaginable suffering
Midra’s transformation into the Lord of Frenzied Flame is not born of cruelty but of despair. Once a powerful sage living with his beloved wife Nanaya, he came into contact with the Frenzied Flame through an Aged One, then was attacked by the Hornsent who massacred the manor and impaled him in an attempt to suppress the flame.
Suffering for many years, he clung to whatever was left of his sanity until finally found by the Tarnished. The fight is beautiful yet horrifying, as he rips the sword from his body and succumbs to the madness, apologizing to Nananya and shedding those final pieces of his former self before becoming just an avatar for the flame until the player eventually puts it out.
- ESRB
- M for Mature: Blood and Gore, Language, Suggestive Themes, Violence
- Developer(s)
- From Software
- Platform(s)
- PC, PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Xbox One, Xbox Series S, Xbox Series X
- OpenCritic Rating
- Mighty
