Tarnished

Character
Name:	Tarnished or Tarnished of no renown Can be named by player
Occupation:	Elden Lord (conditional), Lord of Frenzied Flame (conditional)
Relationships:	Married to Ranni (conditional)
Fandom:	Elden Ring
Other:	Tarnished by huntahr (2023)
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The Tarnished, also known as Tarnished of no renown, is the fully-customizable player character in Elden Ring. The character is a kind of reanimated undead and may belong to one of several races, called "faces" in-game. The game purposefully avoids gendering the character, offering just a choice between two body types: Type A and Type B.

Canon

Spoiler Warning: This article or section may contain spoilers. If this bothers you, proceed with caution.

The Tarnished was originally someone who fought under Godfrey, the First Elden Lord. When Queen Marika took their Grace, a blessing given to people throughout the Lands Between by the Elden Ring (which is the basis of the law of the land, but otherwise, a difficult to define concept), all Tarnished, including Godfrey, were banished to the Badlands. Sometime after their death, the Tarnished Player Character finds themselves back in the Lands Between, Grace restored.

They start their journey maindenless, although it is implied and speculated by fans that this was due to sabotage. A Finger Maiden is someone who allows the Tarnish to become stronger by consuming runes. The Player Character is then found and guided by Melina, a mysterious woman who acts as their maiden, in exchange for the Tarnished's help with her own quest.

They embark on a journey to become Elden Lord, typically a consort to a god. The game has multiple endings based on the resolution of several quests, although the game foregoes any traditional quest markers, never showing the Player what the current or next step of a given questline is. In fact, many fans initially had no idea they were in the middle of a quest to begin with, only knowing that their objective was to become Elden Lord.

Fandom

Tarnished Faces, Races and Fan Speculation

The game does not implement a race selection, but it does allow players to choose forms from pre-established "faces". These introduce purely cosmetic changes and have no impact in game (no NPC will react differently and no new paths or quests are granted based on the Player Character's "face"). There is in-game flavour text that categorises most of the "faces" as human. This is corroborated by other Tarnished also having apparent human size and shape, although some, like Godfrey, or Hoarah Loux, are much larger. This might be due to the fact that he was Elden Lord. Some fans also connect these "faces" to the games' classes.

There are 10 different faces to choose from, and the player isn't forced to choose them, instead being able to simply alter their character as they wish. While some appear to not be related to ethnicity, such as "warrior", "truth seeker", "seafarer" or "aristocrat", some flavour text does link others to particular places or peoples. Loner is the face of a specific unnamed tribe of people, Northeners, as the name indicates, come from the north of the Lands Between and are said to descend from giants. Reedlanders are people from the Land of Reeds, this game's fantasy Japan. Draconian are descendants from Ancient Dragons. Nightfolk are descendants of a silver bleeding race and the Numen are descendants of people from a different world. These "faces", but especially the flavour text, have been highly speculated upon, and many fans have made connections between Tarnished and NPCs.

Many speculate that Loners, since they are categorised as being "well versed in ancient legends and heresies alike" must belong to the same tribe as the merchants, since it is revealed, both in flavour texts and in-game meetings, that they were accused of heresy, of worshipping the Frenzied Flame, and thus were shunned and chased, ultimately entombed under the city of Leyndell.

Northeners, assumed to be descendants of giants, are also associated, by some fans, to Radagon, due to his connection to them or their homeland, the mountain tops, believing that his red hair is a genetic trait passed down from them.

Many fans have also made the connection between a different FromSoftware's game, Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice, and the Land of Reeds, since both are supposed to be fantasy Japan. Thus, the idea that Reedlanders come from Sekiro's universe gained momentum. This hasn't been the only time that fans have speculated that FromSoftware's Souls-like games are all in the same universe.

Dragons can also be found in the Lands Between, and it can be learnt that Ancient Dragons used to rule the land. Farum Azula is riddled with flavour text, clues and lore regarding the dragons and fans have made the connection between these creatures and location to Draconians.

Fans have several theories regarding the Nightfolk. There are two named underground cities in the Lands Between: Nokron and Nokstella. Both are inhabited by the Nox and Silver Tears. The Nox are a tall race of humanoid beings with grey or silver skin and cold blood, while Silver Tears are formless creatures that resemble mercury. Their cities are eternally in night time, lit up by countless stars from an underground sky. Nox is also Latin for night. Because of, not just the physical similarities but also, the meaning of names and appearance of the locations, many fans believe that the Nightfolk could be, at the very least, related to the Nox. There are also fans that make this connection with the Albinaurics. The Albinaurics are artificial people. They were created by humans and have two distinctive forms, based on which generation they are from. The first generation Albinaurics are very human-like, but they have flawed legs, which have the tendency to either disappear or stop working as they age. This generation of Albinaurics is sexually dimorphic, with females appearing young and males being more similar to aging, almost decaying, old men. The second generation is not sexually dimorphic and appears toad-like and silver skinned. Fans speculate that they are "creations from the beginning of the age of the Erdtree". This silver skin and silver blood connection could link them to the Nightfolk. There are also theories that Radagon is related to them. Some fans, like Jack is a Mimic on Youtube, hypothesise that the Nightfolk are the result of the Nox, who according to them could have been created by the Numen, breeding with humans. There are also theories that the Astrologers are originally Nightfolk.

The Numen, unlike others, are actually talked about by name in game, and Marika and the Black Knife Assassins are actually Numen themselves. The Black Knife Assassins are also called "scions of the Eternal city", and with two known in-game Eternal cities, Nokron and Nokstella, many are quick to point out that these are related, but likely not the same. There is speculation that Numen might have somehow created or lead the creation of the Nox and the Nightfolk, based on the idea that Numen are more god-like and the Nox and Nightfolk are related to Silver Tears. Marika is also know as the Eternal, perhaps not just due to being a goddess, but to her "long lived" Numan nature, further connecting her to the Eternal (in this case, Numen cities) and the Nox.

Tagging on AO3

Unlike in some other fandoms where the Player Character is also an Original Character (e.g. Tav from Baldur's Gate III, The Inquisitor from Dragon Age: Inquisition etc.), the Tarnished, as used by fans, tends to not have a specific gender tag, with only 119 uses of the tag "Female Tarnished (Elden Ring)" on AO3, as noted on 17 February 2024. The "Original Characters" tags are not commonly used to represent the Tarnished, with only 303 being found in use at the time of writing. Original Female Character(s) is used 98 times while Original Male Character(s) is used 79. This in comparison with the total use of the Tarnished tag, 1,759 times, shows just how little fans make use of this tagging system.

It can be said that the Tarnished tag has a similar use to the Chosen Undead, Bearer of the Curse and Ashen One tags, the protagonists of the Dark Souls games, also from FromSoftware, in the sense that gender tagging isn't common.

Around 62.5% of of the stories using this OC are Explicit or Mature. Most focus on romantic or sexual relationships with NPCs. Some of these stories are also Reader centric stories. Removing all Tarnished pairing-centric tags from stories featuring the character yield around 529 works. Removing all Tarnished adjacent relationship tags as well yields just 470 works.

Pairings

Tarnished centric ships make up the most popular in the fandom. The most popular Tarnished pairings are:

• Morgott/Tarnished
• Tarnished/Varré
• Blaidd/Tarnished
• Ranni/Tarnished
• Rogier/Tarnished
• Oleg/Tarnished

While rare, there is also a Tarnished/Tarnished ship Tag on AO3.

Fanworks

Fanart

• Tarnished, a pale, dark haired Tarnished who works with White Mask Várre by eldrtchmn
• lost forgotten sad maidenless spirit, a bog king Tarnished by bonesmarinated
• Elden Ring sketchbook pages, featuring Aran, a serious warrior Tarnished by monstermonger
• Apprentice Perfumer, a female Perfumer Tarnished with dark skin and long blond hair by lo-batteryy
• Art trade with my guys @artwinsdraws, of a Tarnished called Viktor by beidak-art
• blasée, a Tarnished with long pale hair in twin braids by luciasatalina
• yeehaw tarnished I'm currently playing as in Elden Ring, a Tarnished with a wide witch hat on a horse by evelmiina
• Nothing more than a tool of a Greater Will, a Tarnished called Piszczyk in an Confessor garb by beidak-art
• 10 OF SWORDS, tarot card style art of a Tarnished with bright yellow eyes impaling himself by dovahcaine