Elden Ring players discover a quarrel between location names

There is an area in Elden Ring that has grabbed the attention of players due to a strange phenomenon where the location names are seemingly in dispute with one another.

Elden Ring is an action RPG made by FromSoftware and inherits many elements from the Dark Souls series and the company’s other recent titles while incorporating plenty of features all its own. The game takes place in a massive open field of the Lands Between and players take on the role of the Tarnished on a journey to become the Elden Lord.

There are a variety of different locations in Elden Ring, and the way a location’s name appears in the middle of the screen as you enter it no doubt tickles the adventurous spirit of many players. The world is divided into a number of major regions such as Limgrave and Liurnia of the Lakes. These larger regions consist of a variety of smaller locations which include places like dungeons.

A short clip about an area in the game where a somewhat peculiar phenomenon can be witnessed was posted by a Twitter user and has caught the attention of many players. It shows two location names that appear to be in conflict, trying to replace each other over and over. This same effect was also discovered by a different player back in March. It seems like the literal “turf war” had already begun shortly after the game was released.  

The video in the above tweet shows a rock formation that is located in Liurnia of the Lakes… or maybe it’s in the Bellum Highway. Either way, it appears that the rock formation sits right on the boundary between the two locations. As a result, standing atop the rock will cause both names to alternate on screen like they are vying for control of the spot. The repetition of the heavy sound effect that plays when the location names appear on screen makes the scene feel surprisingly intense, almost as if you are watching a great battle between two people named Liurnia and Bellum.

I (the original author of this article) also tried going to this area, which is located along the cliffs to the south-west of the Grand Lift of Dectus. Excluding the rock formation in question, the upper portions of the rest of the surrounding cliffs are a part of the Bellum Highway while the lower portions of the cliffs belong to Liurnia of the Lakes. However, this particular rock formation doesn’t seem to abide by this principle.

Additionally, it is only near the summit of the rock formation where the Liurnia of the Lakes name appears, as if only that portion belongs to the region. In my own investigation of the area, I found that the name conflict eventually settles down after some time passes.

Strictly speaking, the Bellum Highway is located within the Liurnia of the Lakes region, and this may be part of the reason that the strange conflict occurs. Regardless, it seems players are excited to learn of the existence of “lands between” the Lands Between.

I wonder if we will ever see an end to this location name battle that has been secretly waged since the game’s release.

Written by. Marco Farinaccia based on the original Japanese article (original article’s publication date: 2022-08-18 18:22 JST)