Yesterday, I had a post about my favorite NPCs in Elden Ring. I didn’t get to name as many as I wanted, so I am continuing the theme today.
5. Miriel, Pastor of Vows. This is a no-brainer. Who does not love the big dog? This is a joke, by the way. For whatever reason, in the community, any turtle is a dog. So any time you see a turtle in the game, you’ll see the message, “Behold dog”. Turtle is one of the words you can use in the message system so no idea why the community has decided that a turtle is a dog. There are also dogs in the game, so this makes it doubly weird. But adorable, really.
Anyway, Miriel is a turtle. But also a pope. Or at least that’s what he’s called. The turtle pope. Or dog pope if you want to be pedantic about it. Heh. He gives you a lot of lore about the world of The Lands Between and a few specific demi-gods/bosses of the area.
Weirldy, he’s also in a church that if you go there at night, he’s not there. Why? So you can fight a Bell Bearing Hunter who is hard as nails and I still have no idea why they show up at night in various locations.
Anyway, Miriel is a teacher of spells and incantations, too. I like giving everything to him I can because he’s my favorite of the teachers by far and because it’s more convenient than traipsing all over the map to various teachers.
He also teaches you about how to forgive your sins, which means if you aggro an NPC you didn’t mean to, they will forgive you. This is in all the games, but this is the first time involving dew and bathing.
Turtle Pope is the best and never fails to make me smile. There is a plushie of him which I just may have to get.
6. D, Hunter of the Dead. He is in glorious armor and speaks mysteriously of death and such. Well, not so mysteriously, but portentously. His voice is so damn sexy; he was my first bae in the game. That was short-lived, however, as he is slewn within the first quarter of the game. But then you run into his twin brother under very strange circumstances.
The questline is odd, and I’m not quite sure I’ve really pieced it all together. In the short time D is around, he does sell you two incantations that are thematically consistent. He made a big impression on me, and I wished he had been around longer.
7. Bloody Finger Hunter Yura. I love his hat. It’s big and metallic and covers his face. Most people will meet him for the first time when you’re on your way to Patches cave. Before you can go into it, though, it becomes fogged off and you get kicked off Torrent (if youu’re on him). This means you’ve been invaded by an NPC invader.
If you can survive long enough (something like ten seconds I think), then Yura will rush in to help you. Then, you go talk to him up the stream and he explains that he’s after Bloody Fingers. He also tells you about a dragon and warns you away from said dragon.
He can help you with said dragon if circumstances are right, but then you can’t have Torrent. Personally, I think the latter is more important than the former, but it’s fun to fight with Yura just for story purposes.
You can also help him in his world against another Bloody Finger. Then, he talks to you about the ultimate Bloody Finger, whom he warns you about. He tells you to stay away from her, but he doesn’t tell you where she is. And, yes, you will probably run into her. Where he, Yura, is lying, dying. He hates her, but he loves her! It doesn’t matter because in the end, he dies.
You would think that’s the end of Yura, and it is, but it also isn’t. that’s all I ‘m going to say about that questline. I love his hat, though. I love me a big hat.
Those are really the NPCs who stand out. There are a few other who get a nod from me, but they’re not major NPCs. Like Edgar. He’s a cool idea, but he’s in the game much too briefly to really make an impact. Same with his daughter, Irina. I have a hunch they were a nod to Dark Souls III so I appreciate them for that, but otherwise, they are not noteworthy.
Another interesting thing about this game is how several of the NPCs become bosses/mini-bosses/enemies/invaders and vice-versa. I like the idea that they are not just NPCs and you don’t have to do anything to spark the conversion. What I mean is that in Dark Souls III, there are certain things you can do with certain characters to make them hostile. There is one character in Dark Souls II who can be an invader or an NPC depending on what you do with him. And another who is both regardless of what you do. I like that.
Another thing I like in Elden Ring is that they are much more generous with the NPC questlines, probably because it’s way too easy to miss the NPCs in the world. Take Patches, for example. After I ran into him in his cave, I did not see him again until the Volcano Manor, which means I missed two places he would normally spawn. I think I went back and got the steps or I just did them on the next playthrough. Wait, I got his second place, but not his third.
It didn’t matter. I still got the end of his questline, and it actually hit me in the feels. I didn’t expect that from Patches, but there you go.
I have said it before, and I’ll say it again. The NPCs make the world seem much more alive and vibrant. I’ve always liked it that the NPCs in From games have lives of their own. They are not (for the most part) standing around and waiting for you to do something.
I remember that being a mind-blowing thing in the first Dark Souls game, and it remains a delight in this one. I remember back when Fallout 76 came out and one of things that really upset people was that there were no NPCs in the game.
I can’t imagine a big, sprawling world devoid of NPCs. Elden Ring‘s NPCs just add so much to the overall experience.