Halloween and Elden Ring
To be honest, I'm writing to try to help take my mind off of an anxiety-inducing situation, so this post is a bit random. It also might not be that interesting if you haven't played Elden Ring!
We're officially past the halfway to Halloween mark, and I've been in such a Halloween mood lately. I bought these shoes from Em & Sprout to help me celebrate Halloween all summer. And because I'm a fiend for the holiday, I keep Halloween decor up year-round. Here's one of my favorite pieces:
It's a Trick 'r Treat countdown calendar to Halloween, featuring the iconic Sam! Unfortunately, it only counts down from 99 days, which I believe is somewhere toward the end of July. You can also see my Sam statue next to it (along with our little Blue Lock and Ifrit figures).
I was looking through my old tumblr, which I don't use anymore, and reliving some of my personal posts. Do you ever do that -- go back through old journals or blogs and see what kind of person you were on a given day? So much of my life is chronicled online, between old Livejournal and Dreamwidth blogs and social media accounts that I no longer use but haven't yet had the heart to delete.
Anyway, I found a post from about a year ago showing off my Elden Ring characters -- or at least the three that I beat the game with. Since Elden Ring is one of my favorite things in the entire world, I'd like to introduce them here as well:
This is Zeno, the first character I played the game with. I have a soft spot in my heart for him because he and I overcame many struggles together, navigating through Elden Ring's myriad of challenges to finally make it all the way to the end.
He's Nightfolk, so when I designed his appearance, I kept to the silvery skin and eyes of the ancient Nox. I gave him slightly curly hair with strands of gray, some stubble, and a sympathetic look. I wanted him to appear older, middle-aged and a bit weathered. In my mind, he's a total sweetheart with a heart of gold.
He's wearing the Night's Cavalry Set, without the helmet, and holding the Dark Moon Greatsword and the Carian Regal Scepter. His build was pure intelligence, focusing on Carian magic and channeling his mind into wielding the bulky yet graceful Dark Moon Greatsword.
This is my second character, Nico. I wanted to go with a completely different experience from my first playthrough because that's the fun of Soulsborne games -- you get to mess around with different builds and playstyles.
Nico is a warrior through and through. She's tough, and I gave her the musculature to reflect that. She's a seafarer, leaving her vessel to explore the Lands Between, and she used the Rusted Anchor as her weapon for the first bit of the game -- until I found the Greatsword.
That's what she's holding in the picture. I paired it with the Lion's Claw skill, giving her the ability to somersault into enemies and slash them with her ridiculously giant sword. It never got old. I also brought up her faith quite a bit, hence the glowy hand, and relied heavily on the Stone of Gurranq, which meant she was also a boulder-slinging badass. She's wearing the Duelist Set without the cape.
This is Sohvi, the character I probably honestly had the most fun with. I really had the hang of the game by the time I played her, and I went with an experimental build that turned out to be immensely enjoyable. In my headcanon, she's an astrologist-turned-assassin who wields the arcane Reduvia dagger and night magic.
Let me tell you, I love the Reduvia. I love it so much that I'm actually considering getting it as my next tattoo. It's an incredibly fun dagger that doesn't necessarily require close proximity to enemies because of its blood projectiles. That combined with night sorceries, which enemies can't see or dodge, made for a hell of a build.
Sohvi is holding the aforementioned Reduvia along with the Staff of Loss. She's wearing the Blue Silver Mail Armor without the cloak, the Carian Knight Gauntlets, Alberich's trousers, and the Navy Hood.
I've had so much fun with this game. This doesn't even include the many side characters I've created just to play around with different builds. I'll leave you with two of my favorite screenshots, featuring Sohvi and one of my side characters, Courtney, who I named as such because she ended up looking a bit like Courtney LaPlante.
