The Guilty

The Guilty are a faction in Elden Ring.

Overview[]

The Guilty are convicted criminals of the Lands Between. They are often punished through crucifixion, imprisonment,^[1] exile, execution and most iconic of all, marked with briars that coil around their bodies, many having their eyes gouged out by their razor-sharp thorns. Several of these blinded subjects eventually discovered the blood star as they lived in their eternal darkness.^[2]

The Crucified[]

Crucified subjects can be found all over the Lands Between, though most notably in Limgrave and Altus Plateau. Mimicking the subjugation of Queen Marika, they have their hands nailed to a wooden board in the shape of a Rune Arc for an undisclosed (if not infinite) amount of time. They usually either wear a simple plain garb and trousers along with a hood with a collar made of sharpened branches. Or no clothes at all, their bodies visibly burned and charred. The former being sentenced for lesser, petty crimes and the latter likely for more severe indictments. Queen Marika has also been sentenced to this punishment, though she has been strung up to an actual, enormous rune arc.

The crucified of Limgrave are completely inert during daytime, but spring to life with horrific cries of pain and agony during the night.

While the crucifixes near Dominula don't have anyone hanging on them, they have been uniquely decorated with pink flowers by the local inhabitants. Due to their allegiance to the local Godskin Apostle it's likely done in mockery of the Queen's image and and may serve as a celebration of her suffering.

Briars of Sin[]

The thorns of Stormveil Castle
Corpse of a Fire Giant, infested with thorns
The wall of thorns blocking access to the Erdtree

While briars are used as a means of punishment conducted by a figure of authority. They do curiously seem to appear on their own in environments inhabited by either a great number of criminals or by a single criminal convicted of a particularly heinous sin.

Notable locations infested by briars include:

Stormveil Castle, with it's myriad of Exile Soldiers and Banished Knights likely serving as their penal colony^[3] with it's location at the fringes of the Lands Between.
Flame Peak with it's graveyard of fallen Fire Giants and serving as the site that would allow for the commitment of the Golden Order's first cardinal sin, the burning of the Erdtree.
The entrance of the Erdtree itself, which serves as the prison of Queen Marika for her crime of shattering the Elden Ring.

The Blood Star[]

An unknown entity perceived by those blinded by thorns. It's powers appears to manifest in the form of bloodthorn sorceries and the creation of red glintstone through the blood of sacrifices,^[4] allowing staves infused with such stones to scale with one's Faith at the complete abandonment of Intelligence. Earning its practitioners of Aberrant Sorceries the ire of the academy scholars^[5] as well.

Characters[]

Enemies

Notes[]

A maiden was reborn in the Lands Between after her eyes were crushed with the Briars of Sin.^[6] A shield was made to venerate the repose of her soul, and the clarity it brought.