Beast. After both are vanquished, the Tarnished gains access to Marika's shattered corpse, which contains the remains of the Elden Ring. Depending on the Tarnished's actions throughout the game, six different endings can then be achieved, ranging from the Tarnished becoming the Elden Lord, to allowing the Elden Ring to be destroyed by Ranni the Witch, or using the Frenzied Flame to destroy the Lands Between. Development and release FromSoftware had previously been known for developing the Dark Souls series, noted for their high level of difficulty. Director Hidetaka Miyazaki wanted to create an open world game, intending Elden Ring as a mechanical evolution to Dark Souls. The game was designed to have a more expansive environment compared to the narrow dungeons of FromSoftware's previous games, with Miyazaki hoping that the grander scale would add freedom and depth to exploration. FromSoftware approached American author George R. R. Martin, known for the A Song of Ice and Fire series of fantasy novels, to provide worldbuilding for Elden Ring. A fan of Martin's work, Miyazaki hoped Martin's contributions would produce a more accessible narrative than the studio's previous games. Miyazaki remained lead writer for the main storyline in the game but gave Martin the creative freedom to write about events that had taken place before the main narrative. The process was compared by Miyazaki as using a "dungeon master's handbook in a tabletop RPG". As with many of FromSoftware's previous games, the story was designed to not be clearly explained. The developers intended for players to interpret the story for themselves via flavor text and optional discussions with non-player characters (NPCs). Miyazaki said that he enjoyed writing NPCs with more detail, believing they were more compelling than in his earlier works. In an interview with IGN, the director said that he chose to give Martin control over the pre-narrative because of the restrictions that FromSoftware's method of storytelling placed on writers. He noted that FromSoftware did not want a linear or story-focused game, and by giving Martin oversight of a history that the player was not directly involved in, he could allow Martin to freely design his contributions. Some staff from Game of Thrones, a television series adaptation of A Song of Ice and Fire, also assisted with the game's development. Production of the game began in early 2017 following the release of The Ringed City, a piece of downloadable content for