What exactly is George R.R. Martin’s role on FromSoftware’s Elden Ring?

As the developers behind mega hits like Dark Souls and Bloodborne, FromSoftware is one of the hottest developers working in video games today. When they announced that they would be teaming up with A Song of Ice and Fire author George R.R. Martin for a new game, Elden Ring, heads turned. The marketing puts this partnership front and center, too, with the latest trailer saying that the game features “a new world created by  Hidetaka Miyazaki and George R.R. Martin”:

But what does that mean? How involved is Martin really? He obviously didn’t write any lines of code or anything, nor create graphical assets. But he didn’t exactly write the story either.

Speaking on the official XBox blog back in 2019, Miyazaki explained how the partnership with Martin came about, and basically what he did for the project:

"I suppose the start of this collaboration came from the fact that I myself am I huge fan of Mr. Martin’s work.I loved “A Song of Ice and Fire” as well as the “Tuf Voyaging” series, however if I had to pick a favorite I would probably say “Fevre Dream.”I personally see “Fevre Dream” as a masterpiece among vampire fantasy and had even previously recommended it to all new employees.Me being such a known fan of Mr. Martin caused our executive business director Eiichi Nakajima to reach out to him with the expectation that we would get turned down.However, we were then given the rare opportunity to talk one-on-one with Mr. Martin which was an incredibly fun and stimulating experience. It was then that I strongly felt that I wanted to work with Mr. Martin.I am still unable to put into words how grateful I am to Mr. Martin for agreeing to our offer.The actual collaboration itself begun with Mr. Martin ever so politely confirming what sorts of themes, ideas as well as many game-related aspects I had envisioned for the game.This allowed us to have many free and creative conversations regarding the game, in which Mr. Martin later used as a base to write the overarching mythos for the game world itself.This mythos proved to be full of interesting characters and drama along with a plethora of mystical and mysterious elements as well. It was a wonderful source of stimulus for me and the development staff.Elden Ring’s world was constructed using this mythos and stimulus as a base. Even I myself find it hard to contain my excitement from time to time. We hope that everyone else is looking forward to the world we have created."

George R.R. Martin helped develop the lore of Elden Ring, but didn’t write the story

First of all, it’s cool that Miyazaki isn’t just a Song of Ice and Fire reader but a proper Martin superfan, having read and enjoyed much of the author’s work beyond Westeros. Second, Miyazaki said that Martin came up with “the overarching mythos” that underlies the world of Elden Ring, but that it was based on “themes, ideas game-related aspects” that Miyazaki had come up with. And indeed, the world of Elden Ring should look familiar to anyone who’s played a From game: decaying and fading, with beauty and grace hanging on by a thread.

According to excellent Game of Thrones fan-site Los Siete Reinos, Martin created the mythology for Elden Ring but didn’t actually write the story or anything about the protagonist, which is likely why the trailer is careful to say that the world was “created” in part by Martin but doesn’t mention him actually writing anything. That’s pretty in keeping with Martin’s interests; we’re talking about a guy here who has the time to write a whole fake history book about the Targaryen dynasty (part one of two), but who still hasn’t completed the next book in his Song of Ice and Fire series after 10 years of writing. Martin loves lore, and FromSoftware games usually have a lot of it.

That said, if you’re worried this took away time Martin could have been spending writing The Winds of Winter, there’s probably not too much cause for alarm. Martin would have worked on this years ago, for one thing, and even though From games have a lot of lore, what he did here was still well shy of writing a book or even a short story. His name is on the marketing materials because he’s famous, but I doubt he devoted months of his life to this or anything.

Elden Ring will be released for PC, PS5, PS4, and Xbox Series X and S on January 21, 2022.

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