Game:

Elden Ring (2022)

Duration: 3:18

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12

This video poses a question about Elden Ring lore: Why do sorceries require intelligence?

Intelligence is more than just an abstract stat that lets you cast certain spells. The lore of Elden Ring has an explanation for why intelligence is associated with the use of sorceries: the very act of casting a spell involves the exercise of mystic insight into the hidden realities of the world!

Or such at least is my argument. I defend this argument by examining item descriptions for such sorceries as the Founding Rain of Stars, Comet Azure, Rennala's Full Moon, and Ranni's Dark Moon. All of these spells tell a similar story about how they were invented: an astrologer 'communed' with mystical objects, or 'beheld' their nature, and in so doing they acquired the power to manifest duplicates of their nature in the physical world as spells.

But, as I argue, this act of 'communion' or 'beholding' is less like looking at something through your eyes, or with a telescope, and more like contemplating a mystical reality like a monk who has achieved Nirvana or seen the face of god as a result of rigorous meditation. And that is why sorcery requires intelligence: it involves an achievement of profound intellectual discipline, in which one cognizes the hidden realities of the cosmos.

I think that this story can not only help us to understand the nature of sorcery in Elden Ring, but also the nature of Ranni the Witch's relationship to the Dark Moon and the way that it functions as a source of her power. The Dark Moon has a physical form that is visible from the Cathedral of Manus Celes, but it also has a mystical form that may only be apprehended through an act of occult comprehension.

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00:00 The Invention of the First Sorcery
01:29 The Reason why Sorceries Require Intelligence

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