Elden Ring's Fractals

"...arbitrarily small scales."

An aura of unknowability looms over the Lands Between, the magical continent where Elden Ring takes place. Part of this atmosphere is a byproduct of the fractal nature of the game’s world-building.

Without getting into the mathematical weeds, we can think of fractals as infinite geometrical shapes. Fractals have no bottom—no matter how far we zoom into their depths, we either witness a never-ending procession of novel shapes, or are faced with the same pattern repeating in a loop. Computer-generated videos can give us a glimpse into the impenetrable space of fractals.

Similarly, Elden Ring’s world is never-ending in all directions. The past is infinite—we see the remains of long-forgotten civilisations that tell stories of empires older still. The heavens are infinite, too—there are gods above gods above gods, and no divinity seems powerful enough to feel truly omnipotent. We don’t even know if ours is the only timeline—the game often hints at the possible existence of shadowy multi-verses. As a consequence, Elden Ring plays like an epic, desperate chase after noumena.