The Nahobino VS The Tarnished

“I trod heaven in my thoughts, now exulting in my powers, now burning with the idea of their effects. From my infancy I was imbued with high hopes and a lofty ambition.”

- Victor Frankenstein

The Nahobino, the fusion of a human boy and the Japanese god Susanoo who’s destined to take God’s place.

The Tarnished, a warrior of no renown and future Elden Lord in search of the Elden Ring.

To some, the idea that a life, in the grand scheme of things, is nothing but a blip in the grand cosmos of existence terrifies them. But, to others, this fear is a driving force for their ambitions. These two nobodies rejected this premise, and they were granted, of all the people to ever exist, a chance to act on this drive. A chance granted through divine means. Recognizing this, they looked to the thrones of literal gods and decided, no matter how much divine intervention tried to stop them or put them down, that they would sit on that throne and make their mark on reality. If someone got in their way or tried to stop them, they would destroy them! But, what would happen if these two unstoppable forces came to face each other? Just who would reign supreme in this clash of mythological and divine aspirations? Let’s find out!

DISCLAIMER: Considering the notorious nature of scaling SMT and Elden Ring, we will be scaling both characters deliberately higher and more generously than usual to grant these characters the absolute heights of their potentials. But, we will be doing so within reason. Also, the Elden Ring: Shadow of the Erdtree DLC might add more feats later when it releases, but this blog won’t be accounting for that. We will also take lore statements at their word and will scale SMT deities to what their descriptions say. Also, thanks to the opaque storytelling and ludicrous cosmologies in both series, there will be some unavoidable interpretations being made, but we’ll try to account for all feasible possibilities.

Background

The Nahobino

“Let us watch them at our leisure until the new ruler is seated upon the throne.”

In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God…

Except, maybe not here.

In the world of Shin Megami Tensei V, all has gone awry. The eternal battle between that of the Creator and the dark forces of Chaos led by Lucifer has taken a bizarre turn. Lucifer, claiming to have killed the Creator, has vanished! The Creator is also completely quiet, leading to both factions having to fight without a leader. Many years pass with this war continuing, but to a young boy going to Jouin High School in Tokyo…life couldn’t be more normal.

The young boy lived a normal life in Tokyo, going about his days drifting off in class and finding himself as somewhat of a loner. Everything would change, however, when a single earthquake took him and two of his friends into a world beyond his own imagination.

Ending up in a world known as Da’at, the young boy suddenly found himself fused with a mysterious amnesiac known as Aogami. Despite the surprising fusion of the two, the duo quickly managed to overcome every demon that came in their way and eventually made it back to the headquarters of a group known as Bethel. There, the duo, now known as the Nahobino, learned of the truth of the world. God had not been seen for a very long time, and Lucifer, who had claimed to slay him, had not been seen either. The Nahobino decided to join Bethel and work with them to defeat the demons that threatened humanity. The Nahobino went on many missions with them, fighting alongside the forces of Law and conquering demons while gaining immense amounts of power. Along the way, the Nahobino could potentially begin to question Bethel and whether fighting for a world that followed God’s laws was even worth it in the first place…

Once the forces of Chaos had been defeated, however, it came time for Bethel’s inner power struggle to begin. The top gods of the Greek, Hindu, and Norse pantheons made a mad dash in order to reach the Throne of Creation where God had once sat, hoping to ascend to it and take control of all reality. To do this, they needed to find their human, as the Nahobino’s existence was the key to creating a world of myriad gods. You see, all gods used to be Nahobino, but were turned into demons when God separated their Knowledge from them, which he sealed into a fruit in his own paradise. By re-obtaining their knowledge, which now resided in humans thanks to Lucifer tricking humans into eating the fruit, demons of the past could achieve their true forms and true power! The Nahobino then learned the truth, that he was a fusion of the boy and Susanoo, the Japanese god.

After fighting his way to the throne, and overcoming other Nahobino in the process, the Nahobino finally achieved his spot at the throne. However, Lucifer appeared and revealed the truth to him. The world was an endless cycle of constant war between Law and Chaos that was governed by something known as The Axiom. If the Axiom was not defied, then this conflict would go on forever. However, Lucifer hatched a plan that would require the Nahobino to defeat him and absorb his power in the process. If they did so, they’d have the power to defy that super-god known as the Axiom and control the fate of this reality. After clashing with Lucifer, the Nahobino began to shape his own reality. Based on player choice, he could either wipe out demonkind, destroy the throne entirely, create a world with no pain but no free will, or create a world of myriad gods.

Regardless, the Nahobino had finally created a world free from The Axiom…right?

The Tarnished

"A Tarnished of no renown. Cross the fog, to the Lands Between, to stand before the Elden Ring and become the Elden Lord."

In the beginning, there was the One Great and everything was one. Then, came fractures and births and souls. Outer Gods broke from the One Great, existing only as influences on the cosmos, living outside of them and only communicating through various, vague means. Beyond their meddling within this cosmos existed a world known as the Lands Between, where all life blended together, quite literally as a mixture of beasts and man, from the crucible, a red primordial matter from which all life originated. This crucible was considered divine in these ancient times, revered by those that lived in these times, along with the Misbegotten, a race of beings exhibiting characteristics of different animals and beasts who made contact with the crucible of life. There even once existed a Great tree in the center of the land, and giants carved out homes in the mountaintops of the north to tend to the flame of their fell god.

Several Outer Gods wished to have their Fingers in every pie, so to speak, and in a literal sense with the Greater Will, who saw great potential for themselves in the life being breathed into the Lands Between. They saw fit to moralize births and souls, to breathe into existence torment, the concept of sin, despair, affliction, and curses. In a sense, the potential they saw was riddled with what they saw as chaos. The Greater Will wished to bring Order to a land where they saw none. They sent a golden star bearing a beast to the Lands Between, their vassal that was the living incarnation of their Golden Order, which would later become the Erdtree and the Elden Ring, a concept which dictated the laws of reality itself.

When the Erdtree arrived, everything was initially in opposition to it. To them, this strange star from the cosmos was an invader seeking to “set them straight” where they saw no issue, a parasite to their Great tree moralizing their way of life. Thus, the War against the Giants at the birth of the Erdtree began. Civilizations such as the Nox were banished underground after invoking the ire of the Greater Will for creating a blade said to be able to harm the Greater Will and its vassals, such as the Two Fingers they used to communicate through Finger Readers into the world. Leading this war on behalf of the Greater Will was a woman named Marika, of the Numen people, who ascended to godhood to become a vessel of the Elden Ring, a special being known as an Empyrean capable of becoming a god and forging orders for the new world.

In the end, the giants were defeated with one remaining, cursed to tend to the fire that she feared would burn the Erdtree, the reason she attacked them in the first place. The Misbegotten were now reviled, punished for their connection to the Crucible and enslaved, mistreated, for what was now viewed as a blasphemous old faith. Queen Marika had successfully ushered in the Age of the Erdtree, and with this new age came new blessings, which allowed the common people to be able to comingle with the demigods, and a removal of the Rune of Death to be given to Marika’s shadow, her half-brother Maliketh, to guard in order to grant the Grace of the Elden Ring and Erdtree to the people. This would grant a form of immortality to all, and the Golden Order came to be revered as a pure and absolute good.

She would then come to take her first husband, Hoarah Loux, a warrior and leader with a lust for battle who led armies in the war for the Erdtree, who she had three demigod children with: Godwyn, Morgott, and Mohg. The latter two of which were twins born as Omens, which were those born with beastlike traits that were remnants of the Crucible and, as such, grew to be seen as cursed births. Hoarah Loux then came to be known as Godfrey, the First Elden Lord, but when he fought his last worthy opponent, his warrior’s spirit faded.

After the victory of the Golden Order and a secured rule over the Lands Between, Marika announced that she intended to search the depths of the Golden Order, having grown weary of her blind belief. Whatever she found must have spurred her next abrupt, out of the blue decision. Queen Marika then announced that Godfrey and his kinfolk were to be banished from the Lands Between, and to have their Grace revoked, creating the people known as the Tarnished who left the Lands Between. Marika said this was done in hopes of having them wage wars to fight in, with the promise to eventually revive them as they grew strong in the face of death. However, this doesn’t show the whole picture about Marika.

Elsewhere, a great, zealous champion of the Erdtree with flowing red locks came to these lands at the head of a great golden host, and waged war to claim the territory of Liurnia, meeting Queen Rennala, head of the Carian royal family and the magical Academy of Raya Lucaria, in battle. Their two wars were both stalemates, and in response to his own territorial aggressions, Radagon, the champion, repented and cleansed his sins with Celestial Dew to swear his love to Rennala, of all people. Together, they had three children: Rykard, Radahn, and Ranni, and yet, after the banishment of Godfrey, Radagon left for the capital and abandoned Rennala for Queen Marika to become her consort, which left the three children as demigods as they were stepchildren to Marika. Now, what in the world would cause Radagon to leave Rennala for Marika, and go on to have twins, Malenia and Miquella, with her no less?

It was because Radagon and Marika were the same being, two halves of the same whole who took control of the body intermittently with conflicting wills!

Now, during this time, the Two Fingers were deciding who were Empyreans, possible new gods and successors to become vessels to the Elden Ring like Marika. However, Ranni the Witch, a candidate, resented the Golden Order for her broken family, the values it stood for, and its intent to make her a puppet for its will. In rebellion, she orchestrated the Night of the Black Knives, where her Black Knife assassins secretly stole a fragment of the Rune of Death from Maliketh, and used it to kill Godwyn and Ranni herself, which resulted in Godwyn’s soul dying and his body remaining, and vice versa for Ranni. From this horrific night, a distraught Marika lashed out, and the whole world felt her pain, because, despite Radagon’s best efforts to mend it, Queen Marika had done the unthinkable, and shattered the Elden Ring.

Immediately, the demigods went to war over the shards of the Elden Ring, desolating the Lands they once sat comfortably at the top of for their own, power hungry ambitions, and Queen Marika made good on her promise, and recalled the Tarnished to the Lands Between by restoring their Grace. Of which, included a lone warrior of no renown, once thought to have died in obscurity, but was inexplicably given a second chance at life. After meeting a strange girl named Melina, and being chosen by a steed named Torrent, this Tarnished left for the Lands Between, their ambition guiding their sights to the throne of the Elden Lord and a desire to wield the Elden Ring, no matter the cost or what they had to do for it.

Queen Marika was imprisoned within the Erdtree, hanging from a rune by her arms for her actions, where she waited as the Tarnished that returned banded together in a space known as the Roundtable Hold. Here the Tarnished would meet the master smith, Hewg, a Misbegotten coerced by Marika to smith weapons that could slay a god as a prisoner, and recruit a sole survivor of a group grafted by vague descendant of Godfrey and Marika, Godrick. Roderika, who learned to attune Spirit Ashes, formed a bond with Hewg and the Tarnished, who began to work together, alongside Melina, Torrent, and other possible allies such as Ranni, Fia, and Goldmask (each with their own agendas) to reach the ambitions of the lowly, unknown Tarnished so that they may become Elden Lord. Throughout their journey, the Tarnished may also go to serve darker purposes, such as the destructive force of the Frenzied Flame, a maddened Outer God, or the despair-inducing curse of the Dung Eater, but all paths would lead down a similar path.

The Tarnished was to search for the Great Runes, shards of the Elden Ring held by different demigods during their war to mend the Elden Ring later, fully intent on slaying whoever they needed to (or wanted to) to reach the Erdtree in the capital city of Leyndell. There, they slew Morgott, who mocked them for their ambition, and found out that the Erdtree could not be entered as it warded off all who dared approach. So, the solution? Simply find the Flame of the Giants and burn the entire Erdtree down and slay Maliketh to unleash Destined Death on the land from Crumbling Farum Azula, of course! With a cardinal sin committed, the Roundtable Hold began to burn with the Erdtree and, unbeknownst to them, Hewg’s mind alongside it.

Emboldened with genuine belief in the capabilities of the Tarnished and at his wit’s end, Hewg smithed them a weapon fit to slay a god, and Roderika realized the play here amidst the destruction and tragedy. What Marika had glimpsed when seeking the depths of the Golden Order had sown the seeds of doubt, enough for her to play a long con to tear everything it built down, no matter who she had to hurt along the way. With their ambition and drive for the final battle in place, the Tarnished slew Godfrey, the last line of defense, Radagon/Marika, and even the Elden Beast that was sent there long ago. With gods slain, the Tarnished was free to wield their new throne and Elden Ring to reshape the status quo however they wished. Thus, they completed a journey from a nobody to one whose name would never be forgotten in history!

Equipment

The Nahobino

Energy Sword

An energy sword that comes out of his arm. Despite only being a sword, he can use it in specific magical attacks that change it from a “physical weapon” to the property of the magic itself. It can also change size and shape depending on the attack. Some of these elements can even be the impressive Almighty, such as with skills such as Murakamo, giving his energy sword the capabilities of bypassing durability depending on the skill that is used.

Healing Items

The Nahobino has various items capable of healing them or their party up to max health. The Bead can heal a single user to maximum health, while a Bead Chain can do the same to the entire party. Some healing items can even revive dead demons, such as the Balm of Life, which brings them back to maximum health points upon revival.

Gems and Shards

Items capable of dishing out poison, mirage, or a single heavy attack from any of the sects of skills. Nahobino can use these to target weaknesses even when he does not have the spell necessary for it, and can even strike multiple at a time.

Spyglass

This item allows the Nahobino to identify a foe’s level, health points, and all of their elemental weaknesses just from a glance. Consumed upon use.

Dampeners

Party-sized shields capable of negating a single attack. Each party member has a shield wrapped around them that completely negates a hit of a certain type depending on the dampener.

Essences

These essences contain the inherit powers of demons, and the Nahobino can store them. He can absorb the essences in a single use to either take the demon’s elemental resistances and weaknesses, OR to take a single non-exclusive spell from them that he can use for himself. Has never actually swapped essences in battle before.

MP Items

Items that can return the Nahobino’s MP to him. MP is used for magical attacks, and Chakra Pots can completely restore the entire party’s MP reserves.

Navigators

Although not an “item” in the traditional sense, the Nahobino can carry around a navigator demon that can find items buried beneath the earth and reveal them to the Nahobino. These items could be anything from Sutras, rare minerals, healing items, or even balms that can permanently increase one of the Nahobino’s stats. The Nahobino has six different navigators to choose from: Jack O’ Lantern, Decarabia, Amanozako, Aitvaras, Hua Po, and the Yatagarasu.

Throne of the Creator

A place sitting at the literal highest heaven of Shin Megami Tensei’s entire cosmology, and the place where the Nahobino resides after all of the endings of SMT V barring the one where he destroys the Throne of the Creator. This mighty throne is where the strongest god in the universe sits. By sitting here, said god receives a considerable amp to his or her power and receives complete control over reality. Despite this, they can be beaten in combat and all endings imply that even with “complete domination” of the universe something can still stop the top god, such as The Axiom.

The Tarnished

Weapons

There are an insane number of weapons available for various Tarnished builds that players can try their hand at wielding, or dual wielding to use two one-handed weapons in place of carrying a shield or two-handed weapon, found, or earned throughout the Lands Between which can be fully upgraded with Smithing Stones at Smithing Master Hewg in the Roundtable Hold. In fact, there are too many to list out in detail without making this blog take way too long to scroll through (for the curious, see a comprehensive list of weapons here). Instead, here are all the different kinds of weapons found throughout the game with some briefly summarized, noteworthy examples:

Daggers

Scorpion’s Stinger: Crafted from a relic of the sealed Outer God of Rot.
Black Knife: A ritual imbued it with some power of the stolen Rune of Death

Straight Swords

Sword of St. Trina: Its Skill and strikes from it cause Sleep buildup.
Sword of Night and Flame: Its Skill can cast flame bursts and Comet Azur.

Greatswords

Sword of Milos: Its Skill reduces damage negation and status resistances.
Marais Executioner’s Sword: Send out the sword like a drill ahead and recall it.
Alabaster Lord’s Sword: Can pull foes in with gravity magic with its Skill.
Helphen’s Steeple: Its Skill imbues it with ghostflame to deal Frostbite and Magic.
Sacred Relic Sword: The sword transmuted from Marika/Radagon’s remains.
Dark Moon Greatsword: A greatsword present in every Soulsborne game.

Colossal Swords

Greatsword: Guts sword from Berserk. Somehow not a Greatsword.
Grafted Blade Greatsword: Skill raises all stats briefly. Made of other swords.
Ruins Greatsword: Bears the power of a meteorite.
Maliketh’s Black Blade: Once harbored the Rune of Death. Now weaker.

Thrusting Swords

Antspur Rapier: Causes Scarlet Rot buildup.

Heavy Thrusting Swords

Godskin Stitcher: Attacks from this sword are faster than the eye can follow.
Dragon King’s Cragblade: Skill temporarily turns user in a thundercloud.

Curved Swords

Nox Flowing Sword: Skill temporarily transforms the blade into a liquid whip.
Wing of Astel: Skill throws a cloud of stars that linger and then explode.
Flowing Curved Sword: Used by a blind swordsman to seal the Outer God of Rot.

Curved Greatswords

Onyx Lord’s Greatsword: Skill uses gravity magic to repel foes away.
Zamor Curved Sword: Skill summons an icy storm around the Tarnished.

Katanas

Uchigatana: Causes Hemorrhage buildup. “Let Me Solo Her” Part 1
Rivers of Blood: Causes Hemorrhage buildup. “Let Me Solo Her” Part 2
Serpentbone Blade: Causes Poison buildup.
Moonveil: Causes Hemorrhage buildup. Skill fires waves of light.
Dragonscale Blade: Summons ice lightning. Temp. Lightning and Frost damage.

Twinblades

Godskin Peeler: Skill summons a tornado of Black Flame around the Tarnished.

Axes

Stormhawk Axe: Skill summons a small storm of Lightning around Tarnished.

Greataxes

Winged Greathorn: Skill uses a soul-sapping miasma to lower defense.

Hammers

Varré's Bouquet: Skill allows for strikes to sap blood and some HP.
Nox Flowing Hammer: Skill turns weapon into liquid form and then slams down.
Marika’s Hammer: Used to shatter the Elden Ring. Hammer also partially broke.

Flails

Family Heads: Skill summons vengeful spirit orbs to chase down foes.
Bastard’s Stars: Skill also summons a cloud of stars that linger and then explode.

Great Hammers

Devourer’s Scepter: Depicts the planet and explains Rykard’s vision of the future world being devoured. Skill siphons HP, scaling with the amount of foes inside.

Colossal Weapons

Fallingstar Beast Jaw: Skill summons gravity lightning a short distance away.
Ghiza’s Wheel: Pizza Cutter.

Spears

Cleanrot Spear: Skill summons light spears out of the ground after a delay.
Death Ritual Spear: Skill summons spectral spears that rain from the sky.
Bolt of Gransax: Skill imbues and throws the spear for an ancient lightning strike.

Great Spears

Halberds

Loretta’s War Sickle: Its blue glintstone has been replaced with unalloyed gold.

Reapers

Winged Scythe: Skill impedes the use of recovery actions using flasks of tears.

Whips

Magma Whip Candlestick: Skill covers the surrounding area in magma.

Fists

Cipher Pata: No shield can repel it. Skill allows for an unblockable strike.

Claws

Bloodhound Claws: Skill uses Bloodhound’s Step, a better dodge with slightly greater range, temporary invisibility, and brief movement speed boost. Uses FP.
Venomous Fang: Causes poison buildup. Skill uses Quickstep. Enhanced dodge with less utility than Bloodhound’s Step, but circles enemies better. Uses FP.

Light Bows

Red Branch Shortbow: Skill fires off several arrows faster than the eye can see.

Bows

Serpent Bow: Poisons when paired with Serpent Arrows.

Greatbows

Golem Greatbow: Skill allows arrows to penetrate through enemies.
Lion Greatbow: More damage with Radahn’s Spears, Skill rains down spears.

Crossbows

Arbalest: Bolts fired from this crossbow can pierce steel.

Ballistas

Jar Cannon: Fires explosive greatbolts.

Glintstone Staffs

Staffs are required to cast Sorceries.
Carian Regal Scepter: Skill spins it in front of Tarnished, dealing magic damage.

Sacred Seals

Passively boosts respective Incantation Type damage by 10-20%

Torches

St. Trina’s Torch: Skill casts a Sleep-inducing flame

Tools

Regal Omen Bairn: Unleashes a cluster of wraiths to then home in on foes.
Ancestral Infant’s Head: Spray spirit vapor to linger and deal continuous damage.
Pureblood Knight’s Medal: Teleports to the outside steps of Mohgwyn Palace.
Mimic’s Veil: Allows for perfect mimicry of nearby objects. Can still move.
Memory of Grace: Lose all runes but return to the last used Site of Grace.

Shields

Shields in Elden Ring offers boosts to Defensive stats and other stats if offered by a unique one. They can be used to block attacks, bash to stagger enemies or deal damage, or Parry physical attacks or magical attacks, with Thops’s Barrier, to negate damage with the appropriate Skill or Ash of War equipped or native to the shield (more on this later). There are Small Shields, Medium Shield, and Greatshields, each heavier than the last Shield Type. All of them offer the same basic utility with small differences, even if the shield is a simple jar, an eldritch and maddening relic, a giant ant head, a turtle shell, a flamethrower, a fireball cannon, or a jellyfish.

Armor

As expected from a dark fantasy open world game, there’s numerous armor sets to choose from or mix and match. Sets are divided into four pieces: Helms, Chest Armor, Gauntlets, and Leg Armor. The heavier the armor, the more it’ll both weigh the Tarnished down if their Carry Load is overtaxed or affect their Poise. These offer defensive boosts and capabilities, along with various Damage Type Resistances and Status Effect Resistances, with no bonuses for full armor sets. Descriptions for each piece may also sometimes offer up further lore to read into. Find the whole list of 559 armor pieces and the various armor sets here. Talismans are also equippable items that grant light, passive stat boosts, resistances, and effects to the Tarnished.

Spectral Steed Whistle

Blow into the Spectral Steed Whistle, and the Tarnished will be able to summon their trusty Spirit Steed, Torrent, whenever they like. Melina says that Torrent chose them, and it’s also later revealed that he always believed in them, whereas Melina had some doubt. He has his own separate HP, but if he dies he can be revived with one use of the Flask of Crimson Tears. Relative to the sprinting speed of the Tarnished, riding Torrent makes them around 1.59x Faster. While mounted, Weapon Skills can’t be used, but staffs still cast sorceries. He can also double jump, which exhibits the same qualities as the Ancestor Spirit and Regal Ancestor Spirit.

Consumables

Consumable items in Elden Ring do not replenish upon death and revival, and thus should be treated as one-time use items, though the majority of them can be held in bulk. They can either be found naturally in the world, bought at merchants, or crafted. The ones most relevant to our discussions, beyond items that offer cures or resistances to status effects which are detailed later, are listed below:

Miquella’s Needle: The only one of its kind. This needle was crafted from the Unalloyed Golden Needle after giving it to Millicent and bringing it to the Scarlet Aeonia in Malenia’s arena. This can only be used in a place beyond time to cheat fate and ward off the meddling of Outer Gods, which is how the Tarnished frees themselves from the Frenzied Flame path after the Three Fingers brands them.
Fingerslayer Blade: Can only be wielded by those with a fate, and is said to be able to harm the Greater Will and its vassals. Ranni ended up using this in her questline if given to her after freeing the stars from Radahn’s control. This item was key in bringing about her ending where she removed the influence of the Greater Will from the universe.
Somber Ancient Dragon Smithing Stone: A rare smithing stone that can be used by Smithing Master Hewg to fully upgrade a weapon of the choosing of the Tarnished, which is said to lightly twist time and allow weapons to be capable of slaying a god.
Bewitching Branch: A branch that can be used to pierce a foe and use FP to turn them into a temporary ally for the Tarnished during battle.
Uplifting Aromatic: Perfume bottles that negate 90% damage taken by one hit, which is active for 40 seconds and gives a slight physical damage boost.
Tonic of Forgetfulness: The only one of its kind. Received during Rya’s questline that only works in ridding distressing and bitter memories.
Beastlure Pot: A pot that, when smashed, uses FP to create a red shadow where it broke to lure the aggravation of foes to take focus off of the Tarnished.

Flasks

Like all Soulsborne games, the player has access to free HP and FP heals via potions, known as Flasks in Elden Ring. Flasks of Crimson Tears can fully heal the Tarnished with 2 Flasks, and Flasks of Cerulean Tears can restore ¾ of their full FP with one use. At Sites of Grace, the Tarnished can freely allocate the ratio of Cerulean and Crimson Flasks with a max of 14 Flasks. Upon death and resurrection, all the Flask uses are fully replenished.

In addition, a Flask of Wondrous Physick is also available, which can combine the essences of two Crystal Tears to concoct a custom Flask that also replenishes upon death. Crystal Tears can offer effects such as: temporarily raising all resistances and healing all status ailments, heal 5% of max HP when damaged, grant unlimited FP use for 15 seconds, offer more i-frames from dodges at the cost of taking slightly more damage, self-destruct to deal damage to the Tarnished and their foes with the ensuing explosion, and more. This concoction can be altered at Sites of Grace.

The Elden Ring

The titular Elden Ring is earned at the end of most journeys throughout the Lands Between. It is the source of Grace and the Erdtree granted to the Tarnished and exists as a concept, rather than a physical ring. If pieces of it are removed, it can alter the laws of reality and order, such as when Ranni stole the Rune of Death or when Queen Marika granted a kind of immortality to all beings by plucking Destined Death from the Elden Ring. When it was Shattered by Queen Marika, it was still able to grant Grace, but the Lands Between suffered tremendous damage and caused the Greater Will to partially abandon the world, in a way. The Elden Ring also commanded the stars, which once dictated fate and continued to do so after Radahn’s defeat.

At the end of some quests, the Tarnished receives Mending Runes, which can be used to mend the Elden Ring with new laws, as Great Runes are shards of the Elden Ring after the Shattering that were kept with certain demigods and can be artificially created through great effort. Or, it can simply be maintained in its Shattered state (Age of Fracture Ending). The Tarnished can receive the following Mending Runes to conceptually edit the Elden Ring with:

Mending Rune of the Perfect Order: After completing Goldmask’s questline by revealing to him that Radagon and Marika are the same being, this rune will be available on his body for the Age of Order ending. Amending this to the Elden Ring will “perfect” the Golden Order and suppress the ambitions of gods and men alike with god and hero complexes throughout the Lands Between. This possibly manipulates the free will of those in Elden Ring’s world to some extent to achieve peace. However, some also interpret this, with more literal translations, as either protecting the Elden Ring from the meddling of gods or suppressing the ambitious will of the gods.
Mending Rune of the Fell Curse: After completing the Dung Eater’s questline by continuously applying the Seedbed Curse to the Dung Eater’s corpse, the body will create the rune which can curse the Elden Ring itself for the Age of Despair ending. The curse corrupts the Elden Ring, applying the Fell Curse onto reality itself. This curse is said to not only affect those currently living, but all their descendants as well. There’s no details about the curse aside from it disallowing souls to return to the Erdtree upon death, implying an eternal purgatory or unrest for souls of the deceased. Some theorize this is the same as the Omen Curse, but, if true, that curse simply warps the body to appear more monster-like and close to life under the Crucible and is otherwise harmless.
Mending Rune of the Death Prince: After completing Fia’s questline by traveling into her Deathbed Dream and defeating Lichdragon Fortissax, the Tarnished can amend this rune to the Elden Ring for the Age of the Duskborn ending. The mending rune is created by first finding and rejoining the two halves of the Cursemark of Death. This effectively restores Destined Death to the Lands Between, ridding the world of immortality, and allows the Tarnished to essentially wield Destined Death themselves. More on Destined Death later. Some also interpret this ending to mean that the Elden Ring will now accommodate Those Who Live in Death, which would make their cycle of “life beyond death” in their bodies the norm, which results in a form of Death Manipulation.

Abilities

The Nahobino

Demon Physiology

Demon physiology in Shin Megami Tensei is incredibly unique, and they overall tend to share a lot of traits amongst demonkind. To keep it simple, demons are being comprised of pure data who’s unique existence helps to make them immune to typical forms of damage. They’re capable of becoming invisible and even spotting invisible enemies as well. Their revival and immortality is so potent that demons can even return from complete nothingness! Demons are also capable of using all sorts of physical and combat skills, as will be listed below.

Affinities

By absorbing the essences of certain demons, the Nahobino can change his affinity for certain elements and types of attacks defensively.

Based on what essence he chooses, he can become either neutral towards, weak towards, resistant towards, immune towards, reflecting of, or capable of absorbing the hit and turning it into HP.

The Demi-Fiend essence makes him immune to *everything* but Almighty, and is typically his best set of affinities to roll with.

Physical Skills

Skills that play off of the Nahobino’s own physicality more than anything magical. Most involve slashing with his sword or slamming into foes, although some of these moves can poison, stun, put to sleep, or confuse foes from the blow. Some attacks can even heal him half of the damage he does.

Unlike other skills, these skills are powered by the Nahobino’s own HP.

Fire Skills

Skills that make use of fire to harm foes. None of the fire related skills Nahobino can learn do anything other than deal damage, but some have the pierce attribute and can bypass defense stats.

Ice Skills

A variety of magic that focuses on ice, and occasionally water as well. When a foe is killed with these, their entire body is completely frozen into ice and then immediately crumbles, implying some impressive freezing. This can go for some of the massive bosses like the Hydra as well.

Electric Skills

Skills centering around the usage of lightning and electricity. There’s nothing really unique about the ones that the Nahobino can use, but one has the pierce effect which bypasses defenses. These are the Nahobino’s initial set of skills.

Force Skills

A set of skills set around the Nahobino using the force of wind itself to attack foes, and can be used on a single foe or multiple. Can pierce through defenses, hit multiple times, or in some cases ignore star buffs from foes.

Light Skills

Skills that use light as a main source of dealing damage. The big catch with these is that they have any additional effect. For any does weak to light, any and all light attacks have a 40% of killing them instantly, bypassing their durability entirely.

Dark Skills

A set of skills that use darkness as the main source of dealing damage. These spells have the additional effect of being a 40% autokill for any foe that they hit if said foe has a weakness to dark skills, bypassing the durability of said foe entirely.

Almighty Skills

A set of skills that are typically some of the most powerful offensively in the games they show up in, and are commonly used by the more endgame bosses. They have a variety of uses, such as draining life and energy from the target or hitting an opponent so hard that it inflicts them with a “death beyond death itself”.

Healing Skills

A set of skills capable of restoring health up to maximum or getting rid of status effects. If an ally falls in battle, certain skills may also revive them to maximum health and bring them back into the fight.

These skills follow the “Dia” line for basic healing, and the “Recarm” line when it comes to revival. Despite the potency of this, revival spells seemingly do not work on the Nahobino.

Magatsuhi

Magatsuhi is a red energy native to that of Da’at that demons can use to land specific Magatsuhi skills. Despite this, Nahobino can produce this energy on his own by participating in combat if he needs some, not requiring to specifically be in Da’at

There are a variety of skills that the Nahobino can use, including impressive Almighty attacks, healing up his MP and HP to max, making all of his hits critical hits, and more. He can also use the skills of his demons as long as he has the Race Transcendence miracle, which would grant him further access to abilities that can:

-Negate all of a foes buffs

-Heavy decrease to damage taken on the next turn

-Lowers all of the opponent’s stats to the bare minimum for a single turn

Support Skills

By using support skills, the Nahobino is capable of changing his own stats or those of his foe. All in all, he’s capable of boosting or lowering someone’s attacking power, defensive power, evasion, and accuracy. He’s also capable of editing the stats of attacks themselves, and can use other skills in order to guarantee a critical hit or to make it so the next attack someone throws out deals double the damage than it normally would.

Other support skills such as Tetrakarn can block all attacks for a single turn, or taunt and bring a foes focus towards whoever it is that’s taunting.

Status Effects

The Nahobino has a variety of status effects that they can deliver via spells, such as:

Poison

Character takes damage every turn.

Mirage

Character may attack a target that's not specified but with decreased accuracy.

Charm

Character will attack their own allies and attempt to heal enemies.

Confusion

Character will act in a random manner. They can attack an ally, an enemy, or do nothing.

Sleep

Prevents character from acting.

Seal

Prevents character from performing any skills.

The Nahobino can also remove such effects from himself, using items like Amrita Soda or skills like Patra.

Reality Warping

After ascending to the Throne of The Creator, the Nahobino displayed the ability to warp reality in any way he pleased. Some of the abilities below could be considered a subset of his control over reality itself, which should be noted to control an entire cosmology including realms beyond the idea of spatial dimensions themselves.

Mental Manipulation

The Nahobino contains mind manipulation on a completely cosmic scale, as demonstrated in the Law ending. In order to make the entire world as the God of Law wanted, the Nahobino completely bends the will of all in existence to do one and one thing only: worship him. In return for this, he gives them perfect lives as long as they show devotion. Based on the implications from the ending, it seems that the Nahobino’s area of effect for his mental manipulation can encompass the entire universe and multiple dimensions beyond it, as well.

Existence Erasure

In SMT V’s Genocide All Demonkind ending, the Nahobino chooses to completely erase the existence of all of demonkind including his other half, Aogami. This existence erasure was apparently so potent that it could stick for all demons in the series, who have natural resurrection as part of their demon physiology.

Memory Manipulation

YHVH, who Nahobino inherited the powers of, was capable of messing with memory on a cosmic scale. His memory manipulation was so potent that he completely took away everyone’s memory of them ever having their Knowledge, making it impossible for them to ever return to their original form.

Power Removal

Tacking on to the previously mentioned ability, YHVH was capable of removing everyone’s knowledge from them in the first place, significantly weakening them in power in the first place.

Demon Summoning

By making pacts with demons, the Nahobino is capable of summoning them in combat in order to assist him. They all have the same set of skills to choose from as the Nahobino, but they very in strength. Some of his demons are capable of only being well used during the early game, while others are great enough to go with him while he throws down with Lucifer. Some of his demons do have exclusive skills though, such as telepathy, BFR, sealing, and body possession. For a full list of summonable demons, click here.

Resistances

Thanks to the Demi-Fiend essence, the Nahobino supports a completely immunity to each and every skill shown in SMT V barring almighty skills. This means that the Nahobino sports an immunity to:

Poison
Confusion
Being charmed
Being put to sleep
Having an ability sealed
Being fooled with mirages.

He also sports elemental immunities to everything in Shin Megami Tensei V, barring Almignty.

The Tarnished

Grace

Like all Soulsborne games, the immortality of the main character is explained by the lore, granting the character what is effectively infinite lives by some supernatural means. Grace is a blessing granted by the Elden Ring and the Erdtree, and it’s usually present via a golden glow in an individual’s eyes. Queen Marika ended up taking Grace away from Godfrey, the First Elden Lord, and his kinfolk, who were banished and left with him from the Lands Between. After the Long March of the Tarnished, the now graceless kinfolk came to be known as the Tarnished, and large numbers of them would eventually die.

That is, until Queen Marika returned Grace to the Tarnished to revive and retrieve them, hoping their time as warriors fighting in wars would strengthen them until one would come to brandish the Elden Ring. This means that, as confirmed by Miyazaki, the blessing of Grace is primarily given to the Tarnished by the Elden Ring, and this immortality persists for the player’s Tarnished even after the Elden Ring is shattered, the Erdtree is burned, and Destined Death is unleashed upon the land. Therefore, it’d take nothing short of complete erasure of the Elden Ring, severing the blessing of Grace from the Tarnished, or appropriate hax to remove their immortality.

The Tarnished revives at Sites of Grace, checkpoints capable of allowing them to travel to Farum Azula, a place located beyond time where no other NPCs can travel to (except Alexander, who’s built different), and reallocate Flasks of Crimson and Cerulean Tears. The golden light visible from Sites of Grace and from certain other Tarnished is also only visible to a select number of Tarnished, serving as a guiding light on where to go in the game. They are also aware of how Grace works, as they were told by various NPCs throughout the game.

Elemental Manipulation / Resistances / Status Effects

Elden Ring allows for the Tarnished to inflict, cure, and resist various elements and status effects. Status Effects require buildup through exposure, which can be resisted by different stats. They’re also able to manipulate nearly all elements and substances found in the world with spells, incantations, and imbuing weapons with different effects. These include:

Poison Manipulation / Resistance: Inflicts Poison

When built up, deals damage over time for a brief period of time
Mitigated with Immunity stat, raised with Vigor

Disease Manipulation / Resistance: Inflicts Scarlet Rot

When built up, deals considerable damage over time for a brief period of time
Mitigated with Immunity stat, raised with Vigor
Has a maddening effect on the target and can corrupt concepts
Originates from an outer god sealed under the Lake of Rot by a blind swordsman

Blood Manipulation / Resistance: Inflicts Hemorrhage / Blood Loss

When built up, deals damage of at least 15% of the target’s max HP and more
Mitigated with Robustness stat, raised with Endurance
Some abilities can commune with or inflict wounds on the Formless Mother, an outer god, though it’s unclear whether she simply allows this happen or not

Ice Manipulation / Resistance: Inflicts Frostbite

When built up, deals damage of at least 7-10% of the target’s max HP and more
When active, target takes 20% more damage for 30 seconds
Debuff removed with fire damage
Mitigated with Robustness stat, raised with Endurance

Sleep Manipulation / Resistance: Inflicts Sleep

When built up, puts the target to sleep for 60 seconds
Mitigated with Focus stat, raised with Mind
Some theorize that Sleep can break mind control, as the Nox and Giant Ants that they mind control (hence the purple eyes) have this spell broken by Sleep, but it’s equally possible this is just because the rider/caster has been put to sleep

Madness Manipulation / Resistance: Inflicts Madness

When built up, the target is briefly stunned and takes damage of 15% of their max HP and more. They also lose 10% of their max FP and more
Mitigated with Focus stat, raised with Mind
Madness is typically a result of being under the influence of the Frenzied Flame, an outer god that communes through the Three Fingers and can brand the Tarnished as the Lord of Frenzied Flame, who typically keeps followers under their thrall by making them see the Frenzied Flame through their eyes.
Supposedly, every single person that attempted to control the flame of frenzy succumbed to madness, while the Tarnished can resist it and become the Lord of Frenzied Flame themselves, meaning they have decent Mental Resistances.

Death Manipulation / Resistance: Inflicts Death Blight / Instant Death

Only works on other Tarnished
When built up, spires and thorns of death grow from within for instant death
Mitigated with Vitality stat, raised with Arcane
Resisting this implies the Tarnished has a level of Instant Death resistance

Holy and Light Manipulation / Resistance: Damage Type

Draws from the power of the Erdtree and Elden Ring in the form of golden light

Magic Manipulation / Resistance: Damage Type

The use of Glintstone for sorcery draws from the vitality of the stars

Lightning Manipulation / Resistance:

Typically associated with Dragon Cult Incantations and Ancient Dragons

Fire Manipulation / Resistance: Damage Type

Includes Magma Manipulation with Sorceries, Weapon Skills, and Incantations
Black Flame - Does more damage over time the more max HP the target has.
Black Flame is associated with Godslayer Incantations and Weapons

Destined Death

The Rune of Death, also known as Destined Death and mended to the Elden Ring in the Age of the Duskborn ending by the Mending Rune of the Death Prince, was the law that all things that live must die and stay dead. It was first plucked out from the Elden Ring by Queen Marika and sealed in Maliketh’s Black Blade, imbuing the blade with the power of Destined Death and granting everyone a form of immortality.

However, on the Night of Black Knives, Ranni the Witch and her Black Knife Assassins stole a fragment of Death from Maliketh and used it to assassinate Godwyn the Golden, the first ever demigod to die. Ranni then also used the black knives imbued with Death on herself, creating something of a special case. This ended up killing Godwyn in soul, but not in body which left him as a motionless husk, and killing Ranni in body, but not in soul, leaving Cursemarks on both bodies and splitting the mark into two, which the Tarnished should also be able to do.

This would leave Destined Death and Maliketh’s Black Blade as shadows of their former glory, no longer as potent or dealing proper Destined Death. After his failure on that night, Maliketh bound his blade into his flesh to make it more difficult for Death to be stolen again. However, the Tarnished slew Maliketh and unleashed Destined Death on the land once again. The Tarnished would be able to create, through Fia and the body of Godwyn’s help, the Mending Rune of the Death Prince to possibly amend Destined Death onto the Elden Ring once again, allowing them to wield it. They did so by traveling into Fia’s Dream, which they can somehow do, to slay Lichdragon Fortissax, who guarded Godwyn’s body, as she lay with him to create the Mending Rune.

What this means is that anyone the Tarnished slays can no longer be revived and immortality is effectively negated in all forms when fighting them as a result of them wielding this law. Even if the interpretations above aren’t taken as the restoration of Destined Death, but rather, undead life being a part of the accepted norm, Melina herself implies that, after Destined Death was unleashed, she’d be able to deliver it to the Lord of Frenzied Flame, meaning it’s potency may have been restored to Black Blades, Black Knives, and Black Flames. Plus, if Marika was able to manipulate and pluck aspects of death from the Elden Ring itself, it stands to reason that the Tarnished, who can amend the Elden Ring itself, might be able to do the same. Thus, granting this to the Tarnished is still based on somewhat shaky grounds, but they’ll have it for this battle.

Lord of Frenzied Flame

The Tarnished, who can wield the Frenzied Flame where everyone else failed and succumbed to Madness, is capable of great destruction either to burn the Erdtree themselves so Melina lives or simply deciding this world doesn’t deserve to exist. After communing with Shabriri and corrupting Hyetta to become a Finger Maiden to the Three Fingers, the Tarnished learns that the only way to wield the flame of the giants and burn down the Erdtree is to allow themselves to be branded by the Three Fingers. Thus, this will grant them the capability to become the Lord of Frenzied Flame, one who will carry out the destructive will of the Flame of Frenzy to annihilate all that divides and distinguishes by burning everything and all life down with maddening flames that can be summoned around them and burn the skies, so that all will return to the One Great and all suffering is gone from nonexistence in a singularity.

Of course, Melina isn’t happy with this for some strange reason! This destiny is so powerful, that the only way to truly break from this path is to craft Miquella’s Needle and use it in a place beyond time to cheat fate and ward off the meddling of the Frenzied Flame.

Sorcery

Through the use of Glintstone, the primeval sorcerers and astrologers of the Lands Between were able to create the study of Glintstone Sorcery. This was brought about after Lusat, a primeval sorcerer or astrologer, glimpsed the primeval current and saw the final moments of a great star cluster, which led to him breaking and the amber of the stars he saw becoming real and raining down on the land. Glintstone draws power from the residual life and vitality of the stars, and Glintstone sorcery is the study of the stars and the life within, whereas golden amber contains remnants and vitality of ancient life. Amber starlight once commanded the fate of the gods and fate for other beings, and then continued to do so once General Radahn’s hold on the constellations and their cycles through gravity magic was released upon his death.

These Sorceries are cast and channeled through Glintstone Staffs and learned through scrolls or trainers. They also require some Stamina and FP usage from the Tarnished, along with some casting time which can be sped up, alongside Incantations, through the Talisman: Radagon’s Icon. Sorceries are separated into different groups, which are:

Aberrant: These are reviled sorceries discovered by criminals who discovered the blood star after losing their eyes to thorns.

They can send out lines of thorns along the ground to impale foes from below and explode with an AOE of thorns around the caster from the ground, all at the cost of a small amount of HP and Hemorrhage buildup.

Carian: Sorceries studied by the Carian royal family to wield the strength of enchanted knights and the full moon.

These can create magical blades of glintstone to swing at or pierce their foes, sigils overhead to fire blades that home in on foes, automatically fire them towards enemies, dispel magic and incantations with a magical parry and retaliate with overhead blades, alleviate sleep and madness buildup, or summon a mass of magic in the air to fire magical projectiles over the area.

Claymen: Sorceries of claymen who once served as priests in the ancient dynasty and are in search of lost oracles through their bubbles can be cast.

These can send out large, magic bubbles to burst on foes or a cluster of smaller bubbles to do the same.

Cold: Sorceries studied by the Snow Witch, Ranni who learned under the Snow Witch, and Adula the Glintstone Dragon, which focus on frost magic and oaths to the dark moon.

These can conjure magical ice blades that send out blades of frost, freezing mist, imbue armaments with frost, fire projectiles of icy glintstone, and summon freezing tornado storms.

Crystalian: Sorceries of the mysterious, inorganic Crystalians who cleave close to the ideals of the primeval current.

These can create a mass of crystal in the air to fire upon a wide area along the ground, create a mass of crystal to fire rapid crystal shards, or shatter a mass of crystal in a forward burst.

Death: Sorceries used by servants of Death that were rediscovered by the necromancer Garris, which use ghostflame from the Deathbirds, spirits, and deathblight.

They can summon vengeful spiritual skulls to chase down foes, trigger an explosion of ghostflame around the caster, temporarily summon spiritual skeletons to attack, or create a mist of Death Blight.

Full Moon: Conjures and sends out cold, dark moons or full moons based on Ranni’s and Rennala’s magic respectively, which both dispels magic that touches it.

Ranni’s moon deals magic damage, Frostbite buildup, and temporarily reduces magical defenses. Rennala’s moon does the same, but without Frostbite buildup. Both are boosted by being cast by the Carian Regal Scepter, and only Ranni’s moon is boosted by the Snow Witch Hat.

Glintstone: Classic Glintstone Sorceries developed and taught by the Academy of Raya Lucaria, which focus solely on pure magic.

These can imbue weapons with magic damage, buff the defenses of shields, lob explosive magic projectiles, fire magical comet projectiles at foes that can also home in on them, fire barrages or bursts of crystals, fire arcs of magical projectiles, conjure magical hammers, create magical shockwaves, cast light, create a sigil on the ground to boost magic damage of those inside it, and create forcefields that can deflect sorceries and incantations.

Gravity: Sorceries developed and taught by Alabaster and Onyx Lords to Radahn, which was used to hold constellations and stars by Radahn, and Astel, Naturalborn of the Void to control gravity itself.

These can fire gravitational projectiles that can damage and pull foes closer and can be charged, summon a void to rain down small meteorites some with the same power Astel used that leveled the Eternal City, or pull clumps of rock from the earth to send at foes.

Loretta’s: Sorceries developed by Loretta, Knight of the Haligtree, in her search for a peaceful home for the Albinaurics.

These conjure up a magical bow to fire a great magical arrow or several at once.

Magma: Sorceries developed from the magma of Mt. Gelmir by Rykard to control and cast volcanic magma and lava.

These can fire lumps of magma to explode on contact or on a short delay, erupt magma from the ground to cover the area in lava, or summon fiery spirits from the rancor of slain heroes to home in on enemies and leave a trail of explosions in their wake.

Night: Sorceries used by Sellia, Town of Sorcery, and the Eternal City of Nokron, which was used by sorcerer assassins.

These can conjure shard projectiles behind enemies to fire at them, voids of darkness to draw in sorceries and incantations, semi-invisible magical comet projectiles swiftly, silver mist to deal damage to all within, make armaments go completely invisible, and make the caster semi-invisible.

Primeval: The oldest sorceries that draw power from the primeval, starry expanse said to be the origin of Glintstone.

These can be used to fire continuous, powerful beams of a tremendous comet, summon clouds to rain down a deluge of violent starry rain, or charge and fire dark shooting stars that home in on the target.

Incantations

Cast primarily using the Faith stat and a Sacred Seal, of which there are some that give boosts of potency to their respective sects, and learned through Prayerbooks or trainers, Incantations are abilities that are used when calling upon the power it originated from as a cleric. They can either provide buffs, protections, or act as special attacks to add a decent variety to the arsenal of the Tarnished. They are divided into specific types, which include:

Bestial: Boosted by the Clawmark Seal, these draw on the power and teachings of Gurranq, the Beast Clergyman (who is secretly Maliketh).

They rend the land with claw attacks and shockwaves, resist buildup of bleeding and frost, perform geomancy by flinging sharp rocks and boulders, restore HP over time

Blood: These draw power from Mohg, the Lord of Blood, who communes with an outer god, the Formless Mother, to produce Bloodflame, which deals Fire damage and builds up Hemorrhage.

They can summon blood loss inducing swarms of flies, Bloodflame slices, imbue weapons with Bloodflame, and scatter Bloodflame.

Dragon Communion: Boosted by the Dragon Communion Seal, which draws on the power derived from those that feasted on the dragon hearts of various elemental dragons that have been slain.

This shapeshifts the body of the Tarnished into dragon parts to attack with dragon claws, dragon bites, flaming breath, icy breath, rotting breath, glintstone magical breath, magma breath, and dragon roars to debuff enemies.

Dragon Cult: Boosted by the Gravel Stone Seal, which draws on the power of ancient dragons and the Dragonkin, whose cult rose after the dragon Fortissax befriended Godwyn and Lansseax took the form of and communed with humans.

This allows the Tarnished to wield ancient lightning spears, summon Death Lightning, summon ancient lightning strikes, imbue weapons with electricity, frozen lightning spears, create lightning glaives, and scatters and sends lightning along the ground.

Erdtree: Gets power from either the Greattree’s primordial crucible of life or the Erdtree itself. This allows for the Tarnished to shapeshift to spew fire, attack with a tail, or attack with horns.

They can also increase damage resistance, gradually restore large amounts of HP, attack with golden shooting stars, buff attack power and defense, produce shockwaves to knock back foes, or even attack with a black blade once imbued with Destined Death.

Fire Giant: Boosted by the Giant’s Seal, these grant power from the one eyed god of the Fire Giant who once lived amongst the snowy mountaintops.

They allow the Tarnished to summon forth pillars of flame, fireballs, and several balls of fire.

Fire Monks: Draws power from the Fire Monks who guarded the flame of ruin belonging to the giants.

These create balls of fire, alleviates poison and scarlet rot, buffs fire damage and physical damage, resists fire damage, emits fire from the hands of the Tarnished, creates streams of fire, and sets the area and attacker ablaze without harming the caster to continue burning foes.

Frenzied Flame: Boosted by the Frenzied Flame Seal, this draws from the power of the outer god, the Frenzied Flame.

These deal both fire damage and Madness buildup with fiery lasers of Frenzied Flame, emitting a shout to build Madness in whoever hears, grapples foes to burn them and spread Madness from their eyes, and explode bursts of fire around the area where the Tarnished stands.

Godskin Apostles: Boosted by the Godslayer’s Seal, these draw from the power of the black flame, which used to be much more powerful and imbued with Destined Death from the Gloam-Eyed Queen (who is heavily theorized and implied to be Melina).

They can imbue blades with black flame, cast black flame along the ground, scatter black flame, fling fireballs of black flame, increase physical damage resistance at the expense of not being able to heal, and create shockwaves to knock back foes.

Golden Order: Boosted by the Golden Order Seal, this draws on the power of the Golden Order itself and its fundamentalists to produce golden light and provide protection by manipulating the laws of reality.

This casts abilities that fire rings of light, buff non-physical damage resistance and ailment resistance, reveals mimicry, dispels enemy buffs, heals all negative statuses, retaliate with automatic attacks after receiving a few blows, deal Holy damage with a sigil on the ground, alleviate instant death buildup, fires a ring of light across a wide area, and imbues weapons with Holy damage.

Servants of Rot: Draws from the power of the Outer God of Rot and their servants.

This lets the Tarnished launch sticky pest threads, send out poison mist, imbue weapons with Poison, and attack with an enormous flower that blooms into an explosion of Scarlet Rot.

Two Fingers: This draws from the power of those faithful to the Two Fingers.

The Tarnished, using these, can heal HP, cure Poison, throw a shadow to draw the attention and aggravation of enemies, produce shockwaves to knock back foes, increase magic resistance, increase holy resistance, increase lightning resistance, increase flame resistance, alleviate blood loss, poison, and sleep buildup, silence footsteps and sounds produced by falling, reduce fall damage, and create a veil of darkness to blind foes and conceal the caster.

Projectile and Magic Nullification

The Tarnished can also dispel magic, incantations, status effects, illusions, and any and all buffs or debuffs with the Incantation: Law of Regression, and nullify physical projectiles through the Weapon Skill from the Ash of War: Spinning Strikes with continuous spinning attacks. So long as they’re fast enough to cast it, magic and projectiles should be no problem for them. There are also various sorceries that can dispel magic and draw magic into them after being cast, along with the Ash of War: Carian Retaliation which can do the same thing as a parry.

Weapon Skills

Using Ashes of War or the Skills innate to the weapons that they’re using, the Tarnished can apply skills to weapons or use any of the Weapon Skills available in the game which grant not only special attacks, but various miscellaneous abilities. Beyond weapon techniques, magic, and elemental attacks, these skills let the Tarnished attack with wind, deflect projectiles, deflect magic, nullify projectiles, nullify magical projectiles, fire FTE arrows, use gravity magic, buff stats, boost poise and reduce damage taken, attack with a roar, parry physical attacks, grant momentary invincibility, firing penetrating arrows, fire a rain of arrows, use an enhanced dodge, draw aggression with a white spiritual lure, spin into foes with electricity like Sonic the Hedgehog, ground pound, and even… kick!

Summons

Using the Spirit Calling Bell, the Tarnished can summon souls from Spirit Ashes to assist in battle. These can be upgraded after rescuing Roderika after she ended up as the sole survivor of a group grafted by Godrick, where she can spirit tune Spirit Ashes to upgrade them with either Grave Gloveworts or Ghost Gloveworts at the Roundtable Hold. Only one of the Spirit Ashes can be used at a time. For a full list of all Spirit Ashes that can be used as summons, see this page, but we’ll only be listing the ones relevant to this battle:

Mimic Tear: Sacrificing 660 HP will allow the Tarnished to summon an exact copy of themselves, their build, and consumables with the sacrificed HP being the mimic's health, effectively allowing them to fight with a clone. Though, the clone cannot return from death like the Tarnished can. Can be affected by Death Blight. Carries unlimited arrows and bolts. The mimic tear cannot use items, summons, or Torrent. Only the basic combat build of the Tarnished.
Black Knife Tiche: Tiche's knife is directly imbued with the Rune of Death that ended up killing Godwyn the Golden, demigod son of Marika, and destroyed his soul, but left his soulless body behind. She sends out holy black flame slicing projectiles through the air as a ranged attack, and she can attack with her knife for melee with Black Flame. This Black Flame projectile can pass through multiple enemies.
Lhutel the Headless: A headless spirit of a Mausoleum Knight with a magic lance. Capable of teleportation, inflicting the Death Blight status with her strikes, wears heavy armor, and wields a greatshield. She can also throw her lance for a ranged attack.
Redmane Knight Ogha: Having studied alongside Radahn, Ogha is capable of hitting enemies at a far distance with gravity-charged arrows, which can do AOE damage to nearby, adjacent enemies. Carries a greatsword for close range combat. If the Tarnished uses any kind of War Cry, then Ogha will fire a rain of arrows that travels in a line after buffing his own damage, but the rain of arrows can only ever be activated once.
Ancient Dragon Knight Kristoff: Wields a spear imbued with lightning and a shield. Can summon a lightning strike from above by raising his spear into the air. He can also imbue his attacks with lightning or produce a short range Rejection Incantation to produce a shockwave (not electricity) that knocks back foes.
Cleanrot Knight Finlay: Finlay is capable of inflicting the Scarlet Rot status effect with Scarlet Rot breath to deal damage over time. She sends out rings of holy light. Can buff the Tarnished with physical resistance. Wields a halo scythe that deals holy damage.
Spirit Jellyfish: Aurelia the human-sized Spirit Jellyfish spews poison to apply Poison buildup. Has a lot of HP and Defense. Can attack with feelers.
Banished Knight Oleg: Dual wields greatswords and does spinning, wind attacks with them. Immune to Madness.
Blackflame Monk Amon: Wields Godslayer Black Flame incantations to deal damage overtime based on how high the foe's HP is and a curved greatsword.
Finger Maiden Therolina Puppet: Converted into a Spirit Ash by Seluvis. Lobs Holy Water Pots. Casts Healing Incantations in a small radius AOE around her that the Tarnished needs to be inside to be healed. She does this frequently.
Dolores the Sleeping Arrow Puppet: Forcibly converted into a Spirit Ash by Seluvis. Fires arrows that can induce Sleep.
Dung Eater Puppet: Forcibly converted into a Spirit Ash by Seluvis. Wields a Spine Greatsword and hurls curses. Killed thousands when alive and imbued their corpses with a Seedbed Curse. The Seedbed Curse prevents the soul of the body from ever heading to an afterlife or returning from death, which is what returning to the Erdtree would inevitably do. This curse affects every generation of the one afflicted with it. Can build up Hemorrhage. Can use the Shriek of Milos as an AOE attack to debuff enemies to take more damage and get faster status buildup.

Stance

Various weapons and Weapon Skills in Elden Ring deal Stance damage, which builds up with every hit the Tarnished deals out. After being sufficiently built up, the Tarnished staggers the enemy and leaves them helpless and vulnerable to getting struck with a critical hit. After a few moments, the enemy will be able to recover from this state. This can also build up in the Tarnished under Poise, which staggers them to varying degrees.

Parrying and Dodging

With the right timing and speed, the Tarnished can dodge any incoming attack with i-frames. The only exceptions to this are AOE attacks and environmental hazards, for the obvious reason that their harm cannot be avoided just by dodging a small distance. At most, dodging grants 13 i-frames on their own, but with added i-frames from Quickstep or Bloodhound’s Step Weapon Skills, this can be boosted to 16 i-frames. The Windy Crystal Tear also adds 6 i-frames, but with 15% more damage taken. This means, as Elden Ring runs at 60 fps, that dodging grants the Tarnished invincibility for at least around a third of a second.

Using the Ash of War: Parry, the Tarnished can parry and negate any physical attacks with good enough timing and reaction speed with their shield. Some variations allow the parry to help break Stance, deflect arrows and physical projectiles, or even deflect and negate magical projectiles and sorceries in the same way as a parry.

Feats

The Nahobino

Overall

Recreated the world according to his ideals.
Defeated the top gods of the Hindu, Greek, and Norse Pantheons.
Defeated fellow SMT protagonist Demi-Fiend in a fight.
Was a major help in Bethel’s war against the forces of Chaos.
Managed to reach a plane of existence above even the Throne of Creation.
Defeated Lucifer.
Defied the will of the Axiom and created a world without any demons or god aside from himself.
Can eventually lead humanity into defeating demonkind through force and power alone.
Ultimately ascended to the Throne of Creation and became the god of his own universe.

Power

Is capable of creating small storms.
His ice skills can freeze and shatter massive foes.
With the right build and skill combination, can one-shot nearly every single demon in SMT V.
Capable of destroying the Throne of the Creator, which sits at the highest point of SMT’s entire cosmology.
Matched Lucifer in power, who had beaten YHVH.

YHVH is capable of creating realms “vaguer and more infinite” than even realms beyond space and time.

At his peak, was capable of defying the Axiom and keeping demonkind permanently dead.

The Axiom created SMT’s cosmology, which includes an infinite multiverse and includes spaces that are beyond the concept of spatial dimensions themselves.

Scales in power to any of the demons he can summon.

Should scale above the rest of the SMT protagonists by nature of defeating the Demi-Fiend.

Speed

Capable of dodging lightning skills.
Capable of dodging light skills.
Kept up in battle with Lucifer, who was equal to YHVH:

YHVH is capable of existing within every single human in the multiverse, and can simultaneously see through all of their eyes and project an image into them at once. (Immeasurable)

Should scale above pretty much every demon in the series by virtue of beating Lucifer:

Matreiya is capable of throwing over five billion punches within a singular attack.
The demon Seere is so fast that he can cover the circumference of the planet and back within the blink of an eye.
Mada is fast enough to devour the entire universe in the blink of an eye.
Angels are capable of moving in tandem with light from the sky.

As a higher dimensional being, is naturally above space and time. (Immeasurable)

Durability

With the right essence, is capable of negating any attack from any demon in the game that isn’t using an almighty spell.
Can survive almighty spells, which are stated to inflict a death beyond even death itself.
Can take hits from the Hydra, who towers over the Nahobino in size.
Can take hits from the ludicrously sized Surt, who’s as big as skyscrapers during his fight with the Nahobino.
Capable of surviving all of his spells reflected back at him, assuming an enemy reflects a specific type of skill.