Game of Thrones author George R.R. Martin appears to have hidden his initials across Elden Ring‘s world, by way of many of its characters.
The game’s opening cutscene introduces one of Elden Ring’s gods, Queen Marika, and players eventually meet her various relatives and offspring.
Spoiler warning: This story going forward contains several names and relationships of Elden Ring characters from deep into the game.
But the main four, as noted by PC Gamer, are Godfrey, Rennala, Radagon, and Marika. Their initials combine into G.R.R.M, not unlike George Raymond Richard Martin.
In fact, all of Elden Ring’s gods and demigods have names beginning with these three letters: Godfrey, Godwyn, Godrick, Rennala, Radagon, Radahn, Rykard, Ranni, Renna, Marika, Morgott, Mogh, Malenia, Miquella, and Maliketh.
Martin crafted the backstory and history of Elden Ring years ago in an opportunity that was “too exciting to refuse”. This included the naming of many of its characters, though game director Hidetaka Miyazaki thought Martin might be shocked by what became of them.
Miyazaki also placed important restraints on Martin’s contributions because “story must always serve the player experience”, but overall he described working with Martin as “like speaking with an old friend”.
When the game was released on February 25 it became one of the best reviewed games in modern history, and Martin said he was very happy with how the game turned out.
Developer FromSoftware likely is too, as Elden Ring dominated U.S. sales and became the best-selling game of 2022 so far. It’s also the UK’s biggest non-FIFA or Call of Duty release since 2018 and on Steam it grew in popularity day by day before becoming the sixth most played game of all time.
Elden Ring has proven somewhat of a cultural phenomenon, with crazy adverts, a streamer’s Twitch chat playing while he swept, someone using the Nintendo Switch’s Ring Fit Controller to beat a boss, and it’s even got its own candy.
In our 10/10 review, IGN said: “Elden Ring is a massive iteration on what FromSoftware began with the Souls series, bringing its relentlessly challenging combat to an incredible open world that gives us the freedom to choose our own path.”
To make those choices with the best available information, check out our guide that features everything you could ever hope to know about Elden Ring, including collectible locations, boss strategies, and more.
Ryan Dinsdale is an IGN freelancer who occasionally remembers to tweet @thelastdinsdale.
