What Is the Elden Ring?
The artifact the whole game is named after, and what it means to "repair" it.
The Elden Ring is the game's central symbol of order - a golden ring built from individual "Great Runes," each one representing a fundamental law that governs the world (things like how death works, or how order and chaos balance). It was assembled long ago under Queen Marika and, while intact, kept the Lands Between stable under a single set of rules known as the Golden Order.
The Shattering
At some point before the game begins, Marika broke the Elden Ring apart - an event the game refers to as the Shattering. Its pieces (the Great Runes) were taken up by her demigod children, who each began enforcing their own personal, often twisted, version of "order" in their own territory, and went to war with one another over the remaining fragments.
Why the player cares
Your goal across the game is to recover as many Great Runes as possible - which usually means defeating the demigod holding one - and eventually confront Marika herself to attempt to mend the Elden Ring and become the new Elden Lord. Crucially, the game doesn't force one "correct" way to repair it: what kind of order you choose to restore (or refuse to restore) is what decides which ending you get. See our separate guide on endings for more on that.