Players Decode Runes On Elden Ring Map - Spoilers Ahead

Compared to what else, we're getting, Elden Ring is probably going to be the game of the year for 2022. It's a FromSoftware title that's leaning into open-world game design, it looks beautiful, and reports from the beta were unanimously positive. If you couldn't tell, we're super hyped. But you know what makes the game even more exciting? The army of nerds who are going to scour every inch of this map looking for mysteries and clues. Because one thing FromSoftware have always been great at is environmental story-telling, so Easter eggs around the map are pretty much guaranteed. And one of them has already been deciphered…

The Symbols on the Map

The current map for Elden Ring had a number of symbols that were ignored at first. Upon further inspection, most players couldn't even tell what language was being used. But then a group of Chinese gamers identified the runes as the rare dialect Yi. The runes on the map used an odd, almost broken form of Yi, and the team had to work for some time on decrypting them. But they eventually began to uncover the secret. The runes were describing (spoiler alert) sea monsters, which don't themselves appear on the map,

What does this tell us about Elden Ring?

Huge spoiler alert, obviously. The fact that they have 'hidden' the sea monster symbols on the current map, coupled with Miyazaki's recent dodging of a question asked about the serpent on Godfrey's axe, hints at just how important the naval theme is to the plot. We didn't see much of it at all in the beta, but it seems that sea-based exploration and terrifying creatures of the deep play a huge role in Elden Ring.

That's all we know for now, and if anything it's just made the wait for all of February's games that bit harder. Seriously, we're getting Total War: Warhammer 3, Horizon: Forbidden West, and Elden Ring in one month. This will go down as the best February for gaming in history, so stay tuned.