One of the NPCs appearing in the opening movie is Gideon Ofnir.

Gideon Ofnir is a good guy who gives us information about bosses at the Roundtable Hold, but he will be hostile to us at the end of the story.

In this article, a native Japanese writer explained the lore of Gideon Ofnir including Japanese backgrounds.

目次 (Contents)

Who is Gideon Orfnir?
Information of Demigods
Why Does Gideon Fight Us?
Postscript

Who is Gideon Orfnir?

Gideon speaks about his identity as follows:

Gideon Orfnir
You’ve received the wisdom of the Two Fingers, have you not? Then, just as promised, I bid you welcome, as a true member of the Roundtable. I am known as Gideon Ofnir. As a Tarnished who wishes to stand before the Elden Ring and become Elden Lord, I am accumulating knowledge. To be all-knowing. You now belong to a select group of fellows. As such, I ask that you remain constant.

From this talk, we can see Gideon is a Tarnished.

In addition, “To be all-knowing” suggests Gideon aims to become an Elden Lord with the power of knowledge.

In short, Gideon is more brainy than muscular.

However, it would be extremely difficult to become an Elden Lord with only brains, because there are scary demigods in the Lands Between, such as Radahn who crushes the stars or Malenia who corrupts even the earth.

Information of Demigods

We main character and Gideon have a win-win relationship.

Gideon is familiar with the information held by the Roundtable Hold and can tell us where the demigods are.

In return, we fights demigods to retrieve the Great Runes and provides information to Gideon.

When we reports the acquisition of the Great Rune, Gideon says as follows.

Gideon Orfnir
You may be our best hope. Find your way to the Elden Ring.
For we are Tarnished. And we must answer the call of grace.

Therefore, we can see that Gideon helps us to follow the Two Fingers’ guidance in order to approach the Elden Ring.

Contrary to his name all-knowing, he would be fairly obedient who accepts what Two Fingers says.

However, Gideon is also a ruthless person who will stop at nothing to obtain information.

In fact, Gideon killed a large number of Albinaurics in order to obtain information about Miquella.

Why Does Gideon Fight Us?

Gideon will be hostile to us at the end of the story.

So, let’s think about the reason why Gideon challenged us to battle.

First, let’s think about what Gideon said before and after the battle.

Before the battle
Ahh, I knew you’d come.
To stand before the Elden Ring. To become Elden Lord.
What a sad state of affairs.
I commend your spirit, but alas, none shall take the throne.
Queen Marika has high hopes for us.
That we continue to struggle. Unto eternity.

After the battle
I know…in my bones…
A Tarnished cannot become a Lord. Not even you.
A man cannot kill a god…

The above dialogues are quite difficult to interpret.

But in conclusion, Gideon may not want the current world to end in order to continue exploring forever.

Actually, the purpose of Gideon is implied in the text of Scepter of the All-Knowing.

Scepter of the All-Knowing
Scepter in the form of a hand grasping a pearl. Signature weapon
of Sir Gideon Ofnir, the All-Knowing. The pearl stands for the
world, the heavens, and an eye, representing the many forms of
knowledge, never fully attainable. Even knowing that, the All-
Knowing’s hand grasps for it.

So, Gideon may have thought that the way to the All-Knowing is unending.

In addition, we can see Gideon was afraid of ending the world.

All-Knowing Helm
Knowledge begins with the recognition of one’s ignorance. The realization that the search for knowledge is unending. But when Gideon glimpsed into the will of Queen Marika, he shuddered in fear.
At the end that should not be.

Then, “the will of Queen Marika” would represent the end of the eternal world based on the Golden Order.

The reason why Marika wanted to end the Golden Order is explained in this article.

When Gideon learned that the eternal world would come to an end, which means complete rejection of his philosophy that the way to the All-Knowing is unending, and he got afraid of it.

Now then, we can also understand the what Gidenon said earlier.

In other words, the true meaning of the statement, “Queen Marika has high hopes for us. That we continue to struggle. Unto eternity.” must be a distorted interpretation of Gideon.

Gideon knows the Marika’s will but it goes against Gideon’s philosophy, so he could not accept the fact.

Therefore, Gideon said, “A Tarnished cannot become a Lord”, maybe to himself.

As another possibility, since Gideon did not know that the main character got the Rune of Death, he said, “A Tarnished cannot become a Lord.”

To summarize the above points, Gideon decided to fight us because if we become the Elden Lord, the eternity of the Golden Order and the the way to All-Knowing would end.

Postscript

This article explained the lore of Gideon Ofnir.