Why Does Blaidd Attack You In Elden Ring?

Understanding the lore of a FromSoftware game can be a difficult task.

Although these games have some of the richest, most thought-provoking lore in all of gaming, Hidetaka Miyazaki and the dev team has made sure to make each game a puzzle for you to solve rather than hold your hand.

This is especially true with Elden RIng, a game that features some very complicated questlines and characters that you may see once and then not again for a long time.

A fan-favorite character is Blaidd, the half-wolf, the half-man warrior who you meet a few times on your travels. If you follow Ranni the Witch’s questline, you’re likely to talk with him quite a bit, all the way until the final meeting, where he goes feral and attacks you.

This is a shocking moment in the game and one that many players have scratched their heads over.

Why does Blaidd attack you? What changes his personality from friend to foe? If you’re wondering about this, don’t worry! We’re here to help!

In this article, we’ll take you through everything you’ll need to know about Blaidd’s story and why he comes to an unfortunate end. 

A Quick Note On Elden Ring Lore

Before we get into Blaidd’s story, we must clarify Elden Ring lore. The story works in this game through implication over explicit explanations. If ‘show, don’t tell’ is great advice for storytelling, then FromSoftware takes this to the max.

Much of what we know about the lore is either vague or implied, so this is important to keep in mind as we go deeper into the story.

Who Is Blaidd?

Blaidd, also known as Blaidd the Half-Wolf, is a friendly NPC in Elden Ring. He is a tall man that is half-wolf, and he carries a gigantic two-handed greatsword. You’ll first encounter him in the Mistwood Ruins, but to do so, you’ll need to use the Finger Snap Gesture.

From here, you can follow Blaidd’s first questline that has you follow him searching for Bloodhound Knight Darriwil, who he’s hunting.

We don’t learn much about Blaidd initially, but we get the impression that he’s a friend working to rid the world of evil somehow.

But later, when beginning Lunar Princess Ranni’s quest, we learn that Blaidd is in her service. When the player pledges their service to Ranni, we also team up with Blaidd and go deep into the Siofra Riverbank, attempting to get into the city of Nokron together.

He also aids you in the battle against General Radhan. 

As we continue through Ranni’s questline, we see Blaidd a few more times, but we never learn all that much about him. We do learn that Blaidd is fiercely loyal to Ranni and that he is bound to serve her in her life after making a vow to serve no other master than her.

So then, it’s quite surprising that at the end of Ranni’s questline (after the player defeats Astel, Naturalborn of the Void,) when they return to Ranni’s Tower, Blaidd is there and begins to attack you.

So why does this happen? How does he turn from a loyal servant to a sudden enemy? To explain this, we’ll have to go a little deeper into Ranni’s lore and the lore of the Two Fingers. 

Ranni And The Creation Of Blaidd

Ranni is an Empyrean, otherwise known as a demigod. As the child of Radagon and Queen Rennala, she was expected to one day succeed Queen Marika and become ruler of the Lands Between.

This was determined by the Two Fingers, a vassal of the Greater Will. So then you can consider Ranni to be fated to become ruler, destined to have one path in her life.

But Ranni has other ideas. During the shattering of the Elden Ring, Ranni broke free from her Empyrean body and trapped her soul into a doll.

For the purpose of this article, we can’t go into everything to do with Ranni’s lore, but we can tell you that the Two Fingers wanted to get her back on the right path to becoming ruler of the Lands Between. 

So this is where Blaidd comes in. He was created and brought to the Lands Between by Ranni’s Two Fingers in an attempt to keep an eye on her and ensure she followed her destiny.

But Blaidd chose not to obey the Two Fingers and instead pledged his sword to Ranni, no matter her path. 

Here is where his story turns tragic: the Two Fingers also placed a curse on Blaidd. If he ever failed to bring Ranni back to her path as the destined ruler, Blaidd would slowly begin to lose his mind. 

So Why Does Blaidd Attack You?

From the lore we just explained, we can begin to understand why Blaidd becomes suddenly hostile to you. When you finish Ranni’s questline, you have helped her transcend and move on with the final stages of her plan to escape her fate.

When Ranni leaves the Lands Between, Blaidd succumbs to the Two Fingers curse and goes feral.

And then we, as the player, run into him, and he goes for us. You can choose to leave Blaidd as he is or to put him out of his misery, but either way, there is no turning him back. For many players (especially those who know the lore), this is one of the saddest character moments in Elden Ring.

A Final Note About Blaidd

Blaidd is a reference to Guts’ character from the manga Berzerk. Hidetaka Miyazaki has said on record many times that Berzerk is a big inspiration for Dark Souls, Bloodborne, and Elden Ring. A few characteristics of Blaidd look similar.

Most noticeable is his greatsword and his unwavering dedication to a singular person.