With a character creator so in-depth as Elden Ring's, you'd be forgiven for spending altogether too much time editing and sculpting your player character until you're perfectly happy with it. After all, you'll be playing with them for many hours.

It makes sense, then, that you'd notice if something changed about your character, for example, the color of your eyes. Your actions in Elden Ring can lead to this sudden cosmetic change in three ways — here's how they occur and how to reverse them.

Updated March 23, 2024 by Marco Vito Oddo: While your eye color marks some specific gameplay milestones, these changes also reveal more about the complex lore of Elden Ring. FromSoftware spared no effort to create one of the best original stories in video games, hiding small clues about the Lands Between in things such as a sudden change in your eyes. So, as we dig through item descriptions and obscure optional dialogue, we get a clear picture of what's really happening in Elden Ring.

Draconic Eyes

This is probably the easiest example to explain - this change turns your normal eyes into yellow, almost draconic eyes. This happens after consuming a number of Dragon Hearts at either the Church or Cathedral of Dragon Communion.

The Church of Dragon Communion is located in Limgrave, on the other side of the Coastal Cave dungeon.

The Cathedral of Dragon Communion is located in the southern parts of Caelid.

Those who have performed the Dragon Communion will find their humanity slowly slipping away. Once they fully succumb to their fate, they are left no more than wyrms that crawl the earth. (Magma Breath Description)

The above incantation description explains why this process happens. You gradually become more draconic as you perform Dragon Communion (the act of consuming Dragon Hearts in exchange for powers). While this amounts to no more than a cosmetic eye change in-game, it's a neat indicator of your character's choices having consequences.

The Cult of the Dragon began with Godwyn, the Golden, the first child of Marika and Godfrey. During the war against the Ancient Dragons, Godwyn defeated one of Leyndell's most powerful draconic enemies, Fortissax. However, instead of killing Fortissax, Godwyn offered him a truce.

Godwyn and Fortissax would become friends, helping to end the war and turning dragon power into part of the Golden Order. Ironically, Godwyn's efforts to build a better world would eventually lead to the emergence of the Magma Wyrms, as people who abuse the Dragon Communion turn into cursed lizards. So, you better watch out since the first sign of this transformation is your draconic eyes.

Bloodshot Eyes

Your eyes will become permanently reddened and bloodshot if you pursue White Mask Varre's side quest. This begins at the Rose Church in Liurnia of the Lakes and involves you invading a few other players and then soaking a cloth with the blood of a maiden.

You must take these steps to become a Knight of Mohg, the Lord of Blood.

Once you've taken care of those tasks, return to Varre, and he will anoint your finger with blood in a ritual that sounds very painful.

This noble blood will be an immutable badge of honor, once it settles. Inside of you. Oh, good heavens. Clench your teeth, or something. Never forget that feeling of agony. For it is what binds you to Luminary Mogh, to all of us. Ha ha ha... You have the sweetest scream. My lambkin. -White Mask Varre dialogue

This ritual triggers the cosmetic change and seems to represent the noble blood settling inside you. It is possible that the anointment ritual actually makes your blood accursed, with Mohg and, therefore, the knightly order that you join during this quest being associated with accursed blood. The red eyes also indicate the influence of the Formless Mother, the Outer God Mohg serves. So, by performing the ritual, you are also blessed with the Formless Mother's blood.

The bloodshot eyes effect will override both your normal eye cosmetics and the draconic eyes effect. If you then remove the eye alterations using the method detailed below, you cannot get your draconic eyes back. The frenzied eyes effect detailed below will also override the bloodshot effect, so be wary of that if you want to pursue that ending.

Frenzied Eyes

This cosmetic effect is linked to one of Elden Ring's many endings - namely, the Lord of the Frenzied Flame ending. One of the steps you must take to achieve this ending is to interact with the Three Fingers in the chasm behind Mohg, the Omen's boss arena. Their blessing will alter your eyes, bringing out a yellow, chaotic hue.

In Elden Ring lore, eyes are a pathway to the cosmic forces trying to take over the Lands Between, with blind characters seeing these entities better than anyone else. For instance, while taking over Malenia, the Outer God of Rot took away her vision. Hyetta, in her turn, is chosen as a maiden by the Frenzied Flame due to her blindness. The Frenzied Flame guides Hyetta by making her ingest madness-inflicted eye, which gives her a glimpse of the path she must follow to find the Three Fingers.

The Frenzied Flame is an Outer God who brought the flames of Chaos to the Lands Between, just like the Greater Will brought Order. The former was actually summoned to combat the latter, and now the Frenzied Flame seeks to destroy the Lands Between, cleansing it of the Greater Will's Golden Order. It has envoys in the Three Fingers, just as the Greater Will has the Two Fingers.

To gaze into one another's eyes is truly the most intimate form of human contact. -Inescapable Frenzy Description

Interacting with the Frenzied Flame is well-known to cause a horrific madness that affects body and mind alike ("maddening pain and unstoppable tears" -Unendurable Frenzy Description), and you can see this madness in your foes through their brightly glowing yellow eyes. It stands to reason, then, that your eyes are not glowing quite as bright when you interact with the Three Fingers, which may imply that you have the ability to interact with the Frenzied Flame without such repercussions.

How some eye colors change to replace others tells you something about the power hierarchy in the Lands Between. Draconic eyes are a physical change caused by your body slowly turning into a reptilian creature. Bloodshoot eyes, in turn, are a mark of an Outer God, the mightiest forces mentioned in the Elden Ring.

It also makes sense that frenzied eyes replace bloodshot eyes, even though Outer Gods cause both. That's because the Frenzied Flame has an envoy below the Capital, the Three Fingers; the Formless Mother, however, is still a distant threat to the Lands Between's status quo.

How To Get Your Eyes Back To Normal

Getting your eyes back to normal is a simple case of toggling the Eye Cosmetics option in the Detailed Face Details menu of the appearance-altering mechanic. This can be accessed in two ways:

• Speaking to Rennala after defeating her in Raya Lucaria Academy.
• Interacting with the mirror in Fia's room in the Roundtable Hold.

You will only be able to toggle the cosmetics on or off. Unfortunately, you cannot choose between all the cosmetic changes you've unlocked. Frenzied eyes override bloodshot eyes, which override draconic eyes.