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Blaidd is a fan-favorite character who appears quite early in your Elden Ring adventure, lurking in the woods of Limgrave. Throughout the game, Blaidd joins you in a couple of crucial boss battles, gifts you valuable upgrading material, and even helps you pursue one of the game's best endings. It's not hard to understand why you grow so attached to Blaidd during your journey, but there's much more to Blaidd than a friendly face along the path.

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While there are not many mandatory steps in Blaidd's questline, optional steps help you understand the nuances of the character and how his unbreakable loyalty to Ranni eventually leads him to a tragic death. Taking apart each step of Blaidd's journey, instead of just focusing on the main beats, also gives you clues about the powers at play in the Lands Between.

Who Is Blaidd?

Blaidd waiting in a forest in Elden Ring the video game

Blaidd is the shadow of the Empyrean Ranni, bound to her fate and sworn to defend her with his life. Just as a quick recap of some of Elden Ring's keywords, an Empyrean is a being so powerful that they have the potential to become a God. In its turn, a God is a vessel for a cosmic force known as an Outer God.

In the Lands Between, the Outer God that rules the world is the Greater Will, who uses Marika as their vessel. The Greater Will vassals, known as the Two Fingers, are responsible for spreading their master's word and enforcing their desires. To ensure the continuity of their ruling, the Two Fingers have designed Shadows to follow Empyreans around. These Shadows are tasked with keeping the Empyreans safe so that no harm can come to them before their ascension to Godhood. However, a Shadow's fate is to turn against their master should they ever threaten the Greater Will.

The only other Shadow appearing in Elden Ring is Malekith, the Black Blade. As Marika's Shadow, Malekith helped to defeat the Gloam-Eye Queen and seal the Rune of Death. Just like Blaidd, Malekith is a mighty warrior. In addition, they are both humanoid beasts with wolf-like features, a pattern for every Shadow.

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Ranni the Witch talking to a Tarnish in the Church of Elleh in Elden Ring

Soon after becoming Ranni's bodyguard, Blaidd swore an oath to serve her and no one else. With this gesture, Blaidd hoped to renounce the Two Fingers and dedicate his life to helping Ranni find her Empyrean destiny outside the Greater Will's constraints. That decision would lead to his tragic ending.

What Does Blaidd's Questline Tell Us About Him?

Blaidd in Siofra River in Elden Ring

You first find Blaidd in the Mistwood Ruins, where he's looking for a traitor named Darriwil. Darriwil is locked in an evergaol in the South of Limgrave starting area, imprisoned for unknown crimes. Whatever Darriwill did to be locked away, prison is not punishment enough in Blaidd's eyes. So, the half-wolf joins you in Darriwill's boss battle, helping you to slay the Bloodhound Knight.

Since Blaidd's entire life is dedicated to Ranni, it's fair to assume Darriwill threatened the Empyrean somehow. Still, there's no explicit confirmation of Darriwill's transgressions. However, the location of the evergaol is essential to understand Blaidd's fate later on.

Once you enter Ranni's service and swear allegiance to The Witch, you discover Blaidd serves her, together with the blacksmith and war counselor Iji. Ranni wants nothing more than to free the Lands Between from the influence of the Greater Will, a plot that began in the Night of Black Knives. When you meet her, she has already shed her demigod flesh and is now looking for a tool to eliminate her Two Fingers. This tool is located in Nokron, one of the underground Eternal Cities.

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Ranni orders you to work with Blaidd to find Nokron's entry. While this questline has many branching steps, you'll eventually discover that the key to getting to Nokron is killing Starscourge Radahn and releasing the stars he holds still with his gravitational magic. Since the stars also control the fate of the Carian family, of which Ranni is part, Radahn's death ensures she can move on with her daring plot.

Elden Ring's boss Starscourge Radahn on his horse, blades ready

Regardless of whether you tell Blaidd about the need to kill Radahn or not, the half-wolf will meet you in Redmane Castle and join you in the boss fight. That's just another example of how Blaidd is loyal to Ranni. The half-wolf remains by Ranni's side even after she has declared her will to sabotage the Greater Will, and Blaidd is also willing to face Radahn, the mightiest demigod, for the sake of Ranni.

Why Does Blaidd Attack You?

War Counselor Iji in Elden Ring

After you find the Fingerslaying Blade and give it to Ranni, the Empyrean goes away to hunt her Two Fingers and completely release herself from the influence of the Greater Will. However, after the fight against Radahn, Blaidd is nowhere to be seen.

As it turns out, the half-wolf is locked in the same evergaol where we find Darriwil. Blaidd tells you he was trapped by Iji, which is an unexpected development in his questline since the two are allies and servants of Ranni.

Since Blaidd is trapped in the same evergaol as Darriwill, it's likely Iji was also behind the Bloodhound Knight's imprisonment. That's another clue that Darriwill's crimes are probably related to Ranni.

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Talking to Iji helps clarify things. As a Shadow, Blaidd was unaware he was programmed to turn his blade against his master. Since Ranni is now so close to committing a major sin and killing her Two Fingers, Iji fears Blaidd will lose his mind and attack Ranni. That's why the war counselor decides to imprison his half-wolf friend.

Even after learning his terrible fate, Blaidd swears he will never turn against Ranni. By then, you have the option to free him from his prison. Your choice is meaningless for Blaidd's fate, as someone else frees him if you don't — probably someone who wanted him to hunt down Ranni.

Blaidd attacking the Tarnished in Elden Ring

The last time you see Blaidd is at the entrance of Ranni's Rise. From the corpses of the Black Knives that we find in the place, you can tell that Blaidd has killed the assassins sent after Ranni. Blaidd's Shadow programming has indeed been activated, giving him an unquenchable desire to fight. However, even when the Two Fingers tried to turn Blaidd against Ranni, he channeled his bloodlust against Ranni's enemies, remaining faithful until the bitter end.

While we fight a Baleful Shadow invader during Ranni's questline, who looks and fights like Blaidd, we find a wolf mask near Seluvis' Rise, indicating the assassin is just someone pretending to be the actual half-wolf. Since Seluvis' questline shows you how he intends to betray Ranni, he might also be involved with this Blaidd impostor.

Sadly, while Blaidd can refrain from going after Ranni, he's not as loyal to you. So, when you find the half-wolf, he attacks you, leading you to kill him. After Blaidd's death, Iji shows deep remorse for his action, realizing that his friend could fight fate itself to remain loyal to Ranni.

It's a tearjerker ending to Blaidd's questline, as there's no way to save his life. It also shows how vast the powers of the Greater Will are and how far the Two Fingers are willing to go to remain in control of the Lands Between.

In addition to following Ranni's questline, you can put all the pieces of the Blaidd puzzle together by reading the item descriptions for Raging Wolf Armor, Remembrance of the Black Blade, Black wolf Mask, Royal Greatsword, and Blaidd's Armor. Tracking all the optional dialogue from Iji is also essential for understanding Blaidd.

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