Elden Ring: Gren, Hand of the Serpent

Описание: A child had a vision of the Erdtree in flames. For fear of retaliation by the Golden Order, the infant child was thrown off a cliff to his death by his village, but miraculously survived. He was found in the darkness and raised by a silver serpent, Penthesilea, who the child saw as his mother; unaware of its true intention to weaponise his vision.

As the offspring of the great serpent, Eiglay, the silver serpent sought to ascend to dragonhood to usurp its parent from the latter's seat of power. As a duo, Penthesilea and the boy would hunt drakes - the serpent would cripple the prey with its deadly venom and the child would deal the killing blow - and they would feast on the hearts and flesh of their prey respectively. The years they spent together and the boy's compassionate nature would alter Penthesilea's way of thinking as it began to care for him as more than just a tool.

However, their activities would not go unnoticed as the Volcano Manor caught wind of Penthesilea's movements and an army of Recusants was sent after the duo. Penthesilea sacrificed itself to allow the boy to escape - an act that the serpent wouldn't have considered before it met the child - thanking him for teaching it that there was more to life than ambition.

The child was its olive branch towards the world and in its dying breath, it gave the boy his name: Gren. He would return to the Lands Between to fulfill his mother's dream of ascension and avenge its death.

Gren's overall theme is that of a winged serpent, and the bronze armour makes Gren look like the Chinese "Huang Long" - or Yellow/Gold Dragon - under certain lighting. I created this version of Gren by combining the original Gren and Alvatore since their backstories aligned as dragonslayers. I chose the Pickaxe to keep with the Piercing damage theme of Alvatore as a dragonslayer and because it is a better-looking scythe than the actual ones - in my opinion - along with a better moveset.

The previous version of Gren used the Serpentbone Blade and originally, this version was meant to be a pure Arcane build with an Occult Pickaxe and Poisonous Mist on the Dagger, but I decided against it as Penthesilea was the one with the poison, not Gren. The build was meant to use the Giant Rat ashes and Dried Bouquet talisman again, but my laptop couldn't handle the loss in frames. So like his future-wife Évelyne, I decided to keep the build simple in the end.

Songs used: Ascension, My Lady (Final Fantasy XVI)