The world of Elden Ring, FromSoftware’s newest dark fantasy RPG, is full of fancy helms and hats players can acquire (either by picking them up from bodies or slaying enemies over the course of play). The weirdest, most intriguing helmets by far are the ones literally crafted from the bodies and heads of certain side characters and opponents in Elden Ring; aside from letting players customize their characters or engage in “cosplay” shenanigans, the item descriptions for these helmets also give gamers a lot of information about the odder lifeforms in this game’s setting.
At the start of Elden Ring, the Lands Between are scarred by war and haunted by the faded remains of imperial glory. Before the Night of the Black Knives, the shattering of the Elden Ring, and the civil war between rival Demigods, an imperial monarchy-slash-religious creed called the Golden Order united the myriad cultures of the Lands Between under its auspices. The Erdtree and dragon-worshiping nobles of Leyndell, the stone-masked sorcerers of Raya Lucaria and Selia, the oppressed demi-humans and Misbegotten underclasses – each of these species and cultures had a place and role within the Golden Order, and show up in Elden Ring proper as both wandering enemies and stout allies.
The following “helm” items described below bear a close resemblance to the heads and bodies of certain NPCs and some of the best enemies in Elden Ring. Some of these items can be found and picked up by going to certain locations in Elden Ring‘s open world. Others must be acquired by completing certain Quests or slaying certain enemies (repeatedly, if those enemies have a low chance of dropping the item in question). Each has a lore-filled item description that reveals small yet interesting secrets about the non-human species of Elden Ring.
Elden Ring’s Albinauric Mask Lets Players Look Like An Alien Frog
The Albinauric Mask helm is literally and grotesquely crafted from the face and hide of a second generation Albinauric according to its item description. Aside from granting an Arcane attribute bonus and letting player characters resemble pudgy-faced aliens, the Albinauric Mask (found near the Volcano Manor area of Elden Ring), along with other Albinauric-themed game items, tells us a lot about who the Albinauric people are, and how thy came to exist.
According to the Albinauric Bloodclot item, Albinaurics are “lifeforms made by human hands,” seen by many in the world of Elden Ring as living “impure lives.” First-generation Albinaurics bear a close resemblance to humans, albeit with non-functioning legs, while second-generation Albinaurics have the pudgy grey-faced alien look. Despite the efforts of valiant Elden Ring lore-hunters, it’s still unclear who exactly created the Albinauric people and for what purpose. The proximity of Albinauric enemies to Glintstone Sorcery-themed locations like Elden Ring‘s Liurnia and Raya Lucaria suggests the Albinaurics were made to be the servants of Sorcerers; at the same time, descriptions for items like the Albinauric Shield claim that “the Albinaurics’ most formidable foes were sorcerers.”
Elden Ring’s Primeval Glintstone Crowns Let Gamers Look (Almost) Like Crystalians
In place of the round, wide-brimmed hats associated with sorcerers in western fantasy fiction, the Glintstone Sorcerers seen in Elden Ring frequently wear sculpted stone masks with crowns made of Glintstone Crystal (which empower a Sorcerer’s spell-casting abilities at the expense of resources such as Stamina). In-universe, the crystalline substance called Glintstone is what makes the scholarly discipline of Elden Ring‘s Glintstone Sorcery possible, while the Azur’s Glintstone Crown and Lusat’s Glintstone Crown items, looted from mute NPCs encountered during the Sorceress Sellen quest-line, share the following passage in their item descriptions:
“This crown replaced Azur’s/Lusat’s brain and skull altogether, and now, removed from his body, it is all but dead.”
The implication of this passage seems to be that the Glintstone Sorcerers called Azur and Lusat both transformed themselves into half-crystal lifeforms in order to better unlock the secrets of primeval Glintstone Sorcery. Intentionally or otherwise, these two hapless sorcerers both become similar in form to magical Crystalian bosses found throughout Elden Ring and its hidden areas and dungeons – ancient beings made out of living, conscious Glintstone Crystal.
Elden Ring’s Black Wolf Mask Lets Gamers Look Like Blaidd
Blaidd, the half-wolf, greatsword toting guardian of Ranni the Witch, is an Elden Ring NPC with a popularity comparable to that of Solaire from Dark Souls, thanks to his friendly demeanor, combat prowess, and his disarmingly soft-spoken voice. Fortunately, Elden Ring gamers who want to give their character a wolf’s head don’t need to attack Blaidd for it. After beating the main boss in Caria Manor and progressing into the area beyond, players can acquire the “Black Wolf Mask” item by hopping up some walls near Seluvis’s Rise, where Seluvis brews his potions. The description of this wolf head helm reads as follows:
“A mask fashioned after the head of a black wolf.
Relic of an assassin who assumed the guise of Ranni the Witch’s loyal shadow. The likeness is striking.”
Elden Ring’s Jar Helm Lets Gamers Look Like A Living Jar
Perhaps the strangest creatures in Elden Ring are the Living Jars – ambulatory ceramic vessels of varying size and stone-like limbs, stuffed to the brim with corpses sealed under a lid of wax. The first Living Jar players can encounter, stuck in a pit in the Limgrave area, is Elden Ring‘s gregarious Iron Fist Alexander, who pits himself against different challenges in foes in the hopes of becoming a true warrior. After joining forces with the player to defeat the Starscourge Radahn boss and stuffing himself with the corpses of warriors from an old battlefield, Iron Fist Alexander can be found bathing in a lake of lava in Mr. Gelmir, and will gift the player with a literal Jar to wear as a helmet (this jar helmet happens to be the signature headgear of the legendary Malenia-slaying Elden Ring co-op player called “Let Me Solo Her.”)
The Companion Jar Talisman item, found in the Jarburg village after completing the quest of a specific Elden Ring NPC, has this to say about the Living Jars:
“Though the jars are brought to life by human flesh and blood, they are all rather kindly folk. Perhaps they were made to be better than their innards.”
It’s unclear exactly who created the Living Jars, or what purpose they were made for in Elden Ring. References in certain item descriptions to “jar poachers” who hunt Living Jars for their magically potent innards suggest that these strange friendly beings, even if they were created, have become a self-perpetuating species, capable of reproducing with a handful of fired clay and the dead bodies created by the warmongering, Elden Ring-seeking lords and ladies of the Lands Between.