"Maidenless" has quickly become the Elden Ring community's most devastating insult

Elden Ring Melina
(Image credit: Bandai Namco)

Elden Ring players really taking the whole "Maidenless" thing to heart.

Near the very beginning of Elden Ring, an NPC slyly remarks that the player character is without a maiden to guide them through the Lands Between, and are, well, "Maidenless." As you can see by the popularity of the Twitter post just below, Elden Ring players are really taking the whole 'Maidenless' thing and running with it, slapping it on the face of the game's online identity.

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You could say the Maidenless memes are just the latest micro-obsession of the Elden Ring community. Late last year, the player base became slightly fixated with Melina offering the player character an "accord." In Elden Ring, this translates to Melina providing the player with Torrent, a spectral steed they can summon whenever they wish, but some definitely hoped Melina meant a Honda Accord instead.

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Now though, we're just venturing into Elden Ring's post-launch period, and you can be sure the memes will be non-stop flowing over the next few weeks. Especially given the creativity of FromSoftware fans in general, here's hoping we see a fair few more fixations like this bubble to the surface of the player base.

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Hirun Cryer

Hirun Cryer is a freelance reporter and writer with Gamesradar+ based out of U.K. After earning a degree in American History specializing in journalism, cinema, literature, and history, he stepped into the games writing world, with a focus on shooters, indie games, and RPGs, and has since been the recipient of the MCV 30 Under 30 award for 2021. In his spare time he freelances with other outlets around the industry, practices Japanese, and enjoys contemporary manga and anime.

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