- Collapse of Earth’s magnetic field may have fueled evolution of life 600 million years ago Livescience.com
- Over 500 million years ago, weird complex creatures emerged on Earth. Scientists now think they know why CNN
- Life boomed on Earth half a billion years ago. You can thank magnets. The Washington Post
- A weaker magnetic field may have paved the way for marine life to go big Science News Magazine
- Near-collapse of the geomagnetic field may have contributed to atmospheric oxygenation and animal radiation in the Ediacaran Period | Communications Earth & Environment Nature.com
Tag Archives: fueled
In Israel, Christie Says Trump Ducked Mideast Progress and Fueled Bigotry – The New York Times
- In Israel, Christie Says Trump Ducked Mideast Progress and Fueled Bigotry The New York Times
- Chris Christie visits Israel to ‘capture the brutality’ with his ‘own eyes’ — first GOP candidate to set foot since Hamas’ surprise attack New York Post
- GOP hopeful Chris Christie visits Israel, says the US must show solidarity in war against Hamas Yahoo News
- Visiting Israel, GOP presidential candidate Christie says truce calls ‘make no sense’ The Times of Israel
- GOP presidential candidate Chris Christie vows to relay ‘atrocities’ he saw in Israel upon return to US CNN
- View Full Coverage on Google News
This Unstoppable Dividend Stock’s $14 Billion Acquisition Will Keep Its High-Yielding Payout Well Fueled – The Motley Fool
- This Unstoppable Dividend Stock’s $14 Billion Acquisition Will Keep Its High-Yielding Payout Well Fueled The Motley Fool
- Enbridge CEO shares reasons behind $14B deal for Dominion Energy utilities (NYSE:ENB) Seeking Alpha
- The utility for 1.2 million Ohio customers was just sold: Here’s how that will affect your bill cleveland.com
- Varcoe: Enbridge seizes ‘pretty rare’ opportunity, buying three U.S. gas utilities in $19B deal Calgary Herald
- Wanted: partner for America’s largest offshore wind farm amid industry storm Recharge
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US housing market is in recession, pandemic fueled inflation: Sonders – Markets Insider
- US housing market is in recession, pandemic fueled inflation: Sonders Markets Insider
- Bank of America CEO predicts most people won’t even notice ‘slight’ recession, but warns interest rates won’t come down for at least a year Yahoo Finance
- Bank of America CEO says ‘we are capitalists’ as anti-ESG critics gain steam Reuters
- Goldman’s Solomon Is More Confident the Fed Can Avoid a Deep Recession Bloomberg
- The economy has avoided a recession so far — and it could be a nightmare for the Fed Yahoo Finance
- View Full Coverage on Google News
Matt Gaetz Hatred of Kevin McCarthy Fueled by Sex Trafficking Row – Rolling Stone
Kevin McCarthy was well aware he was going to lose his bid to become Speaker of the House of Representatives on the first ballot, three people with knowledge of the situation told Rolling Stone. What he was not privately predicting was that the beatings would continue for an entire week. “He knew he was going to get fucked — he just didn’t know they were going to fuck him this many times, or this hard,” explained one congressional aide.
Among the major factors in McCarthy losing more than a dozen speakership ballots, people familiar with the matter say, was the severity of Florida Rep. Matt Gaetz’s enmity toward the Republican leader. Gaetz’s intense and personal distaste for McCarthy has been an open secret in Washington political circles for years, so much so that Gaetz and McCarthy’s colleagues would argue it isn’t even a “secret” at all.
But Gaetz’s hatred curdled into something even more powerful after it was revealed in early 2021 that the MAGA congressman was the target of a federal investigation into the sex trafficking of a minor. (No charges were filed against Gaetz, but his “wingman” Joel Greenberg was sentenced to 11 years in prison.) McCarthy, in Gaetz’s opinion, failed to mount a forceful enough defense on his behalf. According to two sources familiar with the matter, Gaetz has been furious at McCarthy for the perceived lack of support ever since — despite the fact that McCarthy did not strip him of any committee assignments during the probe.
The enmity between the two Republicans spilled into open view on the floor of the House during the 14th vote Friday night that McCarthy had bragged would finally put him over the top to secure the speaker’s gavel. Gaetz placed himself at the center of the drama. He skipped his turn in the alphabetical role call vote, setting himself up to vote at the end of the proceeding. With McCarthy needing one more yes vote, Gaetz instead voted “present” — leaving McCarthy with 50 percent of the vote, a hair short of victory. McCarthy strode up to Gaetz on the House floor, and a the foes had a heated exchange that did not change the total. McCarthy again was left hanging. (Gaetz again voted “present” along with the other Never Kevin rebels in the 15th vote that finally gave McCarthy the gavel.)
The original source of Rep. Gaetz’s acute loathing of McCarthy is less clear. Rolling Stone contacted members of Congress, sources on Capitol Hill, and activists in conservative organizations to ask what the root cause was. They all just knew Gaetz hated the House GOP leader. One Republican who knows both Gaetz and McCarthy says they even once asked the latter why Gaetz dislikes him so much. This source recalls McCarthy answering: “I don’t know.”
Gaetz’s animosity toward McCarthy was on full display throughout the week, as he stood to deliver nominating speeches on behalf of both Jim Jordan and Donald Trump. “Maybe the right person for the Speaker of the House isn’t someone who wants it so bad,” Gaetz said when nominating Jordan. “Maybe the right person for Speaker of the House isn’t someone who has sold shares of themself for more than a decade to get it.”
“We have to restore to the Speaker’s Office the actual person who ought to be in the Speaker’s Office, not the squatter who is currently there,” he later added while nominating Trump. “And if the Architect of the Capitol is listening — I sent a letter, and I would like to know what the basis is to allow someone to occupy the Speaker’s office who comes in second place ten straight times? Is there, like, some basis in law or rule or precedent for that?”
Both men nominated by Gaetz were working to whip votes for McCarthy. Jim Jordan nominated McCarthy in a forceful floor speech. Meanwhile, Trump made public call on Truth Social for Republicans to back McCarthy. Both the former president and his eldest son Donald Trump Jr. have also made phone calls in recent days to GOP members of Congress in support of McCarthy, two knowledgeable sources say. The former president’s recent whipping for McCarthy was described by one person with direct knowledge of one of the calls as “lackadaisical.”
Asked to comment on reports that he personally despises McCarthy — and that his loathing was intensified by McCarthy’s failure to aggressively stand up for him during the sex-crimes probe — Gaetz’s office did not deny it. Instead, they pointed Rolling Stone to a TV interview on Thursday in which the congressman said he would not vote for McCarthy “under almost any circumstance,” while insisting his motivation was principled, not personal.
“Kevin McCarthy is the masthead of the lobby core,” Gaetz told Fox News’ Laura Ingraham when asked point-blank if his grudge against McCarthy was personal. “I resent the extent to which Kevin McCarthy utilizes the lobbyists and the special interests to be able to dictate how political decisions are made, how policy decisions are made, and how leadership decisions are made. Kevin McCarthy has been in the leadership for 14 years, and he has sold shares of himself to special interests, to political action committees. And so that’s why I don’t think he is an appropriate choice.”
McCarthy’s office did not respond to a request for comment.
By midday Friday, it became clear that McCarthy’s opponents with less intense feelings toward him were ready to accept his concessions, give in to the McC-mentum, and allow the House to begin its business. Fourteen of them changed their vote to McCarthy during the 12th ballot, with another, Andy Harris, relenting during the 14th. McCarthy crowed that he would have the votes to win the speakership Friday night. Gaetz seemed to acknowledge the inevitable, as well. “I think the House is in a lot better place with some of the work that’s been done to democratize power out of the speakership,” he said. “And that’s our goal.”
Raphael Warnock: Sky-high Black turnout fueled his previous win. Will Georgia do it again?
Atlanta
CNN
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Former UN Ambassador Andrew Young rode his scooter alongside Democratic Sen. Raphael Warnock, Martin Luther King III and a fervent crowd of marchers on a recent Sunday through a southwest Atlanta neighborhood. The group stopped at an early polling location to vote, forming a line with some waiting as long as one hour to cast their ballots.
At the age of 90, Young says he is selective about public appearances but felt the “Souls to the Polls” event was one where he could motivate Black voters in Tuesday’s hotly contested US Senate runoff between Warnock and Republican challenger Herschel Walker – a historic matchup between two Black men.
Community leaders and political observers say the Black vote has consistently played a pivotal role in high-stakes races for Democrats, including in 2021, when Warnock defeated then-Sen. Kelly Loeffler in a runoff. Black voters likely to cast a ballot are near unanimous in their support for the Democrat (96% Warnock to 3% Walker), according to a CNN poll released last week that showed Warnock with a narrow lead.
A second runoff victory for Warnock could once again hinge on Black voter turnout in a consequential race. If Warnock wins, it would give Democrats a clean Senate majority – one that doesn’t rely on Vice President Kamala Harris’ tie-breaking vote and allows Majority Leader Chuck Schumer more control of key committees and some slack in potentially divisive judicial and administrative confirmation fights.
Voting, Young said, is the “path to prosperity” for the Black community. He noted that Atlanta’s mass transit system and economic growth have been made possible by voters.
“Where we have voted we have prospered,” Young said.
The rally led by Young, King and Warnock seems to have set the tone for many Black voters in Georgia. Early voting surged across the state last week with long lines reported across the greater Atlanta area. As of Sunday, more than 1.85 million votes had already been cast, with Black voters accounting for nearly 32% of the turnout, according to the Georgia Secretary of State’s Office. The early voting period, which was significantly condensed from 2021, ended on Friday.
Billy Honor, director of organizing for the New Georgia Project Action Fund, said the Black turnout so far looks promising for Democrats.
“When we get Black voter turnout in any election statewide that’s between 31 and 33%, that’s usually good for Democrats,” Honor said. “If it’s between 27 and 30%, that’s usually good for Republicans.”
Honor added: “This has an impact on elections because we know that if you’re a Democratic candidate, the coalition you have to put together is a certain amount of college-educated White folks, a certain amount of women overall, as many young people as you can get to turn out – and Black voters. That’s the coalition. (Former president) Barack Obama was able to smash that coalition in 2008 in ways we hadn’t seen.”
Young said he believes that Black voters are more likely to show up for runoff elections, which historically have lower turnout than general elections, when the candidate is likeable and relatable.
Warnock is a beloved figure in Atlanta’s Black community who pastored the church once led by Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. He grew up in public housing and relied on student loans to get through college.
Young said Warnock’s story is inspiring.
“He is an exciting personality, he’s a great preacher,” Young said. “He speaks from his heart and he speaks about how he and his family have come up in the deep South and developed a wonderful life.”
Young said some Black voters may also be voting against Walker, who has made a series of public gaffes, has no political experience and has a history of accusations of violent and threatening behavior.
Last week’s CNN poll showed that Walker faces widespread questions about his honesty and suffers from a negative favorability rating, while nearly half of those who back him say their vote is more about opposition to Warnock than support for Walker.
Views of Warnock tilt narrowly positive, with 50% of likely voters holding a favorable opinion, 45% unfavorable, while far more likely Georgia voters have a negative view of Walker (52%) than a positive one (39%).
Still, Walker is famous as a Heisman Trophy-winning football star from the University of Georgia. And among the majority of likely voters in the CNN poll who said issues are a more important factor to their vote than character or integrity, 64% favor Walker.
He campaigned on Sunday with, among others, GOP Sen. Tim Scott of South Carolina, one of just three Black senators currently serving in the chamber. Scott tried to tie Warnock to President Joe Biden – who, like former President Donald Trump, has steered clear of the Peach State – and reminded voters in Loganville of the GOP’s losses in the 2021 runoffs.
At the event, which began with prayers in Creole, Spanish and Swahili from speakers with Ralph Reed’s Faith and Freedom Coalition, Walker encouraged getting out to vote more than he typically does.
“If you don’t have a friend, make a friend and get them out to vote,” Walker said.
Some Black voters said they were excited to show up last week and cast their early votes in the runoff race.
Travie Leslie said she feels it is her “civic duty” to vote after all the work civil rights leaders in Atlanta did to ensure Black people had the right to vote. Leslie she does not mind standing in line or voting in multiple elections to ensure that a quality candidate gets in office.
“I will come 12 times if I must and I encourage other people to do the same thing,” Leslie said Thursday while at the Metropolitan Library polling location in Atlanta. “Just stay dedicated to this because it truly is the best time to be a part of the decision making particularly for Georgia.”
Martin Luther King III credited grassroots organizations for registering more Black and brown voters since 2020, when Biden carried the state, and mobilizing Georgians to participate in elections.
Their work has led to the long lines of voters in midterm and runoff races, King said.
King said he believes Warnock also appeals to Black voters in a way that Walker does not.
“Rev. Warnock distinguishes himself quite well,” King said. “He stayed above the fray and defined what he has done.”
The Black vote, he said, is likely to make a difference in which candidate wins the runoff.
“Black voters, if we come out in massive numbers, then I believe that on December 6 we (Democrats) are going to have a massive victory,” King said.
Jonathan Van Ness Says Government’s Reaction to Monkeypox Is ‘Fueled by Homophobia and Transphobia’
Vivien Killilea/Getty
Jonathan Van Ness is sharing his thoughts on the U.S. government’s “botched response” to the monkeypox outbreak.
In a pointed TIME essay published on Monday, the 35-year-old Queer Eye star recalled the moment the nation reported its first official case in May, calling out the government’s reaction.
“Watching the government’s botched response to monkeypox has been surreal, and in many ways, I believe it’s been fueled by homophobia and transphobia,” he said, adding, “When an outbreak affects mainly men who have sex with men, some portion of our elected legislators will have no incentive to act. He thinks it will not touch their constituents, which is obviously messed up because people’s lives are at stake, and there are queer people in all 50 states.”
The reality of the virus hit home for Van Ness when a friend was forced to cancel a trip to New Orleans, where Van Ness is taping Queer Eye, after being exposed to monkeypox.
“I started calling all the political contacts I have, ringing alarm bells about how quickly cases were rising, and pleading with officials to take the virus more seriously.”
RELATED: Monkeypox ‘Not a Sexually Transmitted Infection’ but CDC Warns of Rashes in Genital Area
Likening the government’s reaction to monkeypox to that of the deadly slow response by authorities to the AIDS epidemic, Van Ness said he is “disappointed” in politicians who were in office then and now “like President [Joe] Biden and Speaker [Nancy] Pelosi.”
“Once again, we’re seeing too little action taken until the situation has ballooned out of control. If nothing changes, we’ll continue to experience failures like this response, which has been plagued with too few tests, lack of access to treatments, inadequate vaccine supply, and ambiguous guidance,” he said.
RELATED: Woman with ‘Extremely Painful’ Monkeypox Says She Wasn’t Offered Vaccine or Antiviral Treatments
Van Ness then called out officials for not taking “more proactive steps” to release an easily accessible vaccine after cases “began rising in June.”
“Why is it that we haven’t seen this administration prioritize the rapid procurement of monkeypox vaccines?’ he asked pointing to how, like at the start of the AIDS epidemic, many seem to be considering –– and dismissing –– the virus as something just impacting the LGBTQ+ community.
RELATED VIDEO: Illinois Daycare Worker Tests Positive for Monkeypox, Children Potentially Exposed
The star noted that monkeypox being declared a public health emergency “was a step in the right direction — but it was a day late and a dollar short” before sharing a joke he often tells during his stand-up shows.
“It’s been so funny watching straight people be shocked with the government response during COVID-19, because we’re like, ‘Honey, this is Tuesday,” Van Ness, who discovered he was HIV positive 10 years ago, said. “You thought the government was going to come help you?’ We’re used to this sort of inaction. Monkeypox is like: same day, different virus.”
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Added the star: “I think that tragedy, hope, despair, and resilience all can live next door to each other. But we need to act.”
Stating that “everyone should care about monkeypox” even if they aren’t directly impacted by it, “because we should care about each other,” Van Ness left fans with a reminder that other diseases, such as HIV, still exist, along with the stereotypes around them and the limits to proper health care.
“This isn’t just a monkeypox story. This is a story of how we consistently fail people on the margins. We have to become bold about what we’re willing to witness—and no one should have been willing to witness this outbreak spread for the last two months,” he wrote.”
South Korean spacecraft fueled for ride from Cape Canaveral to the moon – Spaceflight Now
A South Korean spacecraft set for launch to the moon next week from Cape Canaveral has been loaded with the fuel it needs to maneuver into a low-altitude lunar orbit for image-taking and scientific observations.
The Korea Pathfinder Lunar Orbiter, or KPLO, spacecraft is set for launch at 7:08 p.m. EDT (2308 GMT) next Thursday, Aug. 4, aboard a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station. Mission managers said earlier this week the launch was delayed two days to allow time for SpaceX to complete additional work on the Falcon 9 rocket.
Technicians and engineers working inside SpaceX’s payload processing facility recently completed fueling of the Korean lunar probe, following the spacecraft’s delivery to Cape Canaveral from South Korea on July 6.
The spacecraft was loaded with hydrazine fuel inside the SpaceX clean room. South Korean engineers who traveled to the launch base with the KPLO spacecraft also completed final tests on the probe, South Korea’s first mission to the moon and first venture in deep space exploration.
The 1,495-pound (678-kilogram) spacecraft was expected to be encapsulated inside the Falcon 9 rocket’s payload fairing after fueling. The aeroshell will protect the spacecraft during the final phase of launch preparations, and during the first few minutes of the launch itself.
Then SpaceX will transport the payload module from the processing facility to the Falcon 9 rocket’s hangar a couple miles away, where ground teams will connect the spacecraft inside the rocket’s nose cone to the Falcon 9’s upper stage.
The entire rocket will then roll out and will be raised vertical on pad 40 at Cape Canaveral. The KPLO mission is one of two launches currently scheduled next Thursday at the Florida spaceport. A United Launch Alliance Atlas 5 rocket with a U.S. military satellite is set to lift off about 12-and-a-half hours before the Falcon 9 rocket on the KPLO mission.
Part of the KPLO mission’s purpose is in its name. The mission is a pathfinder, or precursor, for South Korea’s future ambitions in space exploration, which include a robotic landing on the moon in the early 2030s. South Korea has also signed up to join the NASA-led Artemis Accords, and could contribute to the U.S. space agency’s human lunar exploration program.
The KPLO mission is also named Danuri, a combination of the words “dal” and “nurida” in Korean, meaning “enjoy the moon.”
“The basic idea of this mission is technological development and demonstration,” said Eunhyeuk Kim from the Korea Aerospace Research Institute. “Also, using the science instruments, we are hoping to get some useful data on the lunar surface.”
The mission carries six science instruments and technology demonstration payloads.
KPLO will test a new South Korean spacecraft platform designed for deep space operations, along with new communication, control, and navigation capabilities, including the validation of an “interplanetary internet” connection using a disruption tolerant network.
The mission’s scientific objectives include mapping the lunar surface to help select future landing sites, surveying resources like water ice on the moon, and probing the radiation environment near the moon.
The $180 million (233.3 billion won) mission will launch toward the moon on a low-energy, fuel-efficient ballistic lunar transfer trajectory, a path being pioneered by NASA’s small CAPSTONE spacecraft, a tech demo mission that launched last month on a Rocket Lab mission and is scheduled to slip into orbit around the moon in November.
If KPLO launches in the first week of August, its arrival date at the moon is fixed on Dec. 16. The Falcon 9 will propel the spacecraft on a trajectory that will take it close to the L1 Lagrange point, a gravitationally-stable location nearly a million miles (1.5 million kilometers) from the daytime side of the Earth, some four times farther than the moon.
Gravitational forces will naturally pull the spacecraft back toward the Earth and the moon, where the Korean probe will be captured in orbit Dec. 16. A series of propulsive maneuvers with the spacecraft’s thrusters will steer KPLO into a circular low-altitude orbit about 60 miles (100 kilometers) from the lunar surface by New Year’s Eve.
After a month of commissioning and tests, the spacecraft’s year-long primary science mission should begin around Feb. 1. If the orbiter has enough fuel, mission managers could consider an extended mission beginning in 2024, Kim said.
One of the payloads on the KPLO, or Danuri, mission is a U.S.-built instrument named ShadowCam.
Derived from the main camera on NASA’s Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter, ShadowCam will peer inside dark craters near the moons poles, where previous missions detected evidence of water ice deposits. The NASA-funded ShadowCam instrument is hundreds of times more sensitive than LRO’s camera, allowing it to collect high-resolution, high signal-to-noise imagery of the insides of always-dark craters using reflected light.
NASA is also providing tracking and communications support for the KPLO mission through its Deep Space Network antennas in California, Spain, and Australia. KARI, South Korea’s space agency, also has its own deep space communications antenna, but it doesn’t offer the continuous coverage of NASA’s worldwide network.
South Korea began developing the KPLO mission in 2016 for a planned launch in 2020, but officials delayed the mission due after the spacecraft grew above its original launch weight, and engineers needed more time to complete detailed design work.
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Follow Stephen Clark on Twitter: @StephenClark1.
SLS Fully Fueled for First Time Despite Leak
A full Moon is in view from Launch Complex 39B at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida on June 14, 2022. The Artemis I Space Launch System (SLS) and Orion spacecraft, atop the mobile launcher, were being prepared for a wet dress rehearsal to practice timelines and procedures for launch. The first in an increasingly complex series of missions, Artemis I will test SLS and Orion as an integrated system prior to crewed flights to the Moon. Through Artemis, NASA will land the first woman and first person of color on the lunar surface, paving the way for a long-term lunar presence and using the Moon as a steppingstone on the way to Mars. Credit: NASA/Ben Smegelsky
The Artemis I wet dress rehearsal ended yesterday (June 20, 2022) at 7:37 p.m. EDT (4:37 p.m. EDT) at T-29 seconds in the countdown. This test marked the first time the team fully loaded all the Space Launch System rocket’s propellant tanks and proceeded into the terminal launch countdown, when many critical activities occur in rapid succession.
An artist illustration of the mobile launcher with umbilical lines installed on the tower and attached to NASA’s Space Launch System rocket and Orion spacecraft. Credit: NASA
During propellant loading operations earlier in the day, launch controllers encountered a hydrogen leak in the quick disconnect that attaches an umbilical from the tail service mast on the mobile launcher to the rocket’s core stage. The team attempted to fix the leak by warming the quick disconnect and then chilling it back down to realign a seal, but their efforts did not fix the issue.
Launch controllers then developed a plan to mask data associated with the leak that would trigger a hold by the ground launch sequencer, or launch computer, in a real launch day scenario, to allow them to get as far into the countdown as possible. The time required to develop the plan required extended hold time during the countdown activities, but they were able to resume with the final 10 minutes of the countdown, called terminal count. During the terminal count, the teams performed several critical operations that must be accomplished for launch including switching control from the ground launch sequencer to the automated launch sequencer controlled by the rocket’s flight software, and important step that the team wanted to accomplish.
This second Artemis I wet dress rehearsal kicked off on June 18, 2022. After the launch team arrived at their stations inside the Launch Control Center at
Overnight from June 18th to the 19th, engineers powered up the Orion spacecraft and the Space Launch System’s core stage. Teams also configured several systems on the ground, rocket, and spacecraft and performed activities to prepare umbilicals that connect the rocket and spacecraft to the mobile launcher and are used to provide power, communications, coolant, and propellant.
On the morning of June 20, the launch control team began chill down operations and resumed the countdown clock ahead of flowing super cold liquid oxygen (LOX) into the core stage tank. The T-0 time for today’s test is now 4:38 p.m. EDT for the first of the two terminal count runs for the wet dress rehearsal.
The process for filling the core stage tank begins with the chill down, or cooling, of the propellant lines to load the liquid oxygen and liquid hydrogen in preparation for tanking. The team will slowly fill liquid oxygen into the core stage tank with the fast fill beginning soon after. Teams will then proceed to slowly fill the core stage’s liquid hydrogen tank followed by fast fill.
Elden Ring’s launch success is fueled by loyal FromSoftware fans
I went into Elden Ring a bumbling yet earnest rookie. I cleared out Stormveil Castle after much death and despair; so I set out to adventure, and shortly found myself atop a tower, next to a chest. Someone who had come here before me had helpfully left a message: treasure ahead!
I opened the chest, got sucked through a portal, and woke up in a nightmare region of the game, full of misery. It was the moment that something clicked for me; I suddenly felt like I was in on the FromSoftware experience.
Elden Ring is one of the biggest titles of the year, with over 12 million copies sold as of March 2022. The game has proven to be both a commercial and critical success, and while developer FromSoftware filed off some of the harshest edges from previous titles, it’s still very familiar for long-term fans of the studio. FromSoft has been tinkering with many of the same mechanics and design principles for years, and the scale of Elden Ring’s success is largely thanks to the fan base the Japanese developer cultivated through earlier releases. And it’s this very same community that not only got me hooked on Elden Ring, but also fueled my interest in both playing FromSoft’s previous games and digging deep into their lore.
Image: FromSoftware via Polygon
FromSoftware is perhaps best known for the Dark Souls series. Demon’s Souls, a 2009 release that would later be remade as a PlayStation 5 launch title in 2020, was a cult hit. The Dark Souls trilogy would be released over the 2010s, along with Victorian gothic horror Bloodborne in 2015 (hence the term “Soulsborne” many fans use, a way to casually refer to the developer’s catalog). FromSoft also released the Sengoku-era adventure Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice in 2019, which departed from familiar elements like the persistent, troublesome Patches.
Dark Souls also impacted game design more broadly, with “Soulslike” becoming a shorthand for identifying a certain game ethos and set of mechanics. There are Soulslike games that, on the surface, appear nothing like the majestic, terrible settings of FromSoftware. But creators of games like Tunic have cleverly learned from FromSoftware and interpreted the developer’s mechanics through their own lens.
I’m the kind of player who loves digging into lore, finding out little secrets about the world and its characters. At first, I missed much of this in Elden Ring, until I began paying attention to the flavor text on item descriptions. Much of the world is up for debate, spread across little riddles and unreliable narrators. It’s refreshingly open to discovery and interpretation; there is no in-game codex full of world-building or dialogue trees full of technical information on the world.
Image: FromSoftware/Bandai Namco
Many of FromSoft’s games share similar gameplay cores: There’s punishingly difficult combat, until the player puzzles out the specific attack patterns and enemy movement styles. But it was the characters and world-building that really intrigued me, and got me interested in the entire FromSoft canon. The enemies are often deeply tragic, whether they’re cheerful, sun-loving warriors who eventually succumb to madness and frenzy or desperate monster-hunters who stumble upon and fall to unspeakable eldritch horrors.
There’s a limited amount of information about the game world, given away in cryptic lines of dialogue and item descriptions. A FromSoftware game follows an internal consistency to its design and logic, even when the developer experiments with larger aspects.
This consistency and scope have helped build one of the most fervent fan bases in gaming. For years, this was almost a plague; there was the persistent stereotype of the “git gud” gamer who would parry away all criticisms or concerns about Soulsborne games with one adage: Simply be better at video games. This conversation still persists — and we will likely see debates on whether FromSoftware games should have easy modes until the inevitable heat death of the universe — but it has faded away over time to allow for a more accessible, welcoming fan experience.
Image: FromSoftware/Bandai Namco via Polygon
Peek at the Elden Ring subreddit, and you’ll see players sharing the repeated trials and tribulations of fighting Starscourge Radahn, or sharing gifs of their terrible, comically inept deaths at the hands of birds or suspicious-looking cliffsides. For every person who claims using a summon or a shield isn’t the “real” way to play the game, dozens more celebrate the wild strategies — like intense incantations, blood builds, or good ol’ cheese — they used to survive.
Elden Ring is the first FromSoftware game I’ve ever played, and it’s partially because I was so intrigued by the deep sense of identity FromSoftware fans had. I had witnessed friends go through the cycle of frustration and fury, slow realization, and triumphant vengeance over boss fights. I had seen people share gorgeous fan art of FromSoft characters, or share their lore theories on social media. I also gained a sense of the communities built around these franchises.
FromSoftware games are collaborative and heavily based around communication with other players, whether that’s through in-game messages or gathering around creators who interpret the lore and share their theories. There’s a shared vocabulary and understanding among the developer’s fans, and they work together to understand the worlds FromSoft crafts. And there are also local legends that inspire fan works of their own, like Let Me Solo Her, a player who exists simply to be summoned into a lucky ally’s world to single-handedly defeat the game’s toughest boss — even when she’s bugged and heals ridiculous amounts of damage.
Image: FromSoftware/Bandai Namco
Elden Ring fans have also already created tons of fascinating projects around the game’s lore and setting. Developers have created Elden Ring demake trailers and Game Boy adaptations. Players joke about the game’s difficulty and assign their own challenges by playing the game on a Fisher Price controller or going for a legendary nine-minute speed run. There’s also, of course, an incredible amount of fan art.
While the scale is surprising, adept observers could see the game’s popularity coming from afar. Even before Elden Ring came out for the public to enjoy, FromSoft fans held a vigil after every game conference where Elden Ring was not showcased or previewed. For a while, they went completely feral and made up their own lore, including bosses like “Glaive Master Hodir.” And when an additional trailer was finally released in 2021, giving more insight into Elden Ring’s lore, fans immediately rallied around a favorite character: the humble Pot Boy.
Elden Ring had a similar hold on me. After Elden Ring, I was hooked; I had never been into the idea of “getting good,” but I was absolutely down to explore games like Bloodborne, picking up the game and devouring it myself — along with digging into fan-made resources like Redgrave’s novella “The Paleblood Hunt,” a 90-page dissection of Bloodborne’s themes, enemies, and characters, or scouring videos of enemy models to get a full sense of their designs.
Elden Ring opened the door for many fans who might have been intrigued by the glimpses of this community they caught here and there, but were intimidated by the “get good” dialogue and the reputation the games have for incredibly tough bosses. But FromSoftware’s fans have championed the games for years, sharing the best bits on social media and hyping up subsequent releases. It’s worth noting that Elden Ring’s success owes a lot to those concerted efforts, in-jokes, and analyses. I’m already looking forward to prospective DLC that adds more riddles for fans to pore over, but I imagine I’ll be going through new game plus as well, doing a victory lap around the Lands Between.