About

Elden Ring in Ohio refers to jokes that FromSoftware's 2022 open-world game Elden Ring takes place in the state of Ohio when it actually takes place in a realm called "The Lands Between." Originally stemming from a viral Wikipedia edit and Google search, memes referencing this trend are usually expressed by users joking that the game's more desolate locations, such as Caelid, are cities based in Ohio. While Ohio is the primary location for such jokes, other locations in the United States have appeared in variations of the meme as well, like Florida.

Origin

On March 5th, 2022, an anonymous Wikipedia^[7] user edited Elden Ring's page to say the game took place in Ohio instead of the Lands Between.^[1] The Wikipedia "vandalism" was short-lived, but in the time between the edit and its correction, Twitter user @ronnui_^[2] posted a screenshot of the Google search results page for the query "Where does Elden Ring take place?," which at the time, brought up "Ohio." The tweet gained over 21,000 retweets and 221,000 likes in 10 days (shown below). It is unknown if ronnui_ edited the entry for this specific meme, though the timing roughly coincides. The meme was also reposted to /r/gaming^[8] by Redditor Tara_is_a_Potato the following day, receiving over 7,700 upvotes before it was removed by moderators.

Spread

In the replies to @ronnui_'s tweet, users began creating photoshops joking that The Lands Between was actually Ohio and that various locations and cities in Ohio were locations in Elden Ring. For example, on March 5th, 2022, Twitter user @BatlaxePrincess^[3] created a photoshop labeling Caelid as "Cincinnati," gaining over 380 retweets and 8,100 likes in 10 days (shown below, left). On March 9th, Twitter user @SenatorMeow^[4] then reposted a similar photoshop originally by getting_dome,^[9] labeling the Lake of Rot region "Cleveland," gaining over 2,700 retweets and 26,000 likes in six days (shown below, right).

The meme soon expanded to include other areas in the United States. For example, on March 10th, Twitter user @CDRNonsense^[5] posted an example where Caelid was labeled "Florida," gaining over 16,000 retweets and 112,000 likes in five days (shown below, left). That same day, Redditor sworedmagic posted a mashup of Elden Ring and Breezewood, Pennsylvania,, gaining over 110 points in /r/EldenRing^[6] in a similar timeframe.

Various Examples

Search Interest

External References