To be told that "Somewhere a Great Rune has broken" in Elden Ring Shadow of the Erdtree is a confusing thing, until the game than adds "and so too has a powerful charm", which only makes it worse. The idea that a Great Rune has broken sounds alarming, especially as they grant you power as the Tarnished, but in fact the game isn't talking about any Great Rune that you own, as I'll explain below.
What does "Somewhere a Great Rune has broken" in Elden Ring mean?
The message that a Great Rune has broken in the Elden Ring expansion is a story flag that doesn't affect you directly, but does change the questlines of certain characters. After you see this message in Shadow of the Erdtree, it might be worth going to speak to all the NPCs you've found to see if they have anything new to say.
It also allows access to a new area: the Stone Coffin Fissure. Before this point, anybody attempting to work out how to get to the Stone Coffin Fissure in Shadow of the Erdtree would've been blocked at the entrance by a golden barrier. Now, it should be gone, leaving this area newly explorable.
Don't worry, the Great Rune they're talking about isn't any of the Elden Ring Great Runes you found in the core game, but another one in the world somewhere. We got this message when entering the area known as the Shadow Keep for the first time, just before the first encounter that players have with the Shadow of the Erdtree Golden Hippopotamus.
Likewise, the Powerful Charm that the game talks about straight after that is just a follow up to the message and is part of the same idea. We'll cover the meaning of that below, but be warned: some story spoilers ahead!
What is the Broken Great Rune and Powerful Charm?
The Great Rune that's broken is actually Miquella's - and not by accident. As you might've noticed from finding Miquella's Crosses in Shadow of the Erdtree, the demigod is purposefully sacrificing parts of himself for some mysterious purpose revealed later in the game, and Miquella's Great Rune is one of those things he's sacrificing.
But that comes with consequences - namely, the "Powerful Charm". Miquella's biggest power is the ability to compel loyalty and affection from his followers, charm and hypnotise them into obedience. That's why NPCs like Leda and the Hornsent are hanging around - Miquella has literally put them under a form of mind control to serve his interests. Now his source of power is broken, that control will disappear, and you can speak to those characters to see their behaviour and loyalties changing afterwards, progressing their quests accordingly,
© GamesRadar+. Not to be reproduced without permission
