The Lands Between has little lore concerning the sun, which is quite the departure from Dark Souls.

There are entire swords and spells dedicated to the moon, items that reference the heavens, but Elden Ring Items talks very little concerning the most important celestial body on the horizon: the sun's rays. That's quite the departure from the Dark Souls developer, where Solaire is really a favorite character among fans as well as an even larger departure from real-life mythologies where the sun's rays are often linked to the most powerful deities.

So what gives? Why doesn't Elden Ring care more about the sun? That's the question asked by a Redditor over around the Elden Ring subreddit, which has touched off a lively debate on why the sun's rays have so little lore.

Of course, that debate would begin with references to Solaire, but next, Elden_Gourde offers an excellent discussion of how the Erdtree largely replaced the sun's rays as the object of veneration, even going as far as outshining the sun's rays in the light it creates.

Besides the shining tree, there aren't many references to the sun's rays in Elden Ring. One is the loathsome Dungeater, who wears a sun medallion on his armor. This is never explained explicitly, but Elden_Gourde suspects this has to do with the sun's rays symbolizing direction, and Dungeater is just "following their own sun." It's an awful sun that curses everyone and everything, however, you gotta give Dungeater credit for following "their own path."

Another reference to the sun's rays is Castle Sol located within the very northernmost area of the map. At Castle Sol, a ghost explains how Miquella tried to resurrect Godwyn with an eclipse but was unsuccessful. Another can be found around the Sun Realm Shield which notes "the Seat from the Sun is long faded away," hinting at an ancient civilization that did actually worship the sun's rays. So it seems the sun's rays still hold some power, but it is been such a long time that nobody is able to access it.

User Govlum_1996 believes these solar references are going to be expanded within the upcoming Shadow from the Erdtree DLC because the one teaser image shows the Erdtree being choked by death root, which is associated with Godwyn.

While we watch for more info around the DLC, elden ring items ray tracing update is here now, also it hasn't exactly gone over well with fans.