Elden Ring: Tarnished Edition Playthrough/Lore Chat 7/?

We're going to need to gear up, then we can hit Raya Lucaria and meet the Last Queen of Caria. It's hard to overstate what a triumph Elden Ring is. We've likely all played it before, seen all the memes, maybe watched a ton of lore dives, but I think some of the most basic parts of the story get missed in all the nitty gritty. So let's go back to the Lands Between and take another look at what's right there in front of us. This is not a blind playthrough. Light spoilers are OK, but let's try to keep the discussion focused on the here and now rather than talking about stuff we haven't gotten to yet.