Preceptor Seluvis | Elden Ring Wiki

Preceptor Seluvis is an NPC in Elden Ring. Seluvis is a pompous sorcerer in service to Ranni the Witch. Seluvis Questline is important for players looking to make Magic Builds, so make sure to read all the Seluvis Questline steps below including a potential lockout due to your choices. Seluvis is first encountered in spectral form at Ranni's Rise in the Three Sisters sub-region of Liurnia of the Lakes.

See Preceptor Seluvis Lore

I don't know what it is the mistress sees in a provincial Tarnished like you, but since we have the misfortune of serving the same Lady, I ask that you kindly try not to drag us all down with you.

Preceptor Seluvis Location in Elden Ring

Preceptor Seluvis is found in various locations:

1. Seluvis is initially spoken to in spectral form at Ranni's Rise.

Map link

1. He can then be found in physical form at Seluvis's Rise.

Map link

Seluvis Notes & Tips

• This NPC does not move, but will die if you proceed far enough in Ranni's questline.
• Like Sellen and Miriel, he can be given sorcery scrolls to increase his stock. Likewise, they can also be bought from his bell bearing.
• This merchant can't be fought.
• Upon death, drops:
  • Preceptor's Set
  • Seluvis's Bell Bearing

Preceptor Seluvis Shop

After completing his first quest, he will become available as a merchant.

Seluvis Questline: How to complete Preceptor Seluvis's Quest

First Encounter

• Seluvis questline begins as he appears in spectral form on the ground floor of Ranni's Rise after speaking to Ranni for the first time.
• He asks you to meet him physically at his tower nearby.

Seluvis's Potion

• NOTE: Attacking Seluvis in the tower angers him. Doing so will rend the entire Ranni questline inaccessable; Seluvis, Iji, Blaidd and Ranni will all permanently dissapear unless the player uses a Celestial Dew at the Church of Vows.
  
  
• At Seluvis's Rise, he gives you Seluvis's Potion and tasks you with finding Nepheli Loux and having her drink it.
  With the potion, there are two major paths to take:
  1. Talk with Gideon Ofnir and discuss Seluvis's plan. He will offer to dispose of the potion, claiming that Seluvis will be none the wiser. Alternatively, you can instead keep the potion and hand it over to Nepheli.
  2. Feed it to Dung Eater. If the player has made progress in his questline to the point in which he is bound to a chair and accepting Seedbed Curses, it is possible to feed him the potion and return to Seluvis. He will then have a new dialogue option.
• If Nepheli or the Dung Eater was given the potion, their body can be found in Seluvis's laboratory, and their respective Ashes will be available for purchase from Seluvis using Starlight Shards as currency. Note that you must visit Seluvis's lab in the illusion-concealed basement of the building between Renna's Rise and Ranni's Rise, and then receive a free puppet from him, before you can buy the puppet you earned by using the potion.
  • If you visit his lab before getting the potion and feeding it to someone, he may not give the option to buy new puppets. To fix this, simply return to his lab, read the "Seluvis's puppet. Do not touch." message again, and reload.
• Regardless of your decision, Seluvis's response will be the same.
• Note: With only a single potion, you must make a choice between Nepheli's or Dung Eater's ashes in a given playthrough. Obtaining the other will require New Game Plus.

Betraying Ranni

• NOTE':' You must complete the next steps before giving Ranni the Fingerslayer Blade. Giving it to her will cause Seluvis's death.
  
  
• Locating Seluvis's hidden chambers in the ruins outside of Ranni's Rise and interacting with the message within will allow you to ask Seluvis about the chamber. It is hidden beneath an illusory floor.
• When asked about his chambers, he will let you choose one of his puppet Spirit Ashes.
• After buying a second puppet, he will tell you about his plot.
  • The exact steps to be able to buy the second puppet are as follows:
    • Give Seluvis's potion to either Nepheli, Dung-eater or Gideon Ofnir.
    • Acquire 3 Starlight Shards if you got the Finger Maiden Therolina Puppet the first time, or 2 Starlight Shards if you got the Jarwight Puppet the first time.
    • Reload the area once, talk to Seluvis(he will repeat his last dialogue), reload the area again and he will give you the option to buy the second puppet. None of his sorceries are required to unlock the second puppet option.
• Seluvis seeks to create a potion that will turn even a demigod into a puppet. To make it, he asks you to acquire an Amber Starlight

Map Link shard, which can found in the Altus Plateau. Pidia, Carian Servant sells a Weathered Map to help deduce its exact location.

• Handing over the Amber Starlight shard will reward you with the Magic Scorpion Charm.
  • Note: You can stop here with the talisman and continue with Ranni's questline.
• After reloading the area, he will give you the Amber Draught and ask you to administer it to Ranni.
  • Note: Receiving the Amber Draught does not lock you into betraying Ranni. When the Draught is in your inventory, you can toggle between administering it to Ranni or simply talking with her to continue her quest line as normal.
• Upon doing so, she will wake up both saddened and outraged by your actions. She will demand that you leave, talking to her two more times will result in her instantly killing you (no combat, you just drop dead). Ranni, Iji and Blaidd will have dissapeared from the game and cannot be interacted with again until you use absolve yourself of sins at the Church of Vows.
  
  • Note: You can absolve yourself with Celestial Dew at the Church of Vows and continue Ranni's questline without consequence. The NPCs will act as if the Amber Draught episode has never happened.
  • Seluvis will be found dead in his tower and Pidia will be killed by his puppets once you get near to his location.

Ranni's Questline

• After giving the Fingerslayer Blade to Ranni, Seluvis can then be found at Seluvis's Rise, dead; thus ending his questline.
• The end of his questline is synced with Pidia’s. When the questline ends, Pidia expresses shock that the puppets he loved so dearly would betray him, before letting out screams of terror and being torn apart by his puppets, leaving behind Pidia's Bell Bearing and a puppet (Dolores or Nepheli; Nepheli's Puppet Ashes will drop instead of Dolores's Puppet Ashes if she was given the potion).

Preceptor Seluvis Secondary Shop (Puppet Ashes)

Seluvis's puppet laboratory is located in one of the ruins near his tower. From Ranni's Rise Site of Grace, head outside and visit the first set of ruins on your left. Striking the floor will reveal an illusory floor and a staircase. Inside will be a message: "Seluvis's puppet. Do not touch." After confronting him about the laboratory and exhausting his dialogue, he will offer you one of his puppets. You can now exchange Starlight Shards for other available Ashes.

Note:If Seluvis has died due to progress in Ranni's questline, it is still possible to purchase from this shop. Simply return to his dead body and a prompt will appear.
Note 2: Alternatively, Dolores's Puppet Ashes will drop from Pidia if the potion is given to Dung Eater, however you will not get Nepheli's Puppet Ashes from Pidia by doing so. (Nepheli's Puppet Ashes are not purchasable in the shop.)

Dialogue in Elden Ring: Preceptor Seluvis

^§Introduction:

• I see... You must be Ranni's new hireling.
  Yes, yes, I've heard all about you.
  I am Seluvis, preceptor in the sorcerous arts.
  I don't know what it is the mistress sees in a provincial Tarnished like you,
  but since we have the misfortune of serving the same Lady,
  I ask that you kindly try not to drag us all down with you.
• I reside...in another tower, close by.
  Come and pay me a visit...
  Should you wish to be of actual service to Mistress Ranni.
  If it were up to me, I wouldn't waste my time on the likes of you.
  But who am I to stand against the wishes of my Lady?

^§Visit:

• Well, well. You took me at my word.
  Did you not realise I was merely being polite? You provincials never cease to amaze...
  Hmm, I suppose you're here now.
  Perhaps I'll give you something to do.
  I'd like you to find a woman called Nepheli, to administer a potion.
  Even you can do that much, can't you?
  
  [Accept the task]
  Good, good.
  As a man of abundant charity, I accept your apology. (Only if offer was declined twice)
  Now I shall hand over the potion in question.
  [Receives Seluvis's Potion]
  Find Nepheli, and ensure she drinks it.
  I except glad tidings. And soon.
  
  [Decline the task]
  I see...
  What a wretched bunch you Tarnished are.
  Do you understand? I've given you a very fine chance.
  If you complete this task, I will graciously permit you to learn from me.
  Even you wish to serve our Lady well, do you not?
  Turn those little cogs upstairs, and return with the correct answer.
  
  [Talk after declining once]
  Have you fumbled out the correct answer now?
  Then you will undertake my task?
  
  [Declining again]
  ...
  You are peerless in your dullardly.
  Fine. I can feel my wits evaporating in your mere presence.
  Don't bother wasting your breath on me again.
  
  [Talk after declining twice]
  I could have sworn I told you to trouble me no more...
  Are you here to tender your sincere apology, and undertake my task?
  

^§About Nokron:

• Well, well. You're asking me about that, are you?
  'The task was left to you and the mongrel, was it not?
  Not only are you incompetent, but shameless to boot.
  Well...there's no helping it.
  Now's as good a time as any. I'll let you in on it.
  There's a glintstone sorcerer by the name of Sellen in Limgrave.
  She owes me for the help I gave her when she was expelled from the academy.
  I asked her to look into the matter some time ago.
  I'll write you a letter of introduction. Go ask her.
  [Gives Seluvis's Introduction]

After giving someone Seluvis's Potion:

• Ahh, so you made Nepheli drink the potion?
  Well done. You are a touch more useful than I had thought.
  Very well. Then you shall have your gift.
  Knowledge of the sorcerous arts, under the tutelage of the great Preceptor Seluvis.
  I doubt much of it will lay within the grasp of a mere Tarnished, but...
  If you put your mind to it, perhaps you won't embarrass our Lady.
• You wish to begin right this moment?
  Well, your impatience, though boorish, is understandable. Let's have at it.

Hand over the scroll:

• Hmm. Is that a scroll?
  'I won't bother to ask where you pilfered it, but...'
  You're correct to assume I'm one of the few who can decipher it.
  So, I'm perfectly happy to take it off your hands.
  That said, don't you dare get your hopes up.
  More often than not, new knowledge is merely an opportunity to reflect...
  ...upon the mediocrity of one's intellect.

After purchasing all available sorceries:

• Come now, the pretence of comprehension becomes you not.
  Bend over backwards any further and you're apt to break.

About Nepheli:

• So, you had Nepheli drink the potion? Truly?
  'Hmm. Then perhaps something was amiss with it.
  It's concocted from the finest ingredients. But perhaps I should review the recipe.
  I may have expected too much of her, to begin with.

^§About your chambers:

• You break into a man's private chambers, rooting about as you please?
  'Your oafishness knows no bounds.'
  Fine and well.
  You tricked Nepheli, and had her drink the potion.
  I believe that makes you my accomplice.
  You yearn for a puppet of your own, hmm?
  Well, normally one of your stature would never be allowed.
  But perhaps I can make a very special exception.
  Now, choose.
  [Offers choice between Finger Maiden Therolina Puppet and Jarwight Puppet]
• (Upon returning) How's the puppet I gave you? A thing of exquisite craft, is it not?

I want a new puppet (after accepting the free puppet and finding more Starlight Shards):

• What's that? You want another puppet?
  'Quite the keen paramour, aren't we.'
  But, I'm afraid each and every one is like a child to me.
  I can hardly just give them away.
  Oh dear, what's to be done?
  Why don't you...fetch me some starlight shards?
  If you can manage it, I'll gladly prepare a new puppet for you.
  The soul of every puppet has its own ambience. You'll soon come to know, once you possess a few.
  And once each's predilections are known to you, the better you'll be able to love them.
  Oh yes, you have much to look forward to, further down this road.
  [Opens puppet shop]

After purchasing another puppet:

• You're proving to be quite the puppeteer.
  'I've not had an apprentice for...a very long time indeed.

About the scheme:

• Perhaps, you'd be interested in a little scheme of mine?
  'It will produce the finest of puppets.
  Which I aspire to cherish with these very hands.
  A ploy to fool even Lady Ranni... How does that sound?
• [I'm interested] Ahh, I knew I had you pegged.
  You're just like me.
  Then I'd like you to procure something.
  A rather unique starlight shard that glistens with amber.
  With that, my special draught will gleam with nectar-sweetness.
  And even a demigod would be slave to its charms...
• [I'm not interested] Very good. A wise choice, indeed. You passed my little test with flying colours. I was merely gauging your loyalty to Lady Ranni. Well done, I'm very proud of you. Let's both do our utmost in service of our Lady.
• [Returning to hear more about the scheme] Ah ha. Might you be interested after all? In a fine scheme to sport with Lady Ranni?

About Amber Starlight:

• Procure it for me.
  The rather unique starlight shard that glistens with amber.
  With that, my special draught will gleam with nectar-sweetness.
  And even a demigod would be slave to its charms...
  

Give Amber Starlight:

• Well, well, you managed to lay your hands on it!
  The blessed day is finally upon us...
  Goodness gracious, the way it glistens...utterly enchanting.
  To think, this was once a demigod's very fate...
  My oh my oh my....
• Ah, are you still here?
  Oh yes, I should give you your reward.
  Please, it's all yours. Splendid work. Just marvelous.
  [Gives Magic Scorpion Charm]
• Now, just you wait. The merriment is soon to begin.
  The scheme I promised is to be revealed very shortly...
  
• (Talk again without reloading the area) You'll be flabbergasted, I can assure you.
  'The secret* I promised is to be revealed very shortly...
  *He says "The secret" here, yet the subtitles repeat "The scheme" as in the previous line.

^§Returning to Seluvis:

• Good, I've been waiting for you.
  It's finally complete. The perfection of my draught, gleaming nectar-sweet.
  Give it to Ranni and ensure she drinks it.
  [Gives Amber Draught]
• The dead-eyed doll lets down her guard in your presence, rather remarkably.
  Though she might dip her hands in the dirt, and feign that icy persona...she's a frail, gentle girl at heart.

About the draught:

• You...understand, don't you?
  That once you have Ranni drink my draught, my scheme will come to fruition.
  And we, well, we'll be in a position to claim the very finest puppet ever crafted.
  Just imagine...the pure elation...

About the draught (after receiving the Amber Draught and purchasing all available sorceries):

• Come now, don't make me wait.
  I can barely contain myself as it is...

When attacked:

• Agh! Enough of that, now. Have you forgotten that we both serve the same Lady?
• You incorrigible lout. Don't you dare waltz back here again.

^§Other:

• I have no time for idle chit chat. The only thing I will hear from you is a report of your task's completion. Are we understood? Then off you trot.
• Begging for another lesson so soon? There remains much to be done. Make it quick.

Preceptor Seluvis Notes & Trivia

• Seluvis' name is a reference to the character Severus Snape from Harry Potter. His Japanese name セルブス (serubusu) is an anagram of Severus (セブルス seburusu).
• Gideon and Seluvis seem to have a long-standing hatred, if not rivalry, for each other.
• In between Ranni's Rise and Renna's Rise, you'll see a ruined building and a set of stairs that go down hidden by an illusory floor, protected by a Noble Sorcerer who is otherwise invisible unless close by.
  • There are many doll-like figures around the basement, with a message saying "Seluvis's puppet. Do not touch." in the corner by a man with a jar for a head. A rather eerie thing to note is that puppets' eyes are following player's movements. The bodies of a Perfumer and an Omenkiller are also present, despite none of them being obtainable as puppets.
    • After giving his potion to either Gideon, Nepehli, or Dung Eater, speaking to Seluvis about his basement will become available, in which he will give you access to one free Spirit Ash summon, with the other two available for purchase later.
      • One of the ashes is only available if you give the potion to the Dung Eater or Nepheli, rather than letting Gideon dispose of it. (?)
  • A puppet of Sellen and Nepheli (if you give her the potion) can be found behind another illusory wall in the back of the cellar.
    • Above and beyond the violation/creep factor of Seluvis's entire operation with puppetry in general, there are numerous additional context clues that suggest a darkly sexual component to the preceptor's own intentions regarding his unwilling thralls. The presence of Sorceress Sellen's puppet (the only one found stood upright and "activated" within his chambers) kept behind a second privacy-guaranteeing illusory wall in his laboratory AND adjacent to a bed, Seluvis responding to you discovering his secret by offering you a choice (i e. a bribe) of your own puppet between an innocent maiden and an unclothed man (and that, only after commenting that your demonstrated willingness to help him subjugate Nepheli into unwilling puppetry has already effectively made you his "accomplice"), his reference to you being "quite the paramour" should you return to request additional puppets, and arguably worst of all the truly evil implication of his original intent to utilize the player to lay irreversible claim upon body and mind of the foster daughter of his long-standing rival, Gideon. (See the next bullet point for even further context regarding this.)
  • Upon receiving Dolores as a puppet, it is discovered that Gideon and Seluvis were both in the Roundtable together, with Dolores. It is also noted that the two stopped talking because of her, implying a potential love triangle of sorts.
    • The fact you receive Dolores only after giving Nepheli, Gideon's daughter, the potion and later find her as a doll also implies that Seluvis may have grown tired of Dolores as a puppet. It's possible he sought Gideon's adoptive daughter as a replacement.

Preceptor Seluvis Lore

Lore Items Related to Preceptor Seluvis

Dialogue Related to Preceptor Seluvis