The dark fantasy action RPG Elden Ring, in true FromSoftware fashion, is full of grotesque, eerie enemies and locales; from the fungal rot-infested Caelid Wilds, to the scurrying severed hands called the Fingercreepers, and anything to do with the Frenzied Flame. The recently announced DLC for Elden Ring, Shadow Of The Erdtree, promises new storylines, new areas, and new enemies for players to overcome. It’s highly likely the Shadow Of The Erdtree DLC will add even more nightmarish perils, biomes, and secrets similar to, or even grosser, than the ones described below.
So far, the only information players have about the Elden Ring: Shadow of the Erdtree DLC is a single illustrated image released by FromSoftware, depicting a field of golden grain, a blond-haired youth riding a Spectral Steed, and a distant tree leaking golden sap. Elden Ring fans instantly identified the youth as Miquella, the eternally young brother of Malenia, and speculated that the DLC would take place in some kind of Dream World (since Miquella, under the guise of his St. Trina persona, cultivates sleep-inducing weapons and consumables). If the DLC is instead set in a Dream Realm, FromSoftware is free to introduce any number of nightmarish additions.
Nightmarish on both a mechanical and narrative level, the Apostle and Noble Godskin enemies of Elden Ring are both members of a god-slaying species who cloak themselves in the skin of their deific victims and stretch their bodies in nauseating ways while fighting the player. The Shadow Of The Erdtree DLC could shine more light on the Godskins and their Gloam-Eyed Queen ancestor by letting players discover and explore their homeland (or underground hive). There, players might encounter swarming juvenile Godskins or elders who’ve gained truly non-human physical characteristics such as claws, more tails, or draconic Blackflame-breathing maws.
In the world of Elden Ring, worthy candidates for godhood such as Queen Marika or Lunar Princess Ranni gifted with Shadowbound beasts – wolf-like servants engineered by the Two Fingers from their Divine Towers to be watchdogs for their “Empyrean” masters. In the base game of Elden Ring, players encounter Marika’s Empyrean, Maliketh the Black Blade, and Ranni’s Empyrean, the earnestly loyal Blaidd. Theoretically, the twin Demigods, Miquella and Malenia, who are also Empyreans with the potential to become gods, should also have Shadowbound beasts of their own, which may appear in the Shadow Of The Erdtree DLC as Rot or Abundance-inflicted canine horrors.
All across the Lands Between of Elden Ring, players can stumble across literal extraterrestrial lifeforms born from falling meteors and capable of wielding strange gravitational magic. The Alabaster and Onyx Lords, elf-like creatures of living rock and magic tutors to the misunderstood Starscourge Radahn, are hostile in-game, yet clearly sentient. The ant-like Fallingstar Beasts and the dragonfly-like Astels they evolve into are animalistic and…
2023-05-15 13:00:06
Article from screenrant.com