Last week, it was announced that the much-anticipated trailer for the Shadow af the Erdtree trailer (Elden Ring DLC) was going to drop on Wednesday, February 21st. I was so stoked. It had been almost two years since the game came out, and I was ready for the DLC.
Then, something terrible in my personal life happened that made me unable to enjoy the trailer or participate too much in the discussion of it in the RKG Discord. It’s been almost a week since then, but I’m still dealing with the tragedy. However, I have watched the trailer several times and content creators’ reactions to the trailer. Almost to a person, it’s been sheer, unbridled enthusiasm–and terror.
FromSoft gives a ton away in their trailers. I usually don’t watch them. You can’t really tell what’s going on without context, but they are not shy about showing off the bosses in the trailers. In fact, the final boss of Dark Souls III was on the box cover. I’ve soften a bit about watching trailers and since it’s been two years, and I wanted to get hyped for the DLC, I decided to watch it.
It’s incredible. FromSoft does a trailer like no one else. They say everything and nothing at all with each. The music and art direction are both beyond compare. And the boss/enemy design is so goddamn imaginative. And this trailer is the best yet.
Here’s the thing . Given the rabid fanbase, it’s hard for FromSoft to keep surpassing themselves–and yet, they do. This trailer is jaw-droppingly amazing. I remember when the base game came out, there was a games journalist who snippily said that the game wasn’t that great-looking and that she had seen it all before. After five minutes of the game. Look. They may not push the graphic fidelity envelope, but their art design is top quality.
I’m still dealing with my personal life, but I have more capacity to analyze the trailer now. I have watched a ton of reactions and read theories. I have included the trailer, obviously, and I want to throw out my own wild theories about what I saw in the trailer. After that, I’ll mentioned the other theories I’ve read/heard. I’m not watching any actual lore videos because I don’t want to know ahead of time. But I’ve heard enough to ponder and either agree or reject the premise.
First of all, everyone who said that we’d access the DLC through Miquella’s egg were right. Which means defeating Mohg–who was fairly easy for me the first time around, but really annoyed me as a pure melee/strength character. I got him down to a sliver the first time with that character, and then he did his bullshit blood heal bullshit. He got me, and I lost any interest in beating him fairly. So I cheesed him with no regrets.
That means I have two characters (one magic/incantation-based and the other melee/strength) ready to take on the DLC. There have been plenty of videos on what you’ll want to do to prepare for the DLC as well, which I am not going to watch. I have never prepped for the DLC, and I don’t intend to do it now. If there is a preferred way to do it, then it’ll have to wait for the second playthrough.
I will say that I’m worried about the difficulty. Miyazaki said that it’ll be on par with the late game, which caused me so much trouble my first time through. I had put over 200 hours into my first playthrough, and I was worn out by the last quarter. There was simply too much game, and the bosses were all brutal. Well, most. They had two different bosses in one, and just felt like FromSoft buying their own hype. Watching the trailer, I felt a frisson of fear shudder down my spine. There were several bosses in the trailer, and they were all going to kill me over and over and over again.
Anyway, let’s get into it. I’m just going to call out the points that I’m stuck on. The biggest is that the red-headed fire boss is NOT Miquella. So many people think it is, which is wild to me because Miquella is blond and an eternal child. I understand that we may be in an alternate reality, but, just no. I’ll get to that later.
First big note is at the minute mark. There is a regal woman in blue sitting in an area that looks a lot like a room in Caria Manor. I thought it might be a young Rennala, but I saw suggestions of the Gloam-Eyed Queen, which makes some sense, too. She’s an Empyrean, but maybe she was part of Carian’s heritage, too–I mean, Ranni was a Carian and an Empyrean.
The next big impression on me was the creature at 1:22. So many people think it’s Serosh, who was Godfrey’s Beast Regent, but a corrupted version of it. Or someone wearing Serosh. My first thought was that it looked like a misbegotten, not Serosh. But then as I read more comments, such as it has Omen horns and that it did seem to be a humanoid wearing a lion, other theories sprung to mind. One was that it was Guranq/Beast Clergyman (who turned out to be Maliketh) or another beast clergyman.
But. Another theory has sprung up to me. It’s Morgott with a Beast Regent of his own. Some people noted that the bare feet is shown stomping around on are similar to Morgott’s (or Margit, if you prefer). Godfrey is Morgott’s father, so that would make sense as well.
Side note: I love that the Tarnished(s) shown throughout the trailer are all the starting classes.
Ok, next up. And, remember, this is all wild speculation on my part.
1:54 shows a female NPC with the Navy Hood. It’s one of two helms for the Noble Set. The other is the Crimson Hood, which belongs to Roderika, the Spirit Tuner. She does Astel-like magicks. But, more to the point, Roderika gave me my first Spirit Summon–the Jellyfish. Well, the second, actually. Ranni gave me my first–the wolves. Here’s the thing. The jellyfish is named Aurelia. She has a questline (yes, a questline!) and a sister. If you reunite her with her sister, you get a touching scene with the two of them. Also, the jellyfish can be blue (friendly) or red (hostile), depending on if you attack them or not. (Well, not always. There are some that are just hostile to you no matter what.)
I’m saying the woman in the Navy Hood is Roderika’s sister.
Right after that, there’s a guy doing martial arts kicks. He looks like a character from Dark Souls III who carried the Onikiri and Ubadachi. I just found out he was named Kumui and was a Black Hand, just like Black Hand Gotthard. And I just found out his name was Black Hand Kumui.
Electric hipporcupine is super cute.
But, the bigghest thing is the (presumably) final boss who so many people think is Miquella. I get it. He’s been rumored to be the focus of the DLC for ages. And the fact that the one still image From released ages ago for the DLC was a blond, waiflike figure on Torrent’s back (same figure (well, head, anyway) shows up at the end of the trailer) doesn’t help. But we know that Miquella has blond hair and is an eternal child. And that the red-haired boss is called Mesmer the Impaler.
Now, granted, it’s not uncommon for people in this game to have two names, so the fact that he’s called Mesmer doesn’t mean he’s not also Miquella. By the way, another M?!
Here was the totally off-the-wall theoriy I came up with today (whicgh almost certainly is not right). Mesmer is the son of Rykard and Tanith. The fact that Mesmer has snakes as part of his body makes me think he’s related to Rykard somehow. And Tanith being Rykard’s lover makes a lot of sense.
I don’t think this theoriy is right, but it pleases me. I will say that Mesmer saying, “Mother wouldst thou truly sanction Lordship in one so bereft of light?” makes me think that he could be a Tarnished who has lost his Grace. And given that all the children of Marika have M names (Morgott, Malenia, Miquella, Mohg, and maybe Melina. Which would make me think that Vyke may be him. Not the M thing, but because there are so many similarities between Mesmer and Vyke. Or maybe Vyke was worshipping Mesmer. I saw one person being suspicious of Melina, so I’m just going to say maybe she’s Mesmer. Everyone (including me) is assuming Mesmer is a man, but that’s not for certain, I don’t think. They say ‘mother’, but no one refers to them with any gender.
At the end of the day, I just don’t know. I’ll only find out after playing the DLC and watching Vaati’s vidyas about it. I’m content with that.