Elden Ring: Shadow of the Erdtree’s cinematic trailer dropped precisely a month earlier than the growth’s launch, and the collective response was about what you’ll count on: “That is rad, however I do not know what is going on on.” Now, although? Effectively I’ve form of an concept what is going on on after spending 80 hours or so within the DLC, and it is all about as grim and unsettling as you’d count on.
Spoilers for Shadow of the Erdtree forward.
Proper off the bounce, we now know that the bloody gate of corpses Marika is hanging out round at the start of the trailer is the Divine Gate from Promised Consort Radahn’s boss combat on the high of Enir Elim, solely after we get there the our bodies are calcified and bleached white by the ages—on this primeval second, the monument continues to be slick with gore and viscera.
Merchandise descriptions and different tidbits from the DLC reveal that Marika got here from a spot referred to as the Shaman Village, and that the hornsent society systematically rounded up the Shamans to butcher them and put them in nice jars, making Marika’s story, no matter her later excesses, considered one of revenge—suppose what occurs with Paul Atreides in Dune and also you’re just about there.
My interpretation is that the jars have been the prototypes or collected constructing supplies for the Divine Gate, however Marika snuck previous or tricked the hornsent to steal godly energy from it—presumably that golden thread she pulls out of a yonic flesh factor on the very starting. One complication is that in-game, numerous the petrified our bodies round Radahn’s enviornment have hornsent horns.
The sequence of Messmer burning down Belurat has at all times been fairly simple, however as NewArtificialHuman factors out on the Elden Ring subreddit, there’s one second that takes on a surprising new significance solely after enjoying the DLC. The girl proven cradling a spear on the 1:16 mark is late growth boss Romina, Saint of the Bud, pre-Scarlet Rot scorpio-centipedification—there’s simply no mistaking her distinctive Poleblade of the Bud, whose merchandise description contains the road: “As soon as, within the crumbling burning church, Romina held the bud in speechless silence.”
It looks like the burning of her church—which is near however a whole lot of toes above Belurat—was the work of Messmer and his troopers, probably even unintentional collateral injury. I would just assumed it was the hornsent who burned her church, however now it appears to be like like Marika’s personal forces have been liable for creating, releasing, or at the least considerably empowering the Scarlet Rot that will later afflict Malenia and The Lands Between. After that time, we’re not in lore revelation territory, although we now know that the girl falling by way of a purple haze is St. Trina. In any other case, it is just a few fairly photographs of areas from the DLC and our NPC companions. Boy, I certain hope nothing unhealthy occurs to these guys!
I do not know what else I anticipated: FromSoftware’s pre-rendered intros/trailers solely ever make full sense in hindsight. Sekiro’s intro? You are not gonna actually internalize that you just’re watching Sword Saint Isshin killing an Inside Ministry common till you are like, 40 hours in. The 2021 Recreation Awards story trailer for Elden Ring? Yeah, that stuff solely actually match collectively after launch.
Hell, because of an merchandise description from the DLC, we have simply gotten one last revelation from that 2021 trailer: Simply as Malenia lands on Radahn and stabs him earlier than unleashing the Scarlet Rot bloom, she says one thing to the overall you may’t make out within the trailer. Based on the outline of the Younger Lion’s Set, it was “Miquella awaits thee, O promised consort.” 🤯
