Leonard and Torrent are the only two creatures that don't take damage in the Lake of Rot. Coincidence or equine conspiracy?
If there's a place in the Middlelands that everyone hates, is Caelid. Giant killer crows, hordes of decaying zombies, and Tyrannosaur dogs are just a few examples of the delights that await Tarnished in Caelid, but the biggest tourist trap is easily the Swamp of Aeonia, the site of the climactic showdown. Between Melania and General Radahn. This area is a sea of โโfestering rot capable of reducing most living creatures to mere bones in minutes. And yet, for some reason, Radahn's horse (his name is Leonard, by the way) is still alive after spending countless decades or even centuries wandering the Caelid.
This leads to the obvious question: how? "How do we die to Scarlet Aeonia almost instantly, but Radahn's horse is fine?" reddit user Affectionate_Sure969 he asked on the Elden Ring subreddit. "He's not a God. How did he survive so long by rotting away?"
It's a fair question, and one I've often asked myself as my Tarnished's skin melted in the aeonic effluvia. Starscourge Radahn is a massive demigod who has at least some imperviousness to scarlet rot (although clearly not his brain, which is rotten by the time he meets the player), but Leonard is just a horse. A beloved horse, well cared for even by a brain-dead Radahn, but still an ordinary horse.
But as is often the case on Reddit, the top comment provides us with an answer. User droman117 notes the similarities between the horse Leonard and Torrent, the mystical horse-goat creature who takes the Tarnished wherever they need to go.
"Torrent can carry the mists through the scarlet swamp with no problem. Both Torrent and Leonard have hooves," they wrote. "Coincidence? I think not. Helmets are the answer."
Unfortunately, there are no hooves or hoof-like greaves available to impart some level of immunity to scarlet rot to tarnishers. Maybe we'll get a pair of hooves when ancient ring gets its seemingly inevitable DLC. Until then, at least we have Torrent.
