Praise the Erdtree! An expansion for Elden Ring has has finally been confirmed by FromSoftware.
Not a huge surprise considering there's a precedent for DLC in the Souls series, not to mention a cool one. 20 million copies of Elden Ring were sold - but fans of the game will finally get more from Lands Between.
Or maybe it's not the Middle Lands at all? Which characters will be the focus of this expansion? And what happened to that tree?
The expansion will be called Shadow of the Erdtree. His announcement came with new artwork, depicting a blonde figure riding what appears to be Torrent. The land is desolate and misty, with ghostly graves scattered across the ground. A giant tree stands in the background, corrupted and withered.
So what does it all mean?
Who is the blonde figure?
The artwork prominently features a blonde figure riding Torrent - how many other horned goat horses are there? Prior to this DLC announcement, it was widely theorized that any additional content would focus on Miquella, and from this piece of art, that appears to be true.
So who is Miquella? As Eurogamer's Zoe herself explains in her story video (above), Miquella is the twin brother of Malenia, that rotten boss everyone loves to hate, both the demigod offspring of Queen Marika and Radagon. However, both were born with a curse: Malenia suffers from Scarlet Rot, while Miquella is doomed to be forever young and never become an adult. She is depicted as a small child with long blonde hair (see header image).
Miquella dedicated her life to trying to cure Malenia of the Scarlet Rot, which she believed required her to become an adult. He devised pure gold, perhaps a new form of magic, which we discover in the game as the pure gold needle, which allows players to ward off the curses of the gods.
In order to become an adult, Miquella used the Haligtree (meaning sacred), the late-game Legacy Dungeon where players fight Malenia. Here she Miquella lay in a cocoon, with the aim of aging parallel to the tree, even tying herself up, watering the tree with her blood. She even intended for Haligtree to become an Erdtree. Before she could complete her task, she fell into a deep sleep.
Despite this, the players find Miquella's cocoon elsewhere, after defeating Mohg Lord of Blood. The depraved Mohg, wishing to become a god himself, stole the cocoon, transformed into blood, entered the cocoon, and attempted to communicate with Miquella through her dreams. When we see the cocoon, Miquella's arm is visible: she is now adult-sized, but unresponsive.
It seems pretty certain from the published artwork that Shadow of the Erdtree will focus on Miquella, then. But if he's not sleeping... where is she?
Getting much closer to the figure of the horse, it is 100,000% Miquella. Compare the braid around his head to the decorative gold braid on the Haligtree Soldier Helm. pic.twitter.com/obkSAVvveC
โRath (@IAmRathsib) February 28, 2023
What tree is that?
The other key part of the artwork is the tree looming in the distance. The expansion's title, Shadow of the Erdtree, would suggest that this is the central Erdtree that dominates the horizon throughout the Middle Lands. But if that's the case, what happened to him? Why is it corrupt?
However, the Erdtree is not the only tree in the game. In fact, the game's narrative is really one big family soap opera, and what better symbol than a branching tree? As mentioned above, Miquella and Haligtree are quite literally intertwined. It's not clear from the artwork if it represents the Haligtree, but thematically it makes sense. What's more, could that golden corruption that sprouts from the tree be related to Miquella's Unalloyed Gold?
Finally, there is The Big Tree. This was a primordial tree that housed a large crucible, generally considered a crucible of creation. Aspects of Crucible Enchantments are described as "an aspect of the primordial crucible, into which all life once blended." Therefore, many fans compare the Erdtree to a parasite that invades The Lands Between, absorbing the souls of the dead, and taking over the ancient Great Tree. Could this be the starting shadow of the Erdtree?
The importance of dreams.
As an extension of Miquella's dream within a cocoon, some fans have theorized that Miquella is, in fact, the reincarnation of Santa Trina, the goddess of sleep. Santa Trina is considered to be young and gender fluid, whose dream is like a quagmire that irresistibly attracts its victims. Has Miquella fallen into an eternal sleep? Or will the player's Tarnished be drawn to Miquella's dreams, just like Mohg?
Furthermore, data miners previously discovered clipped content involving a dream subquest. In this slash quest, a monk found in the Scavenger's Shack would give players the crystal ball of St. Trina. This item would be used to collect Dream Mist from sleeping enemies found throughout the world. Could this mechanic be reused to enter Miquella's dreams?
Finally, there's the matter of those ghostly tombstones. Elden Ring players will be no stranger to graves or Grave Gloveworts, the flowers used to upgrade Spirit Ashes. But the desolate landscape and the large number of graves in the artwork may imply some kind of battlefield. But is this somewhere in The Lands Between? Or is this an alternate dream realm? Michael, what did you do?!
Of course, Shadow of the Erdtree could be about something else entirely. But Miquella's largely untold plotline in the game is certainly ripe for expansion and a dream world would provide a separate area for it to unfold. Could pure gold provide a new branch of magic? Will we find out more about everyone's favorite Malenia? Will Miquella suffer a similar fate at the hands of the Tarnished?
If one thing is for sure, judging by previous Soulsborne expansions, you can expect Shadow of the Erdtree to be very difficult.
