FromSoftware has announced Shadow of the Erdtree, a new and upcoming expansion for Elden Ring, the Japanese developer’s acclaimed and best-selling fantasy RPG. No story details have been shared yet, but a new piece of artwork that accompanies the announcement has prompted some publications to speculate that the DLC will center around Miquella, a mysterious character who is teased throughout The Lands Between, Elden Ring’s chief setting. Elden Ring: Shadow of the Erdtree will be available for PS4, PS5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X|S, and PC, according to the official Japanese site for the game.
From a Steam post:
An upcoming expansion for ELDEN RING, Shadow of the Erdtree, is currently in development.
We hope you look forward to new adventures in the Lands Between.
From a Kotaku report:
If you’ve played FromSoftware’s open-world RPG, then you likely have a good guess as to who we’re looking at here. This might be Miquella, the single Empyryan from the family at the center of the mess that shatters the Elden Ring who we never get to meet in-game.
Miquella is all over the world of Elden Ring, but you never actually see them in person. We know that Miquella is Malenia’s twin who has been cursed to be forever young. Poor Miquella loved his sister dearly, and wanted to cure her of the rot via the Haligtree, a location that you visit late in Elden Ring. The Haligtree is supposed to be a haven for basically anyone who might be rejected by society, meaning anyone who has been spurned from the embrace of the Erdtree that you burn at the end of the game. Miquella grew the tree specifically as a rebuke of the Golden Order religion, which, despite its influence throughout the land, couldn’t find a cure for the thing rotting away his family.
Perhaps the scariest thing to know about Miquella is that Malenia swears he’s the most “fearsome” demi-god of them all. And after you spend hours trying to beat Malenia, well, what the hell is her even-more-powerful brother capable of?
The reason we never meet Miquella, of course, is because he is stolen away by Mohg, another demi-god. If you do this optional portion of the game, you find out that Miquella isn’t actually dead. He’s actually just sleeping in a weird flesh cocoon, where Mohg hopes to elevate himself to godhood through the blonde Empyryan that he’s basically feeding to his blood god.