Let’s speculate means an excessive amount of concerning the Elden Ring enlargement picture

The funniest factor concerning the announcement of Elden Ring’s DLC is that it got here two days after the game’s anniversary, which gave the group simply sufficient time to gnash their enamel en masse on the lack of a DLC announcement. It’s the most FromSoft move of all to let that date move with out remark after which unceremoniously announce it with a tweet at 3 am US time.

Nonetheless, now there’s a picture, so pc: ENHANCE. No critically, you may download this factor as a wallpaper from Bandai Namco’s press site, and the 13331 x 7499 pixel picture is a whopping 114MB.

First query: Who’s driving Torrent? The go-to reply for almost all of people is Miquella. Given his hyperlinks to Malenia and alive-but-comatose presence within the game, that is sensible, however others suppose Marika, and I’ve even seen the lower character St. Trina instructed. Simply to confuse issues, St. Trina was in all probability going to be Miquella, however that is primarily based on lower content material that wasn’t within the last product.

It is Miquella that has the fan idea momentum nevertheless, primarily due to these lengthy flowing locks. Miquella has an androgynous look and, in fact, shiny blonde hair that may be seen within the game: It is the particular braids which have folks satisfied that is Malenia’s brother, as seen on this comparability picture.

That is Miquella within the picture 100% . All of the braids align from r/Eldenring

Malenia says this within the game: “My brother will maintain his promise. He possesses the knowledge, the attract, of a god. He’s probably the most fearsome Empyrean of all.”

If Miquella is the main focus of this enlargement, that raises the query of whether or not that is the ‘actual’ Lands Between or some form of demigod’s dream. In Elden Ring, Miquella is alive however in a state of suspended animation. No spoilers however a key a part of the Darkish Souls lore is a slumbering god that’s intentionally saved that means, and what occurs when they’re woken by the participant. Throughout the Soulslike video games Miyazaki and his workforce have proven a keenness for painted worlds, time-travel loops into the previous / future, and naturally the entire of Bloodborne revolves round whether or not it is all of the Hunter’s dream… or nightmare.

So yeah… illusory spirit graves, the overall fogginess of the lands, the corrupted tree or bushes… this appears rather a lot like a dreamscape, and Miquella already being in a dream of some type… properly carried out web, we did it!

Different particulars embrace the arches that share their design with these seen within the Uhl Fortress Ruins and the Siofra Ruins, the outline of the latter studying: “this huge area is claimed to be the grave of civilizations that flourished earlier than the Erdtree.”

Am I flawed if I believe that DLC’s tree appears extra like Miquella sacred tree than the Erdtree itself ? from r/Eldenring

One factor I undoubtedly did not discover when first trying on the picture is that the tree within the distance really appears like two bushes twisted round each other, with the golden saplike substance oozing from where they meet. This appears like deathblight, but it surely may simply be one thing else (some worry this DLC will probably be a deathblight swamp, which will surely match with Miyazaki’s sense of humour). As for the bushes: this might be the Erdtree wrapped across the Haligtree (which as they’re somewhere else helps the dream speculation), or one thing else totally.

One other commentary, from Redditor KillmepIss, is that “The ghostly crosses are all making the Rune of Demise signal no?” There’s a particular resemblance there and within the emblem, although these variations seem extra stylised. The Rune of Demise is core to the pre-game occasions of Elden Ring and was utilized by Marika to make her and her demigod offspring immortal and set up the Golden Order, the world’s principal faith.

Lastly, here is one good motive to scrutinise the high-res model: Did you see the ghost warriors? They’re extraordinarily onerous to make out and may solely be seen within the super-duper model (properly, with my previous eyes anyway), however here is a zoomed-in view of what appears like horse-riding spirits across the graves. The Elden Ring’s personal Wild Hunt? Dare to dream…

That is all hypothesis, and if there’s one factor FromSoft is sweet at it’s misdirection. The studio has a behavior of planting crimson herrings, each inside and with out its video games, to the extent that no matter appears apparent is often something however. The proof for this being one way or the other Miquella-related appears robust, but it surely might be another person totally, the enlargement might be future or previous, and so forth: Do not get too wedded to any theories.

Tiny violins and that however, to take us residence, you do need to barely really feel for this YouTuber, who determined their newest stunt can be to kill one NPC a day till Elden Ring DLC was introduced. They bought to day two.