With only a month left before Elden Ring’s highly anticipated Shadow of the Erdtree DLC drops, developer FromSoftware has gifted us with a brand-new trailer. As this will be the “first and last” DLC for the award-winning action RPG that will undoubtedly add even more lore to an already-confusing pile, there’s understandably a lot of buzz surrounding this latest trailer. Check it out below, and read on for more.
This latest look at Shadow of the Erdtree is all about the story—there’s no gameplay here, but we are getting a little more background on the mysterious Miquella, demon boss Malenia’s twin brother. The trailer shows how Miquella’s attempts to create a Haligtree to try to combat his sister’s Scarlet Rot, and his inability to age past childhood resulted in him facing Messmer the Impaler and the “tyranny of [his] flame.” We see massive fires engulfing the Lands Between, bodies littering steps up to a castle, and Messmer himself wielding a glowing red flame.
Shadow of the Erdtree story trailer explained
“Miquella the kind spoke of the beginning,” the trailer begins. “The seduction, and the betrayal.” We see Miquella, barefoot, walking across a blood-red ground, wielding a golden, glowing arc—this is, ostensibly, his creation of the tree. “What followed was a war.” Messmer the Impaler and his terrifying giant torch monsters purged the people of the Lands Between (though the trailer doesn’t say, it’s likely all of Miquella and Malenia’s followers were driven from the realm).
The trailer also speaks to “kindly” Miquella “[abandoning] everything,” which is a reference to his encasement in the cocoon at the base of the Haligtree and his trip to the Land of Shadow, a sort of parallel world to the Lands Between that Queen Marika (the vessel of the Elden Ring and mother to Malenia and Miquella) once walked herself.
Elden Ring game director Hidetaka Miyazaki has confirmed to IGN that, in the Shadow of the Erdtree DLC, players will be “tracing [Miquella’s] path and following in his footsteps, trying to see what he’s going to do there.” He also confirmed back in February that the DLC will be set in a brand new area (the Land of Shadow) that players will enter via Miquella’s cocoon, which they may have already encountered in the base game.
From the trailer’s voiceover, it appears that players will be working with what remains of Miquella’s loyal followers to try and figure out what happened to him. “We are not deterred,” the voice says after speaking of the demigod’s disappearance.
“We choose to follow. Will you walk with us?” it asks at the very end. I think I shall, thanks.
Shadow of the Erdtree drops on June 21. You can pre-order the expansion for $40, or shell out $10 more for a Deluxe Edition that comes with an art book and soundtrack.