Reviewing Monsters: Elden Ring - Shadow of the Erdtree, Part 1

And so, we begin -- not too far after completing Elden Ring, the DLC. Spanning through a world that's noted to be approximately one-fourth of the full game, focusing on one of the original game's unseen and most cryptic demigods, and showing us the aftermath of a particularly brutal part of the history of the world of the Lands Between, we have... Shadow of the Erdtree .

Rather infamous in its release for requiring you to beat around 75% of the game to even unlock the DLC (you need to beat Radahn and Mohg, the latter being in a rather hidden area in one of the last parts of the game), Shadow of the Erdtree interestingly doesn't function as a real sequel to the whole 'become Elden Lord' part of the primary game, but takes us to the strange Land of Shadows. 

Kindly Miquella, twin brother of Malenia who was abducted, assaulted and seemingly murdered by Mohg, Lord of Blood, is actually alive in sorts in this enigmatic land. It's a land with strange spectral gravestones all over, a gigantic crooked tree with veil-like ornamentation around it, and the entirety of it is noted to originally be part of the Lands Between that has been 'sealed off'. I've not read up much more beyond that since I wanted to discover the world on my own, but that's the setting! It's kind of a strange not-quite-purgatory, and it's clear that the reach of the Golden Order -- the dogmatic religion centered around the Erdtree and Queen Marika -- has reached even the Land of Shadows.

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Shadow Undead

While the actual terrain of the Land of Shadow isn't super shadowy other than the skies -- a bit of a necessity to ensure the players can actually play the game without a headache -- the actual enemies are actually shadowy people. Also alternatively known as Shadow Commoners, Revered Spirits or variations thereof, the Shadow Undead just wander the Lands of Shadow, apparently coalesced spirits of the dead people of the region. Mechanically they behave similarly to a lot of the humanoid enemies like Wandering Nobles or Commoners in the Lands Between... but with some backstory. 

Rather quickly, you find out that the Lands of Shadow has been 'put to the torch' by war. And that these Shadow Undead are the coalesced undead spirits of those that were massacred during the battle. Most interestingly, however, is the fact that almost all of these Shadow Undead have prominent horns in their heads, horns that recall those of the persecuted Omens in the Lands Between...

Messmer Soldier

And here are the invaders, the Messmer Soldiers and Messmer Knights. Messmer the Impaler is a demigod child of Queen Marika, representing the Golden Order and the rulership of the Lands Between. They have been waging war against the locals of the Land of Shadows, and are apparently winning by the fact that most of them are alive, hanging out in fortresses and camps while their enemies, the 'Hornsent', are wandering undead. 

There is not much to say about these soldiers, since they are quite similar to the 'soldier' and 'knight' enemies from the base game with a couple of the DLC's new 'Messmerfire' incantations, but it does make sense that the soldiers from the Lands Between would be more or less similar. 

Horned Warrior

Again, we go back to the inhabitants of the Land of Shadows, who are properly called the 'Hornsent'. As we explore the first 'dungeon' of the region, the Tower Settlement of Belurat, we get to see some of the surviving Hornsent, called Horned Warriors. Again, the fact that they have curled horns is prominent here, resembling that of the persecuted Omens. 

The revelation of these knights imply very heavily that these are the 'Primordial-Crucible-worshipping' civilization mentioned by a lot of item descriptions in the base game that was noted to worship the Crucible, the previous form of the Erdtree, until Golden Order fundamentalism denounced anything to do with the Crucible as being unclean and heretical. This also extends to the eradication of the Omen, children who were born with horns... but in the Land of Shadow, looking at the models of the Shadow Undead, we see that those without horns were actually the ones persecuted, because they seem to have slave-chains around their wrists. It's still a fair bit of mystery to me at this point, but there seem to be a reversal of what is treated as 'normal' as the Crucible civilization was overthrown by the Golden Order civilization. 

Anyway, the Horned Warriors themselves aren't anything too special, they sure are huge guys with huge weapons, and they can cast some spells that the Crucible Knights do. 

Fire Knight Queelign

Also seemingly a minion among Messmer's minions is Fire Knight Queelign, who is voice-acted and ambushes you halfway through Belurat. He wields fire spells and a most terrifying bowl-cut. He seems to be a fanatic of Messmer! I don't have much to say about him otherwise, though. 

Curseblade

Okay, now we're talking a bit. Described as 'ascetics', the Curseblades' bodies are withered almost to nothing, giving the impression of a mummy. The description from the weapons they drop note that they once strove to 'become tutelary deities' with 'self-flagellating dances', up until the war against the Golden Order forces caused them to become fighters. And indeed, their attacks do look like wild dancing, which would be beautiful if it wasn't so deadly. 

Their rather uncomfortable-looking pose and skeletal-thin body makes them quite distinctive, and that's before going into their equipment. The Curseblades wield two massive Cinques, ring-blades that they hold in an almost wing-like position when they are stalking around the area. They also have golden masks with their horns growing in wild directions all around it. The Curseblades are also programmed to be extremely bloodthirsty after being enraged. It takes usually an attack for them to become hostile, and otherwise they're content to perch and look at you with their creepy masks. But they will chase you down to the ends of the world once you've pissed them off, taking quite a bit of distance to shake off unlike other enemies that return back to their 'spawn point' after you run away from them. 

Gravebird

Those are the human enemies out of the way, I promise! Now we're going to some more interesting things. First among them are the Gravebirds, whose name and design calls to mind the Deathbirds and Death Rite Birds from the base game. The Gravebirds appear to be golems of sort, allowing them to sometimes pretend to be statues and part of the terrain. 

Just like the Deathbirds, the Gravebirds are able to unleash gouts of ghost-flame, although they are significantly weaker than their spectral counterparts. The Gravebirds were apparently created in the image of the Deathbirds and 'to be kindred' to them. Their primary purpose is to guard spirit-graves. What this means is a bit confusing, to be honest. Elden Ring does have a heavy Nordic inspiration to it, and the Land of Shadow seems to be its answer to realms like Helheim or Niflheim, and the sheer amount of gravestones and ghosts in the Land of Shadow might imply that there's something to do here with a more traditional underworld? Not sure. 

Man-Fly

Oh, now we're talking. The Man-Flies are first found in the Abandoned Ailing Village, as well as Belurat Tower. The former location seems to tell a rather horrifying story of a plague spreading across villagers, and a talisman found in the fly-infested village notes that the poor people in the village were infected with the 'dreaded fly sickness', and apparently died before the transformation took hold. Strangely, those who cared for the infected and took care of burial rites were never afflicted themselves. You could take this to mean a couple of things -- either the medics and ritualists gained immunity from the disease... or were themselves responsible for it. Yet another interpretation, considering the heavy themes the game has around death, seems to be that the act of respecting death rites caused some higher power to spare them from the illness. 

The areas of the Belurat Towers that are infested with the Man-Flies has some rather creepy Alien-esque cracked-open cocoons that show how these Man-Flies were metamorphosized. Their design is pretty creepy as well, having way more human features than is comfortable for a giant bug monster. All the human parts appear to still be wrapped up in bandages, similar to the state of the presumably pre-metamorphosis corpses we find in the Ailing Village. They still have the head, torso and upper arms of a human, but then below the torso, the body just tapers off into a spine... not too dissimilar from the very thin thorax-abdomen connections of some paper wasps. A second pair of human hands, but much thinner, extends from it. These second pairs of hands are bonier,  and doesn't seem to have flesh around it. 

And then the body terminates in a bulbous, stinger-tipped abdomen, and human legs bent like a bug's leg sprouts out from the abdomen. Two insect-like wings are draped over the abdomen, less like an insect's rigid wings and more like a sickly shroud.  The fact that the limbs don't all sprout out from the same place like a proper insect, but neither is the body shape properly humanoid, really does make this design a fair bit creepier than 'just' a insect centaur. 

Spider Scorpion

Yep, two of the most creepy but epic-looking arachnids are fused together into a massive monstrosity! A Spider Scorpion, as its name implies, has the long, jointed legs and wall-crawling abilities of a spider, but the scorpion stinger and powerful claws of a scorpion. The way those legs are arranged, with the rear legs being more jointed upwards, also gives the resulting design a silhouette similar to the amblypygids or whip-spiders, making this a strange fusion of the world's most notable arachnids. 

A fair bit more interesting than just a giant spider or just a giant scorpion, the Spider Scorpions come in various sizes. The little ones are around dog-sized and rely on swarm tactics and trying to afflict poison, but the larger ones hang upside-down in large caverns or hide on ceilings, before jumping down and attempting to snack on you. 

I love the description of the item they drop, called 'Scorpion Liver'. The description notes that 'it is referred to as 'liver,' but no one is quite sure of its purpose.' The art actually shows the bulb of a scorpion's stinger, which definitely not a liver! It is also apparently a local delicacy because of its numbing toxins, which doesn't sound like a fun time. 

Anyway, both the Man-Flies and Spider-Scorpions are very cool arthropodal monsters and a welcome addition to Elden Ring!

Divine Beast Dancing Lion

"Dance and cavort, cleanse all that thou wilt. Cruelty, woe, and those who plague the tower. Cleanse away the strumpet's vile progeny."

This is... an interesting design. At the top of Belurat, a chant from a Hornsent elder seems to revive two figures under the elaborate cape and mask of a massive Lion Dance getup. Lion dances, a traditional dance originating primarily from China and associated with the Lunar New Year, has two performers, one manipulating the head of the lion and one manipulating the end. And the Divine Beast Dancing Lion is animated as such, with it being clear in the cutscene and animations that the lion suit and cape-like body are just accessories. 

And on paper, this would be silly... until you see the eyes of the horrifying lion mask glow. The lion head itself is raggedy, with almost human-like hair, and of course it's got sharp, spiky horns growing all over it. But creepiest of all is its mouth, which has a pair of human teeth within, and lion fangs outside. The head being a mask, this is completely unnecessary in-universe and I don't know why they felt their lion dance suit needed a pair of very human teeth inside, but it sure is intimidating!

In addition to the fast, frantic dance-like movements, the Divine Lion can also cast elemental spells. Which elemental spells? All the elemental spells. Again, the game isn't really clear at this point, but it seems like the dance is channeling 'horn-deck'd beast, from higher sphere deliver'd' under the prayer of the Hornsent elders. With a lot of connection to similar incantations and spells shown by the Crucible Knights, who themselves transform part of their bodies into holy fascimiles of bestial anatomy, it does seem like the spirit of a beast is indwelling the bodies, which they also need a dance to channel? It is still a bit ambiguous so early into the game's stories. Regardless, though, a lion dance being adapted as such a nightmarish look is definitely quite a creative and unexpected enemy design.