Elden RingShadow of the Erdtree is taking us to the namesake Land of Shadow by beingpulled into Miquella’s cocoon. He’s Malenia’s brother, so we’ll no doubt find out more about their relationship and their respective histories. But fans want FromSoftware to take their story further and for us to get new interactions with Malenia herself.
We don’t know much about the new setting. Some speculate that the Land of Shadow has been in front of us the whole time,sealed away by the Divine Towers, while others believe that it’s set in the past and that we’ll be time travelling as in previous FromSoftware DLC. If the latter is right, we may see Malenia again, much as we met Sif inDark Soulsbefore his boss fight in the base game. If that’s the case, we could even get a unique cutscene upon meeting Malenia in the present much as we did with Sif.
If the former is right and this is a part of the Lands Between that was sealed off by the Divine Towers, it’s unlikely we’ll see Malenia again given that we can kill her in the base game. However, fans have a couple of theories on how FromSoftware could circumnavigate that problem.
“Wild idea: if you take the needle into the DLC and complete the DLC, you save Miquella,” Brotherman_Karhu commented. “Miquella then blesses the needle. You go to the Haligtree, defeat Malenia, then she blooms. Give her the needle, reload the area, Malenia is healed, you can now talk to her and maybe gain some more rot spells to learn!”
Others are hoping it’ll simply depend on how far through the base game you are. I.e., if you haven’t killed Malenia, you’ll see her in the DLC. Some are even avoiding her in their new playthroughs on the chance that it’ll have ramifications on the expansion.
Whatever the case, the community wants to see more of the toughest boss in the game. Hopefully, we don’t have to fight her twice.
Elden Ring
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With worldbuilding from Game of Thrones scribe George R.R. Martin and developed by FromSoftware, Elden Ring is a masterpiece in what has become known as the ‘Soulslike’ genre of action role-playing games.
