FromSoftware has always excelled in storytelling, and Elden Ring is no exception.
Data miner Lance McDonald has revealed his latest discovery from Elden Ring: a cutscene currently in development for the base game featuring Miquella the Kind. Miquella is a foe from the DLC and one of the most mysterious characters in FromSoftware’s games. In the scene, Miquella plants a Haligtree sapling — this is the endgame dungeon where players must face Malenia — and waters it with her own blood. The scene takes place in a modified version of Malenia’s boss room, further reinforcing the connection to Haligtree’s origins. Miquella’s character model appears to be the same as in the final scene of the Shadow of the Erdtree DLC.
It’s unclear if this is the same voice actor as in Shadow of the Erdtree (Naomi McDonald). The voice sounds more childlike and feminine, but that could be due to her delivery. McDonald has an impressive vocal range; she voiced Chloanne the Stone Merchant in Dark Souls 2 and Johnny the Godling in The Witcher 3. Due to a missing intermediate file, the exact order of the dialogue segments is uncertain. Therefore, McDonald performed them in the order they appear in the Elden Ring files. “Young seedling, young seedling, grow larger, stronger. My dear twin, accept this gift, a gift of abundance. My last drop of dew. Let all things flourish, whether graceful or malign. If you covet the throne, impress my vision upon your heart. In the new world you create, all things will flourish, whether graceful or malicious.”
This scene takes place after we receive a piece of the Dectus Medallion from Gideon Ofnir at Roundtable Hold, which sets up the Haligtree side quest. It foreshadows the climax of the Shadow of the Erdtree storyline in several ways: the empty throne; Miquella kneeling with her face veiled; the fact that a demigod is speaking to her sibling; and the scene’s disjointed nature. In the second sentence, Miquella addresses Malenia, but after “if you,” she seems to be speaking to the player. This, coupled with the strange, closely spaced repetition of “graceful or evil,” makes one wonder whether the first half belongs to this scene and whether the second half belongs to something else.
Miquella waters the tree with her blood, and it absorbs the blood before Mohg can steal it. Miquella brainwashed Mohg. It wasn’t Mohg’s fault. Mohg was acquitted of all charges. We see an earlier, more benevolent version of Miquella in the pre-DLC draft, which emphasizes her utopian, egalitarian vision more than the cruel acts necessary to bring it to fruition. Miquella’s reference to abundance caught our attention. Years ago, shortly after the release of Elden Ring and well before the announcement of Shadow of the Erdtree, a cut Abundance and Decay Twinblade was discovered during data mining. The item’s description directly linked it to Miquella’s cut content. Its model was later reworked into Euporia in Shadow of the Erdtree, which further validates the authenticity of the version discovered through data mining.
This demonstrates just how much game content changes during development.
Source: PCGamer
