It’s been just over a year since Elden Ring took over gaming world, but its influence on fans has yet to diminish. Actually, thanks to Fromsoft finally announcing Elden Ring: Shadow of the Erdtree at the end of February, it’s probably stronger than ever. Certainly the idea of enjoying more fantastic locations and bosses is a big part of the excitement, but one could argue that the lore implications are even bigger. Elden Ring is stuffed with fascinating lore and much of it is begging for further clarification. It’s looking likely that this next story is going to center around Miquella the Unalloyed, so here are a few points about him (and some others) that will hopefully get cleared up at last.

Miquella’s Curse

Born of Radagon and Queen Marika, Miquella and Malenia were both nevertheless born cursed. Malenia's curse was to be forever afflicted by the Scarlet Rot, possibly destined to become the "God of Rot" after blooming three times as a scarlet flower. As for Miquella, he was cursed to eternal youth in the body of a child. Naturally, this situation did not sit well with him at all, and the failure of the Golden Order to cure his and Malenia's ailments is what drove him to create the Haligtree and Unalloyed Gold.

By the time of the events of Elden Ring, though, all of Miquella's efforts still haven't yielded the results he was looking for. He's still asleep; the Haligtree is a shadow of what it was supposed to be and Malenia's rot was never cured. Assuming that Shadow of the Erdtree takes place in Miquella's Dream, it'll be an excellent chance to learn more about everything: from what Miquella thinks of all this, to the nature of the curse itself. Hopefully it's a chance Fromsoft decides to take.

Miquella’s Cocoon

As fans know, we don't actually get to meet Miquella in Elden Ring since he'd long ago embedded himself within his Haligtree in the hopes of finally growing into an adult form. We also know that that plan didn't work out either thanks to Mohg, Lord of Blood abducting him (cocoon and all) from the Haligtree before the process was complete. Lord Gideon Ofnir confirms that this didn't kill Miquella, but we still don't know what effect this and the damaging of his cocoon had on him.

Miquella's time in the cocoon did seem to have some effect on his body, though, as evidenced by the long arm sticking out of it. Maybe it could still fulfill its purpose now that Mohg is no longer around to meddle. Perhaps interacting with Miquella within his dream could be the key to restoring it and getting the young empyrean's plan back on track. Or maybe there's no saving it. Either way, some resolution to the whole cocoon situation would be appreciated.

Unalloyed Gold

Despite its great significance to many of the Lands Between's most powerful characters, there is little concrete information about Unalloyed Gold. What players are told plainly boils down to two things: that it's a creation of Miquella to aid Malenia against her rot affliction and that it's capable of preventing interference from Outer Gods.  Everything else is inferred, which means there's a lot of room to expand on it.

What exactly Unalloyed Gold is is still mostly unknown. Speculation has it that it's not simply pure gold, but rather a gold that's either imbued with Miquella's power or created by him wholecloth. Some say that's not even literal gold at all, but a product of the empyrean's meddling with the fabric of reality. The extent of its power is also unclear. It has demonstrated the ability to halt the progression of scarlet rot in characters like Millicent and it's also able to (under very specific circumstances) able to stop the Frenzied Flame from taking hold of The Tarnished.

Yet, it wasn't able to help Miquella, and Melina still apparently considers the Tarnished unsuitable to her purposes even after they use the Unalloyed Gold Needle. One can infer from this that Unalloyed Gold has its limits, but the what and why of it all is still very much unknown. So yeah, it'd be great to learn more about it from its creator.

Shadows and Empyreans

Another aspect of Elden Ring lore that's still terribly vague has to do with the nature of Empyreans and their Shadows. It's known that empyreans must be born of a god, but that alone is not enough. Only Malenia, Miquella and Ranni are empyreans, while Radahn, Rykard, Godwyn, Mohg and Morgott are only demi-gods. Seeing as players will (hopefully) get the chance to speak to another empyrean in Shadow of the Erdtree, one who also doesn't like the Golden Order, it would be a great opportunity to learn more about what exactly makes one an empyrean.

Then there are the shadows. Players are told that shadows are servants given to empyreans to help them exert their will on the world.  Even though those servants are loyal, however, they'll nevertheless be forced to go mad and try to kill their master should they go against the will of their Two Fingers. Their are inconsistencies with this, though.

For one, Ranni the Witch tells the Tarnished that she enacted the Night of the Black Knives in order to kill her body and escape her fate as an empyrean. Yet, her shadow Blaidd still served her loyally and she was still seemingly tied to her Two Fingers. It was only upon confronting them that Blaidd went crazy. Also, Marika openly defied the Fingers and the Greater Will by shattering the Elden Ring, yet her shadow, Maliketh, was still serving her faithfully up until being confronted by the Tarnished. Why didn't he go mad? There's more to both empyreans and shadows than has been revealed thus far and the title "Shadow of the Erdtree" implies that too. This is something that demands further exploration.

Who is Melina?

This particular thread probably only has a lose connection with this upcoming DLC, but the nature of who/what Melina actually is and why she had to do what she did is still one of the most burning questions Elden Ring leaves its players. She seems to be entirely unknown by all except Torrent (and possibly Ranni), and there seems to be nothing of her in the lore either. Speculation holds that she has some connection to Ranni due to how their closed eyes line up, and many also think she also has some relation to Queen Marika due to her ability to read echoes of the queen and her purpose as "kindling" to burn the Erdtree.

There's also her relationship to Destined Death, which she promises to the Tarnished if they become the Lord of Frenzied Flame. This has led some to speculate that she is actually the "Gloam-Eyed Queen," who was herself and empyrean, wielded Destined Death via her Godslayer's Greatsword. She was also the one responsible for the Godskin Apostles. She was eventually defeated by Maliketh and her power of Destined Death sealed away, but her actual fate is still unknown.

Going back to Melina's relationship to Torrent, it's possible that she's known to Miquella too, since he's shown riding Torrent in the promotional art for Elden Ring: Shadow of the Erdtree. This could imply that Miquella was Torrent's master before the spirit steed passed into the service of Melina. If so, and considering that Miquella was (and likely still is) opposed to the Golden Order, he's have reason to seek out a defeated opponent of said order. So yeah, this is a thread could (and should) be picked up in the DLC, either via background lore or directly. Come on Fromsoft! We gotta know!

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Fromsoft has long enjoyed keeping its stories vague and up to fan interpretation and that’s worked in its games’ favor. It’s helped to stoke imagination and maintain everyone’s fascination with those worlds even years later. Still, getting some solid facts to work with is always nice, otherwise there’s little to build on. Miquella, Melina and the workings of the Golden Order are some of the most enigmatic parts of Elden Ring lore at the moment, so getting any new information on them will be more than welcome. No matter what Fromsoft decides to explore in Elden Ring: Shadow of the Erdtree though, it’ll almost certainly draw everyone in all over again.