The Elden Ring DLC Trailer Has BIG Secrets! | Shadow of the Erdtree 

If I sound weird, I’ve been fighting off the flu for a few days, but wanted to discuss many of these ideas with you guys. We’ll be diving into them much more in coming videos🔥

Bedchamber Veil. The Veiled Monarch. Mimic's Veil. Stormveil. Moonveil. SO MANY VEILS

4:34 Oh but we do! Volcano Manor is filled with statues of winged snakes! Also if you look at Rya, she is a red snake similar to Messmers 🐍

Those blue flowers in the field are very similar to the blue flowers found around the various Rises in the base game. I took note of this yesterday while breaking the seals on the Mirage Rise in the Altus Plateau.

Holy shit that bridge scene looks badass. Between that and the castle it reminds me of lothric castle. I cannot wait to see that place for my self.

Holy moly, Ratatoskr made a video where he hypothesized that the Shadow Lands are actually located in the sea in the middle of the lands between, but is simply concealed visually by Marika's Veil. This fits perfectly with why there would be large ships stuck in the Shadow Lands, they might have somehow fallen through the ocean and into the Shadow Land, Similar to how we see the snail woman falling from the sky in the Hunter's Nightmare in Bloodborne.

The wormface enemy that we see grab our character is very distinctly a hagfish or a lamprey. It has gill holes along it's sides, a ringed mouth with small teeth we can briefly see, and fins that run down the lower part of its body

Those building look like ships because this Shadow Realm DLC area is veiled in the middle of the water body behind the cloud. The 6 divine towers in lands between are holding the veil over the entire area hiding it.

Messmer's snake is embedded into his chest. If you pause the trailer when he's holding the Tarnished, you can see that each side of the snake's body comes out of Messmer's chest where his nipples should be, with Messmer's armor covering the part where they conjoin. It might mean Messmer was born cursed, just as Miquella and Malenia were. After all, Messmer's red hair would seem to imply his father was Radagon.

The land of shadows is Numen. "Marika first set foot" there, implying that's where she's originally from. The assassins are Numen. All the veils. I just feel the connection is too obvious to not be true.

My theory about the ships is that they are how Marika and the other Numen arrived in the Land of Shadow, and why Marika is described as having 'first set foot' there. The Numen are described as having come from a place outside the Lands Between.

Theres a lot of people putting out half assed shadows of the erdtree trailer analysis / lore speculation out there but Zio is one of the few putting out ORIGINAL takes and observations.

Seeing all that ship's stern in the blue flower fields actually fit very well with the Ratatoskr's theory, there he says the 6 divine towers hold the veils on the shadow realm, so actually the sea in the game we see in the lands between is a ilusion by the veils, so what if the wrecked ships just crashed there long time ago because sailors could not see the shadow lands behind the ilusion.... I know it sounds like a stretch, but would be f cool!

We do actually see something like the snake in the lands between. Look at the church of Eiglay, it is full of depictions of snakes with wings. The skin of Eiglay herself is also splayed out in a way that mimmicks wings.

Great videos as always Ziostorm, but man that bridge art at 1:40 looks so awesome, can't wait to cross it with all the most perilous enemies we'll meet lol.

Can't wait for the date release. I pre-order the Collector's Edition

I really enjoyed your Leyndell connection at the end there! It is unique. Keep it up zio

There's way more shipwrecks than just what you can see outside Radahn's boss arena. You can see shipwrecks off the coast as early as Limgrave. They're kind of everywhere.

i was always curious why the giant sap collectors were always hidden in a gazebo.

Marika missing her head reminds me of the headless mausoleum knights, or more strikingly the headless sculptures which remain atop the hero graves, seemingly holding some sort of dying figure, likely a demigod.

Good video Zio, it’s cool to see your channel grow all the while staying true to what you like to do.

Watching the trees it does look like one in strangling another but the more I look it's like one of them tends to the other as its dying, like a death bed companion.

I wonder if the sap collection will be a mechanic to enhance your strength in the shadow lands. Such as the erdtree seeds are there to enhance your crimson flask. Since Miyazaki said there will be a unique mechanic in the DLC that will enhance your fighting power while in the DLC. Because if it's a part of that culture, and we already take from the erdtree to enhance equipment of ours, it could be an option. Which might explain why it only works there, perhaps?

0:53 we can see here that Miquella is wearing Golden leaf crown, where is shown in Messmers faction symbol on his cloak

Random and not related to DLC trailer but has anyone noticed the entire base map is surrounded by clouds (maybe veiling areas) and looking north-west from Haligtree Canapoy there is a huge land mass across the water? Also ships in between that area on base map

That sun on the Bell Bearing Hunter with the horns instead of sun rays looks really similar to one on flaming "Wicker Man" in the trailer.

1:38 looks like something from dark souls 3 🙃

The basins in Leyndell are not for collecting sap but for distributing it, they ritually and liturgically impart the blessing of the erdtree. They as in the priests of the Golden Order.

I am so stoked for this to finally release!

The masked thing in the purple fields looks a lot like the zamor knights to me in the snowy mountaintops, also they have those masks too.

That bridge reminds me of the place you start in in Infinity Blade

You're awesome, very good observations, I didn't notice the wings on the snake,😅 pherhaps am wrong, but what appears to be ships, they are not moving, but I think they are suspended in stone legs, like the mausoleums

Seeing Elemer of the briar talked about kinda made me think, maybe him and the whole 'land of eochaid' could be connected to the land of shadow way more than we think. From what I've heard people discuss and looking at the little information we have about eochaid it is only ever said to be a 'foreign' land but its never given much explanation or geographical context like many other things in the game. So in my opinion the fact that it's referred as foreign could potentially mean that it could have still been somewhere in the lands between at some point in time and possibly even have been 'veiled' like the land of shadow alongside it or something like that. It's also worth mentioning that Ordovis' sword has the ash of war where you spin the weapon but it's clear that there's some sort of telekinesis magic going on, just like how skills from eochaid use telekinesis on swords. I would almost go as far as to say that maybe, if the land of eochaid is actually somewhere foreign far away from the lands between, the people from eochaid could have migrated to the land of shadow before the whole land was veiled by marika and learned from the arts of the crucibles and made their own telekinetic skills based from that

There is also a black knife assassin outside of Marika's chambers in Leyndell

Ships, veils and the huge cloud in the middle in the map, all of it points to wards that shadow land is going to be under the huge cloud as many pointed out before. Wondering if Mogh palace underground some how align with the cloud.

the ships are the tarnished leaving. Also been watching forever but finally subbed. Keep it up!

Very interesting and exciting ideas for sure

Remember those catacombs with shadow versions if enemies you needed to bring to the light I just thought that was an interesting thing to bring considering the name of the dlc and the shadow assassins

In valcano manor when you fight the godskin in the church there are winged snake statues on the pillars.

The "Shadow Realm" is in the Lands Between. We see snakes like that with the duelist snake grab attack.

Fun fact: At the entrance to the church right to the opposite of the Weeping Peninsula Minor Erdtree, there is a ghost in a chair talking about “Marika’s unwanted child”, although he might be referring to the corpse in the wandering mausoleum.

2:25 that could be Marika; but that cloth bit might be a snake too. mostly the horizontal line that looks like a tongue giving me that impression. 7:00 i am become the Sword of Milos.

the skytown ost makes this all so much better

Zio did you see that the weapons (pronged spears) in messmers boss fight look just like the weapons that the giants up north are all impaled on

There are winged snake statues in the volcano manor/mt gelmir area

Hey Zio, I looked at the same stuff regarding the statue/extras as well and noticed the same things. Messmer has a big ole ring on his finger. I could not tell if there is any kind of symbol or not.

I’ve seen something saying the two fingers are Erdtree seeds. There’s a screenshot of the big butterfly spell being cast from the trailer, in the background is one of the two fingers with roots or branches growing from its fingers.

3:15 I *really* like this theory. I love the idea of some races in the Lands Between coming from elsewhere and what their lands might look like. The numen coming from somewhere outside the Lands Between and that obviously ruling out the Eternal Cities makes so much sense. Especially those two cities inhabitants being almost punished and cut of from the Erdtree is another connection. They have anti Erdtree weaponry with the Finger Skating Blade. If Messmer _is_ Marikas child, that would make them Numen.

Hey, thanks. 👍✌️

the box that the collector's edition comes in reminds me of the Caduceus, which is a rod with two intertwined snakes that have wings. what this could mean idk, but it may be worth looking into

So watching the trailer again I noticed that when that bloodborne looking monster grabs the carian knight, the moon in the background had a veil on it.

Evergaol's also have a similar veil effect once you activate them.

The Lion head also reminds me of the same material as KAROLOS GLINTSTONE CROWN. I haven't seen anyone mention the double teeth on the Lion dancer, I wonder if you would have a second phase where it shows the form underneath. Also would it be people who are grafted together? Traditional Lion dance usually has 2 people to control it.

I believe that Messmer the Impaler might have something to do with the practices of the Rotten Duelists as the duelists launch a snake to execute you when they have you in their grasp. So to spark question.

The spears on that bridge look like the ethereal ghost spears in leyndell castle yard in front of the city... I wonder if all the "ghost" figures in the main game are actually real NPCs in the expansion

Fighting a character thats dancing, in a shining BLUE flower field, with motifs of ships all around.. remembrance of the Blue Dancer perhaps?

One other thing regarding Tanith, is the fact that if you do Patches quest, he gives you a cameo (I think) to give to her, and it just does nothing, as if they just forgot to end the quest. I'm guessing that will be elaborated on in the DLC.

The thing in the thumbnail looks like a throwback to the Winter Lanterns of Bloodborne

Thank you for a good video

That dude sitting down in the painting looks like the guy who shoved a tree in his eye.

Very cool. Why don't you think the bell bearing hunter is from the shadow lands? His homeland disappeared long ago could be a cool reference to the shadow lands when they were veiled

Miss Chalice actually raised some really good points about the two headed snake being a representation of the Ouroboros, a symbol that represents the eternal cycle of birth and destruction.

If you slow down the footage of Messmer attacking you can see that the snakes are coming out of his skin, his chest in particular

I posted it somewhere else but pretty sure the alter with lion statues in the trailer has an overgrown two fingers(it looks old and decaying) has the same moss growth too

5:00 the samurai also seems to do an odd like half-backstep where he barely moves and leans out of the way. Might be a camera thing but idk

Idk if you’re always wringt I just love to listen to your voice .the love for the game , can’t skip one

The "o" in the Shadow of the Erdtree logo looks a bit like the Ouroboros symbol, so it would make sense for Messmer to have a double-headed snake.

@Ziostorm Great video! I totally agree that there is something going on in the DLC related to veils. The baldachin motif alone seems very pertinent to the context of the DLC with links to death, slumber, and concealment. I made a pretty decent post on the elden ring reddit about the Lands of Shadow being conceptually and maybe literally veiled beneath a baldachin. I can't help but see a correlation between how we interact with Fia after she dies to access Fortissax's pocket realm ans how we will be enterinf the dlc via Miquella's corpse. Given that it looks like one has to die to gain entry to the Land of Shadow it seems like we will literally be traversing the veil between life and death to some extent.

The snake definitely reminds me of the statues around the Temple of Eiglay. Kinda curious if the serpent that consumed Rykard was really Eiglay or not.

Man I am excited for the expansion. Can't wait to explore more! I certainly hope it's large since it'll be the only DLC we will get in Elden Ring(here's to hoping ER2 is in development!)

Reg the boats - if the shadow realm is in the central water area, maybe boats sailing into that space fall into the shadow realm? Kind of like in bloodborne where the snail lady falls from the hamlet into the hunters nightmare.

Today I took a closer look of the map of Elden Ring and I realized in the north of the map right between Mt. Gelmir and Altus Plateau is a water vortex sucking a galey !! could this be why we see other galeys in the that the shadowlands (blue flower field) ??

@ziostorm what are the names of the Metroid songs you used here? Remember one from Corruption growing up but I forget the name

The caravels/galleon ships make me think of a piece of head canon I've always had about Elden Ring - Namely that "The Lands Between" are meant to represent the mythical land of our own world known as El Dorado, "The Golden City." Merika... America... I dunno. I see a lot of parallels, but I like to think that the Numen people and Merika came from our own world to this "Land Between" in search of El Dorado around the 15th-17th centuries of our own world.... As I said, this is just head canon but it's fun for me think about...

The more I think about it, the area where it looks like a swamp yet the earth appears to be scorched, I think this may be a Frenzy Swamp, this maybe a 2 for one swamps with the DLC with the other being a St. Trina swamp (or sleep swamp). This could mean the one of the possible enemies they teased and appears to be in that “Frenzy” swamp could be like a nod to Bloodborne’s Winter Lanterns, being capable of inflicting frenzy if they attack you or within line of sight. But that’s might thoughts on that specific location and the possible enemy in that location.

What if the giants' fell god is messmer and due to him giving them his power, he was seen as being blasphemous. If this ends up being true, his association with snakes could explain why they're seen as traitors.

The bridge looks like the dragon slayer armor arena is DS3

1:53 the castle on the left looks very reminiscent of Boletaria from demon souls, at least to me. And the one on the right looks very similar to that one dark souls 3 leaked screenshot before it released. The one with the big shadow snake-like figure in the background.

It’s also wild that Miyazaki had been floating the DLC release date in front of us since AC6. “Got a job for you 621”.

I'm pretty sure the monk looking guy pulling the sword out of his head is the same guy from the painting with the woman next to him

In the promotional image with Messmer sitting in the demigod throne. Something that sticks out is the massive lone pillar in the center of the right third of the screen. We never get a direct look at it in the footage of the reveal trailer, only being able to see it in the background of the shots of the wicker man. In general, the trailer seemes to avoid letting us see the east side of the map. I'm certain there's going to be something very important to do with that pillar, and FromSoftware obscured it from us to keep it a suprise. When the DLC releases, I'm goimg to make a beeline to the east of the map to see what I can find.

I can't wait to see the whole community cosplaying as Messmer 😅 amazing videos as always Zio !

Thumbnail be like "Did you see it? On the right side of the thumbnail an eerie specter appears to be kneeling in the water"

I got an Interesting idea - the prattling pate in the impaler's catacombs in the weeping peninsula description says: "Twisted clay sculpt in the shape of a human head. Emits a voice that says "Please help." Another item that you can find there are the demi-human ashes, the description of which says: "Spirits of demi-humans that are small in stature, but have a Violent, brutish disposition. Though they seem somewhat intelligent, when night falls, their blood boils and they become feral." I think we got a lead on Mesmer, otherwise, why call it the impaler's catacombs?

Not sure if any connection- but abductor virgin also has a bunch of similar iconography- snakes, masked woman holding baby, etc.

To me, the image we see (seemingly replacing a Marika Statue in the courtyard) is actually a coiled snake. I can somewhat make out a Serpents head in the statue in that castle. Obviously speculation, but that same castle in front of the ShadowTree is likely Messmer’s - with heavy focus in the art for this castles on spears pointing UP rather than down. Another connection I’d like to make to this SAME castle - of which I believe to be Messmers - is that it’s also the same castle with the Lion Dance boss. There is a shot in the trailer which shows off a new butterfly incant and it is right in front of the shadowtree, with a omen-horned lion statue. Early in the trailer, we see the omen-horned lion dance boss which seems to be of similar distance from the Tree as the Incantation scene. Oh! And the wisteria trees match in both locations. I’m making this connection mainly just to point towards an interesting relation between Messmer, Omens, and eastern-influenced structures

Hi! Tell me please, if you buy the deluxe edition at start, will be a new dlc after release in my game or will I need to buy it, although the store now says that the DLC is included in the deluxe version

2:15 I think that area was shown in the trailer as some twinblade knight boss

When you brought up the ships, I had the thought - what if we get to pilot boats in the DLC? Probably unlikely, but that would be extremely cool, in my opinion.

Fun fact. There is a catacombs of the Impaler in the weeping peninsula

Who else has been thinking about this every single day. Crazy that a short trailer could spark so much imagination. I’m already thinking of various stories and character arcs. I can’t think of another game lore that’s so inspiring. Nowhere close. Most games put like zero effort into their story and characters.

I love that you always use Metroid music. Once Prime 4 comes out, I’m sure you’ll have every ounce of energy on that, and I can’t wait!

If the shadow tree is the base or older form of the Erdtree that the Erdtree grows from, then maybe it’s been cut open by the denizens of the land of shadow to keep the sap for themselves. Maybe Messmer impaled the tree?

Anyone noticed the lion reliefs shown in the trailer the same ones that are on the throne of maleina...

What if the snake on Mesmer is actually his shadow beast? And what if the parasitic tree is actually the Erdtree’s shadow beast of sorts. In fact, what if the land of shadows is where all of the shadow beasts come from? Just a thought. Don’t really know what to believe. But this theory fits. Unless you think I’m wrong. Which is probably more likely than not. I love all the speculation that goes on before a Fromsoft release.

WUZ GOIN ON GUYS

My theory with those ships is that the area used to be a lake or something. There are streams of water similar to how it would happen if you drained a lake and the whole blue field of flowers does seem to be a bit lower than all the cliffs surrounding it. Maybe I’m wrong, but I do love theorizing

those enemies with the glowing heads will 100% be a winter lantern like enemy, I can already see my madness meter filling before I even know what is going on.

I haven't seen anyone talk about how Messmer's snakes have wings growing out of them at strange intervals, in a similar fashion to how the God Devouring Serpent has limbs popping out in random places after it consumed Rykard. Perhaps these are young relatives of the GDS that consumed a dragon?

Wow, just woke up and this dropped lmao