Four years in, you’d think Elden Ring diehards would have already scavenged every last piece of dialogue and crumb of lore there was to find in FromSoftware’s open-world RPG. But dataminer Lance McDonald has discovered yet another substantive morsel and this one sheds light on the game’s enigmatic DLC antagonist Miquella the Kind.
McDonald, the noted Soulslike expert and archivist, found the cut material in an unused map file for Elden Ring‘s Haligtree location where players traditionally encounter the RPG’s tough-as-nails Malenia boss fight. The scene features Miquella, Malenia’s twin brother, back when he first planted a sapling Haligtree and watered it with his blood (via PC Gamer).
“This is a look at a never-before-seen map file where a cutscene was filmed for Elden Ring, which showed Miquella planting the Haligtree, as well as the process through which, during earlier development and testing, this cutscene was intended to have been played,” McDonald wrote in the video’s description. He wrote on X that the reconstructed scene was the result of months of research and analysis.
“Without the intermediate cutscene file to connect these together, it’s difficult to know for sure which of these are intended for playback during this specific video,” he added during the video’s voiceover explanation. McDonald says the video would have played when players received the Dectus Medallion from Gideon Ofnir at Roundtable Hold.
The dialogue in the files, which is voiced, is as follows, “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 thou coveteth the throne, impress my vision upon thine heart. In the new world of thine making, all things will flourish, whether graceful or malign.”
Given that Miquella goes onto be the big bad in Shadow of the Erdtree, Elden Ring‘s meaty and acclaimed 2024 expansion, it’s easy to interpret the cut sequence as adding more backstory to the character’s future attempt to rule the land. There’s clear foreshadowing for the scene near the end of the DLC, which also provides a bit, just a bit of extra context for fans trying to interpret Miquella’s motivations and actions. Maybe Alex Garland can bring this cut sequence back for the live-action movie.