History Characters / EldenRingEnemiesAndBosses

[[Characters/EldenRingMainCharacters Main Characters]] ([[Characters/EldenRingTheTarnished The Tarnished]] | [[Characters/EldenRingMarika Marika]]) | [[Characters/EldenRingRoundtableHold Roundtable Hold]] | [[Characters/EldenRingSecondaryCharacters Secondary Characters]] ([[Characters/EldenRingRenownedAshes Renowned Ashes]]) | [[Characters/EldenRingOuterGods Outer Gods]] | [[Characters/EldenRingDemigods Demigods]] ([[Characters/EldenRingGodfrey Godfrey]] | [[Characters/EldenRingMorgott Morgott]] | [[Characters/EldenRingMohg Mohg]] | [[Characters/EldenRingRadahn Radahn]] | [[Characters/EldenRingRykard Rykard]] | [[Characters/EldenRingRanniTheWitch Ranni the Witch]] | [[Characters/EldenRingMalenia Malenia]]) | '''Enemies and Bosses''' ([[Characters/EldenRingDragons Dragons]] | [[Characters/EldenRingLiurniaOfTheLakes Liurnia of the Lakes]] | [[Characters/EldenRingRecurringEnemiesAndBosses Recurring Enemies and Bosses]] | [[Characters/EldenRingTarnishedInvadersAndTargets Tarnished Invaders and Targets]]) -]]]]]

* RecurringBoss: There are two Ancestor Spirits: the normal Ancestor Spirit is below at the Siofra River, while the Regal Ancestor Spirit is up in Nokron. Though there are achievements for defeating both, only the Regal Ancestral Spirit gives a Remembrance.

** They at one point were planned to be in the Deeproot Depths, where the Prince of Death is... which has some rather disturbing implications, though thankfully it seems the team decided against it as they don't actually appear there in-game.

* BodyHorror: Once the Fire Giant TurnsRed, it will become apparent he actually has ''a giant face for a torso'', complete with a single eye, a nose, and a mouth which spits and breathes fire. The second face even has its own beard and mustache across his belly and pelvis...and ears inside his ''armpits''!

* {{Expy}}: With their dual machete-like weapons they are reminiscent of the Capra Demons of ''VideoGame/DarkSoulsI''. They even copy some of the moveset, most notably the jumping attack (though unlike Capra, they repeat said attack three times in quick succession, which is sure to catch veteran ''Souls'' players off-guard at least once), and the boss version in the Village of the Albinaurics even brought dogs as backup, just like the boss version of Capra Demon.

* AmbiguousGender: The Grafted Scion's facial features are androgynous and somewhat child-like, akin to that of either a teenage boy or young woman, and their bodies are too malformed from grafting to pick out any gendered traits. Grafted Scions produce a high pitched [[https://youtu.be/-PC7-bPtpP8 feminine]] scream as part of one of their attacks, but in earlier versions of the game, also produced a more [[https://twitter.com/sekirodubi/status/1561862783758700545?s=21&t=bp0Ln0jTMWWkc9PCK3tSdQ masculine]] voice when casting Golden Tempering. The latter of which has been cut from the game.

* HiredGuns: The Banished Knights seem to have scattered from their homeland in Stormveil and ended up in the service of whoever would take them. Godrick has a few in his castle, there are a few others manning the remnants of the Cathedral of Dragon Communion right outside of Radahn's Redmane Castle, and others still are found in Farum Azula serving the Ancient Dragons. While these are the only living ones we see, environmental details and flavor text further hint at their widespread use as shock troopers - there are vast stocks of exclusively Banished Knight weapons in the armories of both Radahn's castles and Rykard's manor (as well as their banners in the latter), Banished Knight weapons also decorate both Redmane Castle and Radahn's colosseum, ghost Banished Knights are found in Castle Sol under the command of Niall (loyal to Miquella and Malenia), and Engvall and Oleg's flavor text say that Morgott offered to let them work for him, with Oleg accepting. In [[SchrodingersCanon version 1.0]], this was more apparent as we also saw living Banished Knights and Exile Soldiers garrisoning Morgott's capital alongside the regular Leyndell Lordsworn.

* SchrodingersCanon: In version 1.0 of the game (patched on day one but still playable with a physical copy), the Banished Knights' armor gave more details on their backstory. It said that they were descendants of colonists from Leyndell who came to what is now Limgrave/Stormveil in search of the "Storm Aerie", the home of the dragons and location of a great mausoleum (i.e. Farum Azula). Their "territorial losses" would thus have presumably been Godfrey's conquest of their region, referenced on the Castle Morne and Smoldering Church War Memorials, culminating in him slaying the Storm Lord. While this isn't stated in the final game, it's still heavily suggested that they're both 'native' to Stormveil[[note]]Their wind spells are said to be drawn specifically from Stormveil's winds and in Japanese Oleg and Engvall are called "Twin Wings of the Storm Lord."[[/note]] and revere the dragons (even the ones who don't use dragon spells have dragon designs on their armor). This would also explain the otherwise inexplicable detail of why you find a bunch of Banished Knights in Farum Azula - they were presumably the few that actually found their ancestors' goal.

** The 1.0 version of the game also had a special, rot-infected version of them inhabiting the Lake of Rot, though they were replaced with Kindred of Rot in an update shortly after the game's release.

* BadassArmy: Malenia's elite expeditionary army and stated to have been undefeated during the Shattering while having campaigned all over Liurnia, Limgrave, Caelid, and possibly elsewhere. The NPC vs NPC fights between them and the Redmanes at the War-Dead Catacombs also usually end with them victorious, despite the Cleanrots there being weaker than the ones at the Haligtree and the Redmanes there being much stronger than the ones in the rest of Caelid, and statistically the ones in their own home region are the strongest knight type in the game aside from their own allies in the same zone, the Haligtee Knights. Also of note, there seem to be two or three Redmane ghosts in the catacombs for every Cleanrot ghost, while the nearby battlefield at the Wailing Dunes has at least ten discarded Redmane weapons (with accompanying skeletons, helmets, and tattered Redmane banners) for every suit of Cleanrot armor you find (always nearby), indicating that they gave the numerically-superior Redmanes a beating for most of the campaign despite the latter being renowned as "masterful warriors" and the Cleanrots not even bringing all of their strength to it.[[note]]There are still Cleanrot Knights in the Snowfield and Haligtree and no Redmanes outside of Caelid, while Finlay was explicitly the only Cleanrot Knight who returned from the campaign; and the Cleanrots themselves are just one of ''three'' knight corps possessed by the Haligtree faction (along with the Haligtree Knights and Loretta and her battlemages).[[/note]] This is further backed up by the v 1.0 description of their armor, where it's stated outright that they were the strongest soldiers of the entire Shattering, while in v 1.01 onwards, the description states that they were undefeated and fought the fiercest battles of all.
-->'''Cleanrot Armor:''' ''These knights, considered the strongest in the Shattering, descended upon General Radahn's army in an almighty battle, continuing to fight even as their bodies came apart. Only '''after their work was done''' did they allow themselves to succumb.'' (1.0)
-->'''Cleanrot Armor:''' ''Armor of the Cleanrot Knights, celebrated for their undefeated campaign in the Shattering. The Cleanrot Knights vowed to fight alongside Malenia, despite the inevitable, if gradual, putrefaction of their flesh. Their acceptance of their fate made these battles the fiercest of all.'' (1.01+)

* EvilVersusEvil: In the Age of Despair ending, it opposes The Tarnished purely because it doesn't want a tarnished to become Elden Lord, not because of [[FateWorseThanDeath what]] The Tarnished seeks to inflict on The Lands Between.
* EvilVersusOblivion: The Elden Beast is responsible for perpetuating the current state of The Lands Between, but in the Lord of Frenzied Flame ending they're the only remaining obstacle stopping The Tarnished from burning The Lands Between to a burning ruin.