This page details the Enemies and Bosses, sorted by region. Those considered "Great Enemies" and "Legends" are Bolded to signify them. Warning: Unmarked spoilers ahead.

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Limgrave

Grafted Scions

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/grafted_scion_2.png

Voiced by: Anthony Howell

An inhuman beast, and the first enemy faced by the Tarnished. The Grafted Scion is made from countless different arms, such that its original body is impossible to make out, and it wields two swords and a shield.

Ambiguous Gender: 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 also produce a high pitched feminine scream as part of one of their attacks.
Ambiguously Related: While them being part of the Golden Lineage makes them definetly related to Godrick, it's impossible to know in what way - they may be siblings, cousins, or even offspring.
Animal Motifs: They have an overall shape akin to that of crabs, and are capable of quick and nimble movements like spiders. Their AI is named "GraftSpider" in the files, despite having at least 12 limbs. There are also some lesser avian motifs, wearing a cloak patterned after a peacock to compliment the random feathers and bird wing attached to its body.
Body Horror: Leaving aside that the Grafted Scion is a chaotic mess of limbs, some of those extra arms are rotting — leaving patches of exposed bone. Some of the parts aren't even human — there is a bird's wing and a troll's torso grafted on to it.
Body of Bodies: It's hard to tell where the Grafted Scion's original body is, if there even is one.
Combat Parkour: Aided by their innumerous limbs, they can flip, spin and lunge around and towards the Tarnished, making their attacks difficult to telegraph.
Degraded Boss:
- A Grafted Scion is the very first enemy and boss the Tarnished encounters in the game; if it kills the Tarnished in that fight, it can be rematched by traveling back to the Chapel of Anticipation via a waygate at the Four Belfries.
- In Stormveil Castle, a Scion is found guarding the dining hall; one is in Liurnia disguised as a giant lobster near a gazebo west of Boilprawn Shack; yet another is at a ravaged campsite on Mt. Gelmir. In the Fringefolk Hero's Grave, there is a hidden area where you can fight two at once.
Dual Wielding:
- Exaggerated. Thanks to its many limbs, it wields two swords at one side and a greatshield at the other side.
- When the Tarnished gets their hands on the Ornamental Straight Swords they wield, they can dual wield by simply two-handing it instead of needing another straight sword in their offhand.
Flesh Golem: It is pieced together from several body parts. These include at least 2 torsos (with one being as large as a Troll's), several limbs held together by the hands, random feathers strewn about its sides, and a small bird wing, with a young noble being the head in the center.
Hidden Depths: Environmental storytelling implies that they're demigods (albeit barely); their Ornamental Straight Swords and Beast Crest Heater Shields reference the Golden Lineage, so it seems that they're very distant descendants of Godwyn (supported by their golden eyes, crowns, and cloaks specifically tailored to cover their grafted bodies) who willingly underwent Grafting in a desperate attempt to regain their ancestral power.
Hopeless Boss Fight: The first Grafted Scion has way too much health and power for a new character to defeat, and dying to it is expected to happen so the Tarnished can be chosen by Torrent. Should the Tarnished succeed anyway, they'll get a nifty weapon and shield for it, but they'll still die from a collapsing cliffside soon after.
How the Mighty Have Fallen: These guys (and Godrick) are what the Golden Lineage has been reduced to after the Shattering; reduced to the weakest and least-divine dregs and a complete non-entity in the Shattering (other than Godrick getting himself humiliated a couple times before running away to the backwater Limgrave and bullying Tarnished there), to the point where they resorted to Grafting in a desperate attempt to become powerful enough for the other factions to take them seriously- but even with grafting, they can only barely scrape up Starter Boss status.
In a Single Bound: The first you fight leaps clear over a cliff from ground level to confront you.
Meaningful Name: "Grafting" refers to the act of adding a piece of a plant to another, allowing them to grow together, while Scion is the term used for the added plant. Scion, however, can also mean a descendant of a noble house, and these ones seem to be descendants of the Golden Lineage.
Mini-Boss: They can be found in dungeons and areas near fully-fledged bosses. These locations range from the lower levels of Stormveil Castle, the cliffs near the Full-Grown Fallingstar Beast in Mt. Gelmir, and the secret area in the Fringefolk Hero's Grave.
Multi-Armed and Dangerous: This thing has arms poking out of everywhere, many of which are equipped with blades. Facing the scion is daunting because of its attacks having very off-kilter timings for each limb that require careful dodging and positioning to counter.
Recurring Element: The first one's status as a nigh-unbeatable foe at the very start of the game that requires you to flee or die to eventually get better items and equipment for a chance to get revenge later makes it a successor to the Vanguard Demon, Asylum Demon, first Scourge Beast, and Genichiro Ashina.
Semi-Divine: They are all but stated to have traces of the Golden Lineage within them from their Lord Godrick; making them distantly related to the divine Godwyn the Golden.
Supernatural Gold Eyes: A sign of their heritage from Godwyn.
Was Once a Man: The title of Scion and the ancestral weapons it wields implies that it was a minor descendant of the Golden Lineage before engaging in the horrid grafting process. Close inspection of its face reveals a young individual wearing a crown.

Kaiden Sellswords

Voiced by: Shaun Dooley

Sellswords from the cold northern lands of Kaiden, roaming the land for work. Mostly found in Limgrave under Godrick's employ or escorting various caravans and carriages, but some are found in the Consecrated Snowfield. The Kaidan Sellsword Ashes summons one.

BFS: They wield the Dismounter, a curved greatsword with the handle of an axe specifically designed for use on horseback and, as the name implies, for knocking the other guy off horseback.
Elite Mooks: They are tougher than the common soldiers found in Limgrave and can be a big problem early in the game, serving as an intermediate step between them and the knights. Owing to this, stronger variants (with about six times the health of the Limgrave versions) can be seen again in the Consecrated Snowfield, the area preceding the Haligtree.
Hired Guns: They are obviously foreign mercenaries, hence their name. The fact that Godrick has to rely on them says something about the state of his original army. A handful are also encountered in the Consecrated Snowfield escorting Wandering Nobles who presumably hired them.
Horny Vikings: They are this in spades, being huge strong warriors from the frigid north, wearing chainmail and furs, and utilizing battle cries and berserker rage. It is even said that they might have some giant blood in them. However, they don't wear horned helmets and favor mounted combat with their Dismounter Curved Greatswords. The character creation notes that Northerners are rumored to have the blood of the giants in them, which may explain why all the Kaiden are over seven feet tall.
Kiai: They make use of the War Cry skill, which gives them a 10% damage increase once active.
Mounted Combat: Often seen and fought while they're on horseback, and the Dismounter they wield specializes in knocking opponents off their own mounts.
Pelts of the Barbarian: Their armor set is made from leather, animal pelt, and scales of iron, befitting warriors from the far north.
Screaming Warrior: Precede their attacks on enemies with loud yells. At lowered health, they'll perform the War Cry skill that buffs their attacks and changes their heavier strikes for more damage.

Mad Pumpkin Heads

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/pumpkin_head.jpg

Voiced by: Ramon Tikaram

Crazed warriors whose heads have been encased in a large helmet in an attempt to stop them from panicking. A flail-wielding Mad Pumpkin Head can be summoned with spirit ashes.

Alien Blood: Assuming it is blood, splashes of a grayish liquid spray from their heads whenever they slam their heads into the ground. Notably, it is not the same silvery color that Albinauric blood is, obfuscating just what these creatures might be. The fact that they bleed normal red blood when hit anywhere else on their bodies just obfuscates it even further.
Carry a Big Stick: One of the two variations wields a large hammer with a pumpkin-shaped head. Unfortunately, the player cannot obtain this weapon.
Epic Flail: One of the two variations wields the Chainlink Flail, notable for being the only flail in the game that scales primarily with Strength rather than Dexterity, making it the go-to for any Strength-focused character wishing to use that weapon type. Good luck getting one, though.
Giant Mook: Not as huge as Trolls but still much larger than the Knights and Soldiers they usually accompany.
Gladiator Games: They were once gladiators, before they went mad.
Hair-Trigger Temper: Anything from bloodshed to the humming of insects is said to drive them into a violent rage.
Happy Place: Their helmets are pitch black on the inside, which is said to help keep them calm.
Mighty Glacier: Their attacks are quite slow but definitely pack a punch. With the exception of their headbutts which come out very fast.
No-Sell: Their helmets act as a shield, taking greatly decreased damage from attacks. They take normal damage anywhere else on their bodies but the sheer size of their helmets combined with their hunched posture makes landing a hit anywhere but the helmet a tad difficult. The version of the helmet that can be obtained by the player reduces headshot damage and stagger from enemy arrows.
Shell-Shocked Veteran: They're said to be former gladiators whose minds broke in the arena. They have to wear their special helmets to stop them from rampaging all the time, and they can still be easily set off by things like the buzzing of insects or nearby bloodshed.
Spin Attack: The hammer-wielders can do a spinning attack that lasts a surprisingly long time.
Use Your Head: They utilize their huge pumpkin helmets to crush players with surprisingly fast headbutts.

Misbegotten

Humanoid creatures with wings on their backs and long tails that are used as slaves from the moment they're born. Standard variants either stay on foot and wield iron cleavers or fly around wielding shortbows, while the larger, wingless variants wield greataxes. A Winged Misbegotten can be summoned with Spirit Ashes.

One large variant, the Scaly Misbegotten, serves as the boss of Morne Tunnel.

Airborne Mook: Some will take flight to rain arrows. Jumping attacks and ranged options are recommended.
Ambiguously Related: As pointed out by Zullie the Witch, the internal name of the Misbegotten is labeled as "Children of Radagon". It doesn't help that the more leonine Misbegotten have the exact same shade of red hair as him too. If there is a connection to Radagon, the specifics are muddy at best.
Degraded Boss: Several large Misbegotten, identical to the Scaly Misbegotten, can be encountered as regular enemies at Castle Morne.
The Dog Bites Back: The Misbegotten at Castle Morne have turned against their masters and nearly massacred everyone there.
Fantastic Racism: Due to their appearances and their association with the Crucible, they were increasingly reviled as civilization became more advanced. Eventually they became treated as slaves or worse by humans under the Golden Order.
Gonk: They have oversized, wide heads and are really quite ugly.
Hidden Depths:
- They appear to be wild beastmen, but their tool use and domestic skills (e.g. Hewg is a great blacksmith) show that they're about as intelligent as humans. They don't behave dramatically differently than any other abused and enslaved people would.
- Some of the Misbegotten at Castle Morne seem to regret their part in the uprising against their human masters. While their fellows dance on mounds of the dead and butcher corpses with their cleavers, a few Misbegotten are seen kneeling, their hands clasped together as if begging for forgiveness or praying; they make mournful groaning noises instead of the usual triumphant roars, and will not attack the player unless provoked.
- The Misbegotten at the Haligtree, both Leonine and Scaly, show these well. The area is ruled by Malenia, a feared War God and possibly the World's Best Warrior. What depictions of her do the Misbegotten choose to erect and worship? Statues of Malenia simply cradling her smaller brother◊, without her helm, armor, sword, or even prosthetics,◊ putting her debilitating physical disability on prominent display. Even the Misbegotten Warriors apparently have values higher than pure martial prowess.
- They can also be found in what appears to be their own quarter of Leyndell praying at statues of Marika.
It Can Think: Despite their monstrous appearance they are obviously intelligent, given that they can craft and wield weaponry and can be given directives that they understand. They are also smart enough to outwit and overthrow the humans stationed at Castle Morne, and if Hewg is taken as an example they can be taught to speak.
Diving Kick: One of their favored methods of attack is to use their powerful legs to jump in the air and deliver a hefty kick.
Mix-and-Match Critters: They have traits of mammals, reptiles and birds in varying amounts. These are caused by the primordial Crucible, which gave them aspects of different lifeforms.
Servant Race: They are treated as slaves by humans, which results in their intense hatred and resentment for all mankind. They can often be seen celebrating near human corpses they hanged up on display.
Weak to Fire: All Misbegotten take 20% extra damage from fire (except Leonine Misbegotten/Misbegotten Warriors, who merely get no special resistance to it).

Leonine Misbegotten (normal, Warrior, Crusader)

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/leonine_misbegotten.png

A feral Misbegotten wielding a large greatsword that can be fought behind Castle Morne.

Attack! Attack! Attack!: They have no defensive moves, instead bringing a constant ferocious onslaught that will make hitting them a hard task.
BFS: All Leonine misbegotten wield large greatswords, and some of them have found unique and even legendary weapons to use. The Leonine Misbegotten boss stole the Grafted Blade Greatsword when the Misbegotten overthrew Castle Morne... albeit that he still uses an Iron Greatsword, implying he doesn't meet the legendary weapon's Strength requirement. The Consecrated Snowfield one somehow managed to find the Golden Order Greatsword, Radagon's favored weapon, and unlike the one in Castle Morne, he can wield it and use its Ash of War.
Curb-Stomp Battle: Can be made the victim of one by using the Lone Wolf Ashes summon. The wolves can basically stunlock them, allowing you to wail on them with impunity.
Degraded Boss: Functionally identical Misbegotten Warriors can be encountered as regular enemies in Leyndell, Royal Capital and in Miquella's Haligtree, as well as one half of several Dual Boss encounters throughout the mid to late game.
Glass Cannon: They aren't very tanky, but their attacks are fast and hit like a truck.
Hidden Depths: The Leonine Crusader's title alongside the fact its' able to wield the Golden Order Greatsword and use its weapon skill implies that some Misbegotten mantain faith in the Golden Order.
Meaningful Name: Leonine refers to anything resembling a lion, and this Misbegotten sports several feline features along with a crimson mane around its neck.
Riddle for the Ages: The "Leonine Crusader" in the Cave of the Forlorn wields the Golden Order Greatsword, forged by Radagon for Marika as a dedication to the Golden Order, or alternatively, originally given to him by Rennala. There is no given explanation for why and how the boss got its hands on such an ornate weapon. However, the fact that the Misbegotten in the Crusader's cave plant and cultivate Miquella's Lillies (explicitly said to be signs of loyalty to the Haligtree; the only enemies that drop them are Haligtree Lordsworn and Cleanrot Knights), that said cave is located in the Consecrated Snowfield (Miquella's land), and that identical Misbegotten (just without the sword) are all over the Haligtree praying to statues of the twins, all indicate that the Crusader is a ranking warrior of the the Haligtree faction. As Miquella and Malenia are Radagon's children, how they got the sword is not exactly a mystery.
Underground Monkey: The Leonine Crusader is the boss for the Cave of the Forlorn in the Consecrated Snowfields, and wields the Golden Order Greatsword in place of the usual swords it's kind wields. It also utilizes the sword's Ash of War in combat, incorporating Fundamentalist incantations on top of frenzied swipes with the weapon and implying that, much like its lesser kin, It Can Think.

Margit, the Fell Omen

"Put these foolish ambitions to rest."

Voiced by: Anthony Howell

"Foul Tarnished... in search of the Elden Ring. Emboldened by the flame of ambition. Someone must extinguish thy flame. Let it be Margit the Fell!"

A gangly, bestial Omen who fights the Tarnished in Stormhill to prevent them from reaching Castle Stormveil.

Adaptational Nice Guy: In the manga he is disappointed at Aseo just laying down to die during their fight, so he gives him some enouragement to become stronger and have a proper fight later.
Beef Gate: Margit can be challenged as soon as an hour into the game if the player rushes to follow the Sites of Grace, and this proves to be a horrible mistake. Despite being very likely to be the first boss found, he has lengthy combo strings, fast projectiles (which he will use to heal punish you at every available opportunity), two phases, and plenty of health. He reinforces the new open-world structure by beating the player up until they go elsewhere; he becomes much more manageable if they take time to explore the rest of Limgrave and the nearby Weeping Peninsula before challenging him, particularly if they spare Patches and buy the special Margit's Shackle item from him, which can stun him twice during the first phase.
Beware My Stinger Tail: He has a scorpion-like tail, which he uses to counter back-attacks.
Boss-Altering Consequence: If you obtain Margit's Shackle before fighting him, you can use it to stun him up to two times.
Cane Fu: His main form of attack is to whack you with his walking stick, which is almost as tall as he is, so it hurts quite a bit.
Degraded Boss: He shows up again as a lifelike astral projection in the Capital Outskirts, albeit without a proper boss health bar.
Flowery Elizabethan English: He peppers his speech with "Thee" and "Thy". It's an early hint that he's one of Marika's children.
Foreshadowing:
- He introduces himself by rising from the ground while glowing gold, much like a summoned player. He's basically the result of Morgott summoning himself to Limgrave to stand in your way. Apparently he used that talisman pouch for the item that makes you look like a host.
- "I shall remember thee, Tarnished." Turns out this wasn't just a fancy way of saying "see you in Hell". You fight him again as a projection, then his true self as Morgott, and he does recognize you both times.
- "Cower in fear, of the night. The hands of the Fell Omen shall brook thee no quarter." Remember all those Night Cavalry bosses found throughout the world at night? They all work under him. They're his 'hands' that are actively hunting you down on his orders.
- Margit drops the Talisman Pouch upon defeat. According to the item description, it's given to the ruling lord. Guess what Margit's true role is.
Giant Space Flea from Nowhere: Despite serving as the final obstacle between the player and Stormveil Castle, nothing in Stormveil so much as makes passing reference to him or any allegience to Godrick. It's later implied that Morgott has long since realised that a Tarnished looking to claim a Great Rune would probably go after the weakest link first, so he conjured a projection in Limgrave to intercept anyone seeking the throne of Elden Lord before they became strong enough to pose a threat.
Hero Killer: He has a monument about all the dead heroes he defeated during the second defense of Leyndell and is in Stormveil so he can snuff the Tarnished early in his quest.
Pre-Asskicking One-Liner: He has a pretty good one, quoted above. And yes, he will kick your ass after he says it. Many times.
Recurring Element:
- He shares traits with Father Gascoigne from Bloodborne, being an early yet difficult boss who can be stunned with a secret item.
- Being a mysterious boss who actively tries to hunt down the player character over the course of the game, he is also similar to the Pursuer from Dark Souls II.
- He is a Recurring Boss who is first fought very early in the game, with a much stronger version being fought later, like the Last Giant/Giant Lord from Dark Souls II and Iudex/Champion Gundyr from Dark Souls III. The exact means he uses to do so - the earlier fights being illusions and the final fight being his real body - calls back to the Corrupted Monk from Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice.
- And finally, being an obvious skill check boss for players who speed toward his arena without properly leveling up and learning the mechanics of the game, as well as functioning as a prelude to the monumental challenges that immediately follow him, resembles Genichiro Ashina's role in Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice.
The Reveal: "Margit" isn't his real name, nor is "The Fell Omen" his title. His true identity is "Morgott, the Omen King", and he's one of the Demigods.
Sequential Boss: Starts out just using his cane and summoned daggers (which he both swings and throws). Once he gets down to half health, he will add a summoned straight sword and greathammer into the mix.
Skippable Boss: It is actually possible to avoid fighting him and still progress through. He plays this trope straighter than other examples in the game because if you defeat his true self, Morgott, and then trek back to Limgrave, you will find Margit is already gone, with rewards obtained from normally defeating Margit left on his arena. Oddly enough, the Margit fought in the Capital Outskirts will spawn if you approach the site of battle even if Morgott was defeated beforehand, and even then, it's easy to miss this Margit given the size of the Capital Outskirts.
Spontaneous Weapon Creation: When he's not hitting you with his cane, he is hitting you with various summoned weapons formed out of holy magic. All of his summoned weapons are actually recognizable as in-game weapons the player can obtain: his daggers are Erdsteel Daggers, his straight sword is a Carian Knight's Sword, and his greathammer is a Giant-Crusher.
Stealth Insult: If his mocking tone wasn’t enough of a clue, his comment that "warrior blood" must run in the Tarnished's veins upon reaching phase 2 becomes one after he's revealed to be Morgott. To Morgott, immediate son of the World's Best Warrior, the first Elden Lord, you're just some wannabe who thinks they're a warrior.
Villain Forgot to Level Grind: Margit can be fought again as an astral projection Degraded Boss in the Altus Plateau. While he's actually somewhat stronger than before, the number of levels the player may have gotten in the interim - especially considering that the Altus Plateau is a relatively late-game environment - generally makes him a cakewalk in comparison to his first encounter. He doesn't even have a boss-sized lifebar anymore in this fight. Oh, and Torrent is available this time, meaning hit-and-run tactics are much more viable, especially for ranged fighters who can easily evade his throwing knives.
Wake-Up Call Boss: Did you explore the rest of Limgrave and the Weeping Peninsula to gain levels and upgrade a weapon a few times? Are you at least familiar enough with the game mechanics to dodge his attacks perfectly? If you answered "no" to both of those questions, then prepare to die, a lot.

Stormveil Castle

Exile Soldiers

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/castle_guard.png

Exiles sent to penal colonies that have been hired to guard the castles they've been stationed at.

Blow You Away: Some soldiers are capable of using Storm Caller attacks against the Tarnished.
The Exile: Exiles that were sent to prison colonies before being repurposed as castle guards.
Flash Step: The spectral variants are able to teleport near the Tarnished.
In the Hood: Their Exile Hood obscures their entire head, a requirement of their banishment.
Giant Mook: Basic Exile Soldiers are already 2 meters/6'7" tall (about on par with mid-ranked Lordsworn), but there also even bigger ~2.4 meter variants who wield Crescent Moon Axes; the player version of that weapon is absurdly huge, to say nothing of the ones scaled up to be appopriate for the soldiers' ~8 foot frames.
Mooks: The most common enemy encountered in Stormveil Castle and Castle Sol. However, they're Elite Mooks compared to the common Lordsworn of Limgrave, as they have better stats and can use spells.
Playing with Fire: Some soldiers use torchpoles while others man flamethrowers.
Razor Wind: Like the Banished Knights and Godrick himself, they can wield the wind-based spells common to elite warriors of Stormveil. In their case, many use the Storm Blade Ash of War which fires shearing storm winds as projectiles from their swords.
Underground Monkey: Spectral variants can be encountered at the Fringefolk Hero's Grave and Castle Sol.

Banished Knights

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/banished_knight.jpg

Landless, disgraced knights who are able to use Stormcaller skills. They are first found in Stormveil Castle under the service of Godrick.

Two Banished Knights, Oleg and Engvall, can be summoned as spirits.

Badass Cape: The unaltered version of their chestpieces includes a black cape with their surcoat.
Bling of War: Some Banished Knights across the world wear ornate red-gold finery in helmet scarves, surcoats, and cloaks, and the steel of their armor has decorative patterns on it.
Blow You Away: They're fully practiced with the Stormcaller and Storm Assault Ashes of War, and they can use them to launch themselves at their targets and generate AOE attacks to repulse enemies.
Dual Wielding: Some will forgo a shield to use a longsword in each hand.
Elite Mook: Unlike any of the Lordsworn Knights, they have their own gimmicks and can hit hard and fast. They often have Storm Caller skills to create devastating combos, while hooded ones know incantations.
The Exile: Whether it be due to a tragedy they couldn't control or following a crime they had committed, these knights were cast away from their homelands and now serve to guard whatever posts they are assigned to. This especially counts for those found in Farum Azula, implying they committed grave sins against the Golden Order.
Flash Step: Thanks to their wind-based attacks, they can launch themselves rather easily and close the distance betwen them and the Tarnished. Their spectral variants inevitably allow them to teleport right up to their targets.
Hidden Depths: The hooded Banished Knights are closely associated with dragon incantations. While one stands guard at the Cathedral of Dragon Communication, and a ghost hooded knight in Fringefolk Hero's Grave drops the Dragon Communion Seal, many are seen in Farum Azula, a realm closely associated with dragons. It's not clear if they were exiled to the crumbling lands for sins committed against the Golden Order, or if their banishment is related to the dragons they associate with. What's more, they surround the arena housing the Godskin Duo, which brings further speculation.
Hired Guns: 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 the Hood: The unaltered version of their helmets wraps them in a gold-and-crimson scarf.
Magic Knight: They're best known for using Stormcaller and Storm Assault attacks, which involve using wind magic to summon storms. A variant using the dragonfire spell can be found near the dragon communion site in Caelid and across Farum Azula.
Mythical Motifs: Their armor is decorated in dragon imagery, such as on their surcoats and modeled on top of their helmets. The hooded variants use Dragon Incantations to breathe fire, and can only be encountered outside the Dragon Cathedral or Farum Azula.
Playing with Fire: Variants in Farum Azula and the Dragon Cathedral can use fire spells.
Underground Monkey:
- Hooded Banished Knights, found in Farum Azula and the Cathedral of Dragon Communion, cannot use wind skills and instead have a Dragon Communion firebreath incantation and are counted as dragons, suggesting that they are undergoing Dragon Communion.
- Spectral variants found at Castle Sol can Flash Step around.
Worthy Opponent: The Tarnished finds Nepheli calling a fallen Banished Knight one in Stormveil.

Warhawks

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/bladed_talon_eagle.jpg

Stormhawks that have had blades grafted onto their talons in order to defend Stormveil Castle. Unaltered, snow versions can be encountered in the Mountaintop of the Giants.

While a Masked Warhawk can be found as a regular spirit, there is also a unique Spirit Ash known as Stormhawk Deenh.

Artificial Limb: Warhawks have their talons cut off and blades affixed onto them.
Elite Mook: The Masked Warhawks come with a flamethrower and possess more health than their normal counterparts.
Feathered Fiend: Large hawks armed with blades that attack anyone who infiltrates Stormveil Castle.
Playing with Fire: The Masked variants use their masks to shoot fire at the Tarnished.
Short-Range Shotgun: Some variants have a primitive gunpowder shotgun attached to them.
Throw a Barrel at It: Several warhawks will throw an explosive barrel at the Tarnished before attacking them.
Underground Monkey: Non-grafted Stormhawks can also be found at the Mountaintop of the Giants.
Weaponized Animal: Hawks that have had blades grafted onto their talons.

Caelid

Giant Dogs

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/giant_dog.jpg

Giant hounds with oversized heads and shrunken forelegs, looking similar to dinosaurs.

Canis Major: Hounds that have somehow evolved into large dinosaur-like creatures.
Elite Mook: Somewhat larger versions with white hair are the alphas, leading the pack and capable of dealing more damage.
Fantastic Livestock: The variants in the Mountaintops of the Giants have dog collars on them,◊ implying they were appropriately-sized pets/hunting animals for Giant owners. Their presence in Caelid, which is full of giant corpses, could also be a hint at this.
Giant Mook: As per their title, they are massive dogs with shrunken forelimbs.
Glass Cannon: Their giant jaws can deal a ton of damage, but are relatively less durable compared to other giant enemies.
Lightning Bruiser: They move fast and hit real hard, often matching the speed of the Tarnished on Torrent.
Red Eyes, Take Warning: Some have red eyes and are even more aggressive.
T. Rexpy: Thanks to their shrunken forearms and huge heads, they bear a similar shape to the King of Dinosaurs.
Underground Monkey: There are two variants: brown-furred ones with Rot in Caelid, and white-furred ones without Rot in the Mountaintops of the Giants.
Unusual Pets for Unusual People: Sage Gowry appears to have tamed one of these hounds, as a giant dog with a spiked collar around its neck can be seen sitting in front of his residence.
Use Your Head: Besides snapping with their jaws, they can smash their entire heads down as well.

Giant Crows

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/giant_crow.jpg

Elephant-sized carnivorous crows that perch onto branches and swoop down to attack anyone they see.

Body Horror: The ones encountered in Mohgwyn Palace are covered in swollen tumors and giant bloody pustules that crowd out their feathers and partially block their eyes.
Clever Crows: They can fake players out into thinking their posture is broken for a critical attack, even stumbling about with the parry sound playing, only to suddenly snap them up in its beak for a nasty grab. No other enemy does this.
Elite Mook: Blistered Giant Crows can be found in Mohgwyn Palace. They have significantly more HP and have a new "swimming" attack where they flail across the puddles of blood. Defeating them also nets an abundance of runes.
Feathered Fiend: Giant crows that are notoriously violent.
Giant Flyer: They are too big for their wings to support flight, yet they can fly anyway, or at least lift themselves off of the ground long enough to swoop down.
Giant Mook: As the name suggests, they are massive crows, and are even tougher than the Giant Dogs nearby.
Lightning Bruiser: These crows are noticeably tougher than the Giant Dogs, but just as fast and deadly.
Underground Monkey: Mohgwyn Palace is home to Blistered Giant Crows, tougher versions identified by the bloated growths covering their bodies.

Servants of Rot

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/servant_of_rot_2.jpg

Mutated spell casters who worship the poison and scarlet rot of Caelid.

Body Horror: Their heads have been overgrown by large colonies of fungi, and their skin has begun to melt off their body due to the poisons they surround themselves in.
Mushroom Man: The Servants of Rot have this appearance due to the growths that surround them.
Poison Is Evil: They attack anyone who treads on the poisonous areas they dwell in.
Poisonous Person: They worship poison and scarlet rot and attack by casting poisonous bolts.
Was Once a Man: Formerly human spell casters that mutated as a result of staying in the rotted areas of Caelid.

Kindred of Rot

Disgusting pests born of the Scarlet Rot, which they worship. Abandoned children of the Goddess of Rot. They are found across the swamps of Caelid and populate the inner areas of Elphael, Brace of the Haligtree. One can be summoned as a Spirit Ash.

A pair of them can be fought as the collective boss of the Seethewater Cave.

Animalistic Abomination: A species of monstrous bug-men born from the Scarlet Rot.
Creepy Centipedes: They resemble a combination of centipedes, termites, and men, but the centipede aspect is the most prominent with their elongated bodies and plethora of limbs. They also put their torsos to the ground to walk like centipedes during some of their combat animations, and curl up like centipedes when idle. Considering From's prior games, their design likely draws from the association of centipedes with decay, impurity, and uncleanliness in Shintoism, appropriate for manifestations of the outer god of Rot (the stagnant Rot being opposed by flowing water further underlines this).
It Can Think: The Kindred of Rot are smart enough to jury-rig a chest in Limgrave, so as to teleport hapless travelers straight into the Sellia Crystal Cavern, straight in the heart of Caelid. The item description for the Pest's Glaive also describes them as having a "keen intellect".
Parental Abandonment: They're often referred to as the "abandoned" and "unwanted" children of Malenia, left behind because a) her Bloom left her in a coma for years, and b) she really does not want to be the Goddess of Rot.
Razor Floss: They can fire curving threads from their back while attacking the Tarnished, making them troublesome to dodge through their numbers and the fact that they can simply go around the mightiest shields.
Stop Worshipping Me: They revere Malenia and Millicent, even keeping the latter trapped in the decrepit Church of Plague, when both would much rather not be worshipped, let alone by them.
Glass Cannon: They can move and attack extremely nimbly in melee, and their Pest Threads Incantation can both deal a lot of damage and can be fired off rapidly. But they all have very low poise.
Underground Monkey: A legless variant forgoes their glaive and instead attacks by lunging at the Tarnished or firing their threads.

Veteran Commanders (O'Neil and Niall)

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/commander_oneill.jpg

Voiced by: Matthew Morgan, Joe McGann

Commanders of lords that had fled, these undying, masterless veterans can summon spirits to do their bidding. There are two veterans: Commander O'Neil, who resides in the heart of the Aeonia Swamp, and Commander Niall, who protects Castle Sol at the Mountaintop of the Giants.

Aerith and Bob: O'Neil and Niall stand out among the bosses and the inhabitants of the Lands Between in general for having remarkably ordinary names. Contrast other bosses such as Margit, Rennala, Fortissax, Malekith, and Placidusax.
Ambiguously Related:
- O'Neil and Niall's relation is never stated, but they're clearly close, having near-identical character models (including uniforms) and names. In fact, O' is an Anglicized version of Ó, an element of Irish names meaning "descendant of", and Neil is just an Anglicized version of the Irish name Niall, so O'Neil's name is literally "descendant of Niall." Close inspection of their models reveals that they actually do have slightly different faces, with O'Neil less scarred than Niall.
- It's not immediately apparent that O'Neil serves Malenia, but the similar designs of their capes (both being crimson with golden circles made of thorn-like patterns) and his banner having a crimson gold color scheme◊ (nothing like Radahn's banners yet the same scheme as Malenia's Cleanrot Knights) basically confirm it. The manga (which is admittedly fairly dubious in its canonicity) also has him directly refer to Malenia as his liege.
Army of Thieves and Whores: O'Neil and Niall both lead "soldiers of no nation", the latter summoning the spirits of Banished Knights and the former the spirits of Exile Soldiers (some Banished Knights wearing hoods similar to Exile Soldiers can also be found wandering not too far from O'Neil's arena). It makes sense then that they're associated with Malenia and Miquella's Haligtree, the land of outcasts and refugees.
Bald Head of Toughness: You're never going to see it without hacking due to their helmets, but both of them are bald, which underlines them being old, experienced soldiers.
Blood Knight: Implied of O'Neil by the description of the Commander's Standard; he's the only veteran of the Battle of Aeonia who remembers it with pride, including Malenia herself, even though the death wrought in it (including on his side) was second only to the Siege of Volcano Manor.
Blow You Away: Both can create brief whirlwinds by the swing of their Standards. Notably, O'Neil's disturbs the Scarlet Rot of his arena and makes it a part of those attacks, while Niall, being in a castle situated on a snowfield, has his whirlwinds cause frostbite instead.
Colonel Badass: Both of them were field commanders in their lords' armies, and perfectly willing to fight alongside their men. Their command abilities are even a gameplay mechanic with the Ash of War of their halberds boosting the stats of their flunkies.
Facial Horror: Niall has a nasty scar on one side of his face.
Flunky Boss: Both summon the spirits of soldiers to help them. O'Neil summons two waves of Exile Soldiers at separate points while Niall starts the battle with two Banished Knights at his side. They can also use their Rallying Standard Status Buff to augment their soldiers.
Handicapped Badass: Niall has a bladed prosthetic leg, and naturally, it makes him even more dangerous than O'Neil due to him being able to channel lightning with it.
Hoist by His Own Petard: The summoned spirits can be affected by the Bewitching Branch, turning said summons against their Commander.
Large and in Charge: Each of them are nine feet tall and broadly built, huge even compared to their seven foot plus knights, much less common foot soldiers.
Lightning Bruiser: Niall, once he's on his lonesome, can leap around like a grasshopper while spamming lightning AOEs, with the added bonus of being much sturdier and stronger than O'Neil.
Manly Facial Hair: They both have long gray beards, and are both badass leaders who can kick your poor Tarnished's ass all the way across the Lands Between.
Mighty Glacier: O'Neil is a huge guy that hits hard with his appropriately-huge halberd, and is extremely durable for his place in the game,^note but he's limited to a regular walk speed and his attack frequency is low due to his swings having a lot of wind-up.
No-Sell: O'Neil is completely immune to Rot build-up. This is heavily implied to be because he's carrying the Unalloyed Gold Needle (which Millicent and implicitly Malenia use to resist their natural Rot), as Niall (who's otherwise much stronger than O'Neil) is vulnerable to Scarlet Rot himself.
Old Soldier: Veterans of the Shattering war.
Secret A.I. Moves: The player cannot summon Exile Soldiers like O'Neil does.
Turns Red: Defeat Niall's knights and he busts out more deadly area attacks.
Undying Loyalty: Even when their masters (Malenia^note for O'Neil and an unnamed "long-passed master"^note for Niall) are no longer with them, they still do their duties regardless. Special mention goes to O'Neil; not only does he still zealously guard the remnants of Malenia's golden needle at the center of a poisonous swamp despite having ample opportunity to leave (presumably in case she comes back), he's stated to be "the sole veteran who remembers the battle with pride." This being the battle where his boss unwittingly infected him with a flesh-eating disease and left him to rot for years after. The guy is dedicated.

Knights of the Great-Jar

A trio of knights that the Tarnished must summon and defeat in order to complete the Great-Jar's challenge.

Dueling Player Characters: The appearance of each knight is randomly taken from an existing player's build, and will re-randomize if the area is reloaded. When playing offline, the three knights will use a preexisting build.
Gotta Kill 'Em All: Defeating all three knights in a single sitting is required to obtain the Great-Jar's talisman.
Recurring Element: The latest iteration of players being summoned by an outside force to fight other players, such as with the Old Monk in Demon's Souls, the Looking Glass Knight in Dark Souls II, and Judicator Argo & Halflight in Dark Souls III. In this instance, three players are summoned as AI-controlled opponents, rather than one player-controlled opponent.

Siofra River

Ancestral Followers

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/ancestral_follower.jpg

Voiced by: Hannah McCarthy (Shamans)

Bull-headed warriors that can be found throughout the Lands Between, chasing away intruders from their places of worship. One can be summoned through the Ancestral Follower Ashes.

Artifact Mook: A lone Ancestral Follower can be found wandering the Lake of Rot. When killed, it drops the Immunizing Horn Charm +1, which greatly boosts poison and rot immunity. While that justifies why it can survive being in the Lake of Rot, how this Ancestor Follower managed to find itself so far away from where its brethren are normally located is never explained. The Lake of Rot holds several statues similar in appearance to those found in the ruins inhabited by the Ancestral Followers in Liurnia, implying that the area might have once been inhabited by them before the Rot took hold, but considering how long ago that is implied to have happened it's unclear how this one is still alive.
Bad with the Bone: They wield the Jawbone Axe, which, as the name implies, is made from the jawbone of an animal. It does Strike damage, making it more of a Hammer than an Axe despite looking like and being classed as the latter.
Brawn Hilda: Their Shamans are all female. They sing beautiful magical songs and have quite feminine faces, but their bodies are as tall, wide and muscular as the males.
Foreshadowing: Their name refers to the Ancestor Spirits, later fought as bosses hidden in their (literal) stomping grounds. Both are spectral, horned creatures that seem to play into a local religion.
Magical Native American: Their culture is noted to deliberately abstain from metalworking and writing, instead aiming to live in harmony with nature and venerate their ancestral spirits. They are also masters of their own brand of magic, different from other schools found elsewhere in the lands between.
Master Archer: Their archers can fire magical greatarrows that both hit like a truck and travel so fast they're practically impossible to dodge.
Ninja Pirate Zombie Robot: Ghost Minotaur Ancestor Worshippers.
Our Minotaurs Are Different: They wear headdresses made of bull horns, giving them the appearance of minotaurs. Some of them even bull-charge you. The Shamans wear headdresses made of elk antlers instead.
Underground Monkey: Well, Underground Bull depending on which variant the Tarnished encounters first, but there are Followers in the flesh in northeastern Liurnia and on the mesa past Nokron proper, and spectral versions in lower Siofra River.

Ancestor Spirits (normal, Regal)

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/ancestor_spirit.png

Ancient spirits that take the form of undead deer, they are the deities of the Ancestor Followers worshipped in the Siofra River.

Adaptive Ability: The Regal Ancestor Spirit possesses a unique animal-based attack that's dependent on the animal spirit it burst out of. These attacks are:
- An upwards antler thrust if it came out of a deer
- A ramming charge if it came out of a boar
- A repeated jumping stomp if it came out of a springhare
- A rolling attack if it came out of a goat
Ambiguously Related: Their Double Jump ability looks almost exactly like Torrent's, yet any relation between them (such the spirits and the spectral steed drawing their power from the same source) is never hinted at.
Deity of Human Origin: Ancestral Follower beliefs state that the horns of a long-lived beast will bud into antlers and continue to grow and grow until they become an Ancestor Spirit. Like with many things in the Lands Between, it's left ambiguous if this was the case for the two Ancestor Spirits encountered in their areas.
Dissonant Serenity: The Spirit's size, arena and undead form might be intimidating at first glance, but its graceful patterns and leitmotif are surprisingly serene.
Double Jump: The Ancestor Spirit can step in the air up to four times, usually ending in a stomp attack.
Flunky Boss: Played With. The Regal Ancestor Spirit's lair is populated by specters of deers, boars, springhares, and goats that don't attack the Tarnished nor can be attacked by them. Instead, the Ancestor Spirit will dive into the ground and burst out of one of these animals, gaining a unique attack based on the animal it came out of.
Life Drain: The Ancestor Spirit can also project a field that drains the life out of any nearby animal to restore its health. The animal spirits will later respawn.
Magic Fire: Attacks with ghostly fire that covers areas and deal damage over time.
The Marvelous Deer: The Ancestor Spirit resembles a huge deer or elk, although very old and rotted, covered in teal fire.
Mysterious Past: Beyond not being connected to the Greater Will, just what the spirits are and where they come from is never hinted at. Especially concerning a possible connection to an Outer God: Their seeming undeath could be derived from Destined Death. Making it stranger is that one can acquire the infant skull of an ancestor Spirit, implying that there's an entire species of these creatures with their own life cycle.
Recurring Boss: 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.
- Interestingly, a third Ancestor Spirit can be found in Nokron, across from the Regal Ancestor Spirit. This one is not located in a Hollowhorn Ground like the other two, and cannot be awakened and fought via the obelisks.
Upgraded Boss: The Regal Ancestor Spirit is a more stronger version of the Ancestor Spirit, possessing two special attacks: an animal-based attack and a life drain.

Ainsel River

Giant Ants

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/giant_ant.jpg

Massive, oversized ants that reside in the Ainsel River, as well as the Haligtree and the Deeproot Depths. Some of them have been "domesticated" by the Nox monks of Nokstella as mounts, allowing them to freely roam the lower regions of the city.

Acid Attack: They can spit a poisonous acid from their stinger barb at range. Shields only partially reduce the amount of damage this does, even with 100% physical absorption.
Airborne Mook: There are several alate ants in the Deeproot Depths. As in, these are the ones that can fly.
Attack Its Weak Point: The Ant Queen's massively engorged thorax will pop like a balloon in one hit, which will kill her instantly.
Big Creepy-Crawlies: They're Giant Ants. Extremely detailed ones for that matter, from the individual hair strands on their bodies, the elongated legs, the constantly moving antenna and more.
Brainwashed: The Giant Ants mounted by the Nox Monks are actually under a spell that makes them subservient and easy to control. Should that spell be broken, the ants will proceed to attack their former riders.
The Dog Bites Back: Should one knock a Nox Monk riding a Giant Ant off its mount, the spell keeping the ant controlled will be broken and they will immediately attack their former master. Interestingly, the Ants even have a semi-unique animation^note for their grab attack specifically for the Nox Monks.
Five-Second Foreshadowing: These oversized critters can be encountered by heading down the elevator in Liurnia, in which just a few steps ahead, lie a group of Giant Ants clinging around the cave entrance to their nest. They are visibly introduced in a very clear and obvious view as there is a small crack in the ceiling of the cavern which shines light just perfectly onto where the ants are. They're pretty much there to indicate what to expect.
Fragile Speedster: Though they're large and fast, they're not the sturdiest, and tend to die in a few hits.
Insect Queen: Naturally. The queen is non-aggressive and don't respawn when killed, but will turn all the ants around her hostile. There are several more queens in the Deeproot Depths ant colony, including three in one room.
Jump Scare: A decent amount of them are placed like this. Some ants cling to the ceiling while a few are burrowed underground, only popping out on approach.
Luckily, My Shield Will Protect Me: One variant has an armored head that it will use to block your attacks, taking very little damage compared to anywhere else on their bodies. You can even find one of their severed heads to use as an actual shield.
Mythology Gag: These giant, acid-spitting ants bear reference to the "giant corrosive ants" mentioned in the description of the corrosive urn from Dark Souls II.
One-Hit Kill: Shooting the abdomen of the extremely bloated ants will kill them in one hit.
Stationary Enemy: Ants with bloated abdomens lack the ability to move, often relying on the colony to come to their aid.
Use Your Head: There are variants that possess a massive head that protect their much squishier body and use to flatten the Tarnished with.

Claymen

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/clayman.jpg

Former humans that dwell in the caves and ruins of the underground regions. The Clayman Ashes summons two of them.

Bubble Gun: Unarmed Claymen are able to cast Oracle Bubbles and Great Oracle Bubble.
I'm Melting!: Upon death they collapse into a pile of clay.
Mighty Glacier: They are incredibly slow but are all armored and hard to stagger, and can deal decent amounts of damage if they get near.
The Morlocks: Transformed humans that live in the underground caverns and ruins of the Lands Between.
Rolling Attack: If the Tarnished is far away, they will roll towards them to get near enough to attack.
Was Once a Man: Former priests that ventured to the underground ruins in search of ancient dynasties, only to be transformed by the underground environment.
Zerg Rush: They are often encountered in large groups.

Malformed Stars

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/malformed_star.jpg

Dragonfly-like creatures said to have come from the stars. They attach themselves to ceilings and attack by throwing a barrage of rocks.

Attack Its Weak Point: Hitting the head deals more damage than the rest of its body.
Beast with a Human Face: Their overall build is fairly insectoid in shape, but they have skeletal human arms as well as a human skull for a head.
Eldritch Abomination: A mixture of Humanoid and Animalistic Abomination. As star spawns, they originate from outer space and wield gravity powers which are foreign to the Erdtree and its Golden Order.
Fantasy Aliens: To the point it becomes their classification name. Unlike Alabaster and Onyx Lords, the Malformed Stars appear to lack or have failed to develop sapience, and as such are threats to pretty much all other lifeforms in the Lands Between.
Fisher Kingdom: Like the other star spawns, this is implied to be the cause of their weird Mix-and-Match Critter biology. The meteorites which carried them seem to have struck underground locations (as Ainsel River is), and as a result the star spawns were exposed to the remains of humans and insects, as well as mined crystals.
Gravity Master: Just as capable of gravity manipulation as any other star spawn, Malformed Stars in particular use it to cling onto walls and ceilings as well as fling rocks to attack from a distance.
Metamorphosis Monster: Implied to be older forms of Fallingstar Beasts, as well as younger forms of Astel, Naturalborn of the Void.
Mix-and-Match Critter: On top of their rock biology, these creatures have a dragonfly-like torso made up of crystals, the head of a human skull equipped with a large insectoid mandibles, and a pair of long, emaciated human arms.
Unique Enemy: They're not strong enough to be called bosses, there are only three of them in the entire game, and they don't respawn.

Nokron and Nokstella, The Twin Eternal Cities

Nox Monks

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/nox2.png

A cold-blooded race of monks who worship the night found throughout the sister Eternal Cities of Nokron and Nokstella. There are three types: The Swordstresses, the Priests and the Nightmaidens. Two sisters, a Nightmaiden and a Swordstress, can be summoned as puppets. Interestingly enough, these two apparently became puppets willingly.

Advanced Ancient Humans: Long before the advent of Raya Lucaria, the Nox were another civilization who learned how to draw power from the Dark Moon, which they appear to have used to in attempts to create weapons (such as the Dragonkin Soldiers) with which they could supplant the Golden Order.
Ambiguously Related: The Swordstresses and Monks are referred to as "MarikaLineageWoman" and "MarikaLineageMan" by the code for their AI, implying they might be Numen; the same race the Black Knife assassins and Marika herself belong to.
Blindfolded Vision: Nox Swordstresses and Nightmaidens wear crowns with silk blindfolds.
Dug Too Deep: It's implied their constant experimentation with the Dark Moon's power unwittingly attracted an Astel's attention and lead to it destroying their third city.
Horse of a Different Color: Some of them ride Giant Ants.
Laser-Guided Karma: The ones riding Giant Ants keep their mounts controlled with magic. Knocking them off their mounts will break the spell, resulting in the ant immediately attacking their former rider.
Mad Scientist: The Nox were banished underground by the Greater Will for using Glintstone magic to tamper with life in a fashion it saw as blasphemous. Some of their greatest hits:
- The Albinaurics are the products of Noxian rituals.
- The Silver Tears are failed attempts to create a Lord of Night for themselves.
- The Puppet magic Seluvis uses was originally their design, as seen by the Nightmaiden and Swordstress Puppets.
- The Dragonkin Soldiers were engineered by the Nox to gain the power of the ancient dragons. They were a failure but made great war machines.
- The worst offence that probably spurred the Greater Will to a rare personal intervention is the Fingerslayer Blade, a weapon crafted from a corpse able to kill the otherwise immortal Two Fingers.
Male Might, Female Finesse: The female swordstresses wield flowing swords, in contrast with the male priests and their flowing hammers.
Morph Weapon: The flowing sword and flowing hammer weapons the swordstresses and priests wield are crafted from the core of a Silver Tear, allowing them to briefly shift a liquid state with the Flowing Form skill, where they instead act as whips.

Silver Tears

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/silver_tear.png

Silvery blobs found throughout the Eternal Cities, part of the cities failed attempts at creating their own lord.

Special variants known as Mimic Tears can also be found in both Nokron and Nokstella as well as throughout the Lands Between, where they're capable of either mimicking other large creatures, generic humanoids, or in the case of boss variants, can perfectly copy the Tarnished's current equipment for their own use. The spirit ashes of a Mimic Tear can be found in a chest in Nokron.

Action Bomb: In Nokstella, some Silver Tears are charged with lightning and explode on death. If near other charged Silver Tears when this happens, it could set off a chain reaction.
Bait-and-Switch Boss: There are some Mimic Tears that are disguised as normal enemies throughout The Lands Between. When they're "killed", they instead transform into a much more dangerous enemy.
Blob Monster: Amorphous blobs who can attack with spikes formed from their bodies and make shields from them as well.
Boss-Altering Consequence: The Mimic Tear boss copies your equipment and spells. As such, if you were to remove your equipment before entering the arena and then reequip them during the battle, you can turn the fight into a Curb-Stomp Battle.
Deity of Human Origin: They were an attempt by the Nox Monks to create their own equivalent of the Elden Lord, the Lord of Night.
Elite Mooks: The non-boss Mimic Tears are basically humanoid NPC enemies with a special intro. One such mimic can even transform into a troll.
Expy: The ones with shields are reminiscent of the Hoplites from Demon's Souls, being amorphous blobs with a shield to protect them.
Full-Frontal Assault: The humanoid Silver Tears wear no clothing whatsoever.
Logical Weakness:
- The metallic bodies of the Silver Tears are extremely vulnerable to electric attacks, and this can make short work of the armored Tears.
- The boss Mimic Tear can only mimic what the Tarnished has equipped when they enter. Stripping down to practically nothing to trick the Mimic into transforming without any defenses and/or tricking it into copying Daedicar's Woe (which increases damage done to you) is a perfectly viable strategy. Despite its original nonhuman form, it also becomes vulnerable to Frenzy once it's copying the Tarnished.
Mirror Boss: Boss Mimic Tears copy the Tarnished's current equipment, which includes throwables, consumables and even spells.
Recurring Boss: The Stray Mimic Tear boss can be found in the Hidden Path to the Haligtree, and it's functionally the same as the Mimic Tear boss that’s encountered in Nokron.
Rock Monster: Silver Spheres take on the form of giant boulders.
Unique Enemy: Four Silver Tears encountered at the Night's Sacred Ground in Nokron will transform into a human when fighting the Tarnished, which unique appearances for each one as well.

Fallen Hawks Soldiers

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/fallen_soldier_3.jpg

Soldiers of the Company of the Fallen Hawk sent to Nokron, only to become forgotten and mutated over time. The Archer Ashes and Greatshield Soldier Ashes summon the spirits of Fallen Hawks.

Barbie Doll Anatomy: They're naked but have no genitalia- or, for that matter, any physical identifier of gender at all.
Body Horror: They are pale, emaciated, shrunken and bloody, resembling Gollum.
Cold Flames: Some variants use torches and arrows imbued with ghostflame, which builds up Frostbite.
Luckily, My Shield Will Protect Me: One variant carries nothing but a greatshield, and will attempt to Shield Bash you or throw ghostflame firebombs at you. These are especially troublesome since they’re all but immune to damage from the front. The Greatshield Soldier Ashes summons five of them to fight for you.
The Morlocks: Transformed humans that live in Nokron, the Eternal City.
Was Once a Man: Former soldiers that were sent to explore Nokron, the Eternal City. When they ran out of embers, they began to burn the bones of their comrades, acquiring the cold ghostflame which somehow sealed their fate.
Zerg Rush: They are often encountered in large groups, particularly under a specific waterfall in Siofra Aqueducts.

Baleful Shadow (Unmarked Questline Spoilers)

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/baleful_shadow.jpg

A Shadowbound Beast sent by Ranni's Two Fingers to assassinate her. Ranni tasks the Tarnished with taking them out so that she may confront her Two Fingers unimpeded.

Ambiguously Related: Their sword has the visual effect of Malekith's Rune of Death but mechanically acts like the Godskins' blackflame. Considering their supposed faith in the Two Fingers, use of the latter doesn't make much sense.
Assassin Outclassin': Sent by Ranni's Two Fingers in order to kill her, only to be taken down by the Tarnished.
Foil: To Blaidd. Blaidd is a Shadowbound Beast to Ranni that would do everything to protect her, partners with the Tarnished due to their assistance with the ice witch, and his sword is imbued with frost as a show of loyalty to her. The Baleful Shadow is a Shadowbound Beast dispatched by Ranni's Two Fingers to kill her for her defiance, invades and attacks the Tarnished for siding with her, and their sword is imbued with black flames as a show of loyalty to the Two Fingers.
Hellfire: Imbues their sword with the black flame of Destined Death.
Last of Their Kind: Ranni refers to the Baleful Shadow in the plural when speaking about them, and when the Tarnished confronts this shadow, Ranni remarks that they're the last one. This suggests that other assassins like them were sent to kill Ranni, only to fail and most likely be killed.
Mini-Boss: They have a ton of HP, deal a significant amount of damage, have a unique move set, and taking them down is needed in order to complete Ranni's questline. The only reason they're often not considered a "real" boss is the lack of a boss-style health bar and fog wall.
Moveset Clone: They look exactly like Blaidd and have the same attacks as him, with one major difference being that they can heal themselves with a Crimson Flask.
Unusable Enemy Equipment: Their version of Blaidd's Royal Greatsword, which is imbued with Destined Death cannot be obtained by the player.
Wolf Man: Being a Shadowbound Beast, they're a half-wolf just like Blaidd.

Lake of Rot

Astels

Astel, Naturalborn of the Void

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/astel.jpg

A class of huge meteor-caster malformed stars capable of calamitous destruction. The largest and most powerful of alien entities who emerged out of Falling Stars which fell to Lands Between, the Astels are also among the oldest star spawn creatures which roam the realm. Two are encountered: the Naturalborn of the Void and the Stars of Darkness.

Given the character's role in the game's lore and story-related quests, the Naturalborn is a Walking Spoiler, so all spoilers are unmarked.

Almighty Idiot: They command a power over gravity so great that it rivals even the Demigods, but the Astels appear to be nonsentient and have no motivations beyond attacking anything that seems like a threat.
Ambiguously Evil: It's not clear if Astel attacked the Eternal Cities out of malice or, like the Fallingstar Beasts, it's just operating on copied animalistic instinct.
Ambiguous Situation: There's some implications that the Naturalborn of the Void was sent to Nokstella by the Greater Will as punishment for their blasphemy and attampted betrayal, but it's never explicitly stated or confirmed; part of this theory revolves around the fact that the Elden Beast, the prime servant of the Greater Will in the Lands Between and soul of the Elden Ring, was originally a falling star like the Astels, and shares some attacks with them like the hand-swipe that leaves an exploding nebula.
Attack Its Weak Point: The head is the only body part which the Tarnished can get a Critical Hit in.
Bastard Bastard: "Naturalborn" is a polite euphemism for a bastard, and furthermore, the weapon obtained through his Remembrance is called Bastard's Stars.
Celestial Body: Examination of its character model reveals that its tail and torso look like they’re made of many planets clustered together, with two orange suns in the mix.
Combat Pragmatist: Whenever you enter Astel's boss arena, more often than not you'll find him already charging up his Gravity Ray attack, giving you barely a fraction of a second between resuming control of your character and getting blasted.
Cosmic Horror Reveal: Players can learn about the Moon and Stars and how their power is the origin of Glintstone Sorcery early on, but the true magnitude of these implications only become apparent after encountering the Naturalborn at the end of a long trek through the ruins of a previous civilisation (Nokstella) that relied upon their patronage. After many hints that the Moon Ranni champions would be a much less harmful master for the Lands Between then the bigoted Golden Order or the malicious Outer Gods, Astel serves as a reminder that its influence can be just as cataclysmic.
Eldritch Abomination: Like the Malformed Stars above, a mix of Animalistic and Humanoid. Among the oldest and most powerful of the Star-Spawn, the Astels are even greater examples than their lesser bretheren. It is enormous and its mere presence seems to warp reality around itself, on top of displaying much greater displays of gravity magic than almost anything else in the game. Its body is also especially uncanny, even by the game standards, and can roughly be described as a large body seemingly made out of celestial spheres, a chain of crystal orbs as a tail, dragonfly wings, multiple emaciated arms, and a humanoid head with oversized mandibles and a large eye inside of it.
Eyes Do Not Belong There: Its giant, eerily human skull has a large eye with glowing blue irises and black sclerae.
Fantasy Aliens: As with all Star Spawn. But the Astels stand out because they're implied to be much closer to what the species naturally looks like without their forms having changed to match their environment, hence the epithet Naturalborn.
Fisher King: The Naturalborn's boss arena has what looks like a night sky saturating the background which fades into a normal cave once after its death. This is implied to be a portal to the "lightless void" it was born in and where all the Star Spawn originate from.
Gravity Master: The Astels display a mastery of Gravity Sorcery surpassing even (at least in his current mindless state) Radahn. On top of firing gravity beams and casting gravity magics on quantities and area of effect the Tarnished could never hope to match, they can summon numerous small meteors directly from "the Void" and even distort space to teleport.
King Mook: Smaller starspawn greatly resembling Astel and using toned down but similar abilities can be found infrequently around the Lands Between.
Lightning Bruiser: They move much faster and more fluidly than anything their size have any right to, strike very hard with their tails, claw swipes and mandible grab attacks, and can cast gravity magics for both long range bombardment and localized area of effect attacks, on top of teleportation.
Meaningful Name: Aster means "star" in Latin.
Meteor-Summoning Attack: Can call forth a meteor shower to bombard the Tarnished. Defeating Astel, Stars of Darkness rewards you with the spell Meteorite of Astel, which lets you do the same. Apparently it’s the very power that destroyed the Eternal City.
Mix-and-Match Critters: Astels have the proportions of a giant dragonfly but with cosmic rocks making up most of their bodies, three pairs of long emaciated arms, a bare humanoid skull for a head with large insectoid mandibles, and a scorpion-like tail longer than his entire body made out of crystalline substance.
Optional Boss: There are two Astels available to be fought and neither are mandatory to finish the game, and the Naturalborn of the Void fight is only required if the player wants to go for "Age of the Stars" ending.
Non-Standard Character Design: The Lands Between are home to many creatures suffering from Body Horror, but Astel stands out in just how alien it looks. While the other star spawns at least have a chance as passing as creatures native to earth, Astel could be mistaken for a runaway Great One.
Noodle Incident: There is no explanation given for why or how the Stars of Darkness is in Yelough Anix tunnel.
Palette Swap: Astels share the same models as the Malformed Stars, albeit with their tails colored and less desaturated.
Person of Mass Destruction: "Person" probably isn't the right word; but the Naturalborn is most famous for having completely obliterated one of the Nox's Eternal Cities, with all that's left of it being some ruins in the Deeproot Depths.
Recurring Boss: An odd case as both of its battles are cases of Optional Boss. Its "primary" encounter, which drops its unique Remembrance and is required for Ranni's questline, occurs at the Lake of Rot. Meanwhile, a completely optional, much stronger version called "Astel, Stars of Darkness" can be encountered in Yelough Anix Tunnel, an optional dungeon only accessible near the end of the game.
Squishy Wizard: Compared to the other apex starspawn, the Fallingstar Beasts, Astels are a lot more vulnerable in a direct physical confrontation, but they have more powerful magic abilities than the Beasts.
Tail Slap: Their tails are shockingly prehensile despite being made out of stone, capable of striking the Tarnished from a fair distance away. Given the tails are entirely made out of crystals, they can effectively function as an Epic Flail.
Thinking Up Portals: Astels can summon portals to either teleport from place to place, or summon a barrage of meteors.
Walking Spoiler: Specifically the Naturalborn of the Void. It can only be fought near the end of Ranni's quest line, one of the quests which unlocks an alternate ending of the game, and understanding the lore and mystery surrounding them reveals horrible implications about the “Age of the Stars” she seeks to bring about.
Was Once a Man: There are some implications in Sellen's quest that "stars" like Astel, rather than being natural creatures, are former humans (or other races) changed by the primeval current. After delving into the primeval current, Lusat's head gets replaced by an orb that has the same texture as an Astel's "eye", and the description of the orb notes that it replaced Lusat's brain; the official Elden Ring Twitter account stated that "to master the primeval mysteries, Lusat transcended his own flesh." The Astels, Malformed Stars, and Fallingstar Beasts all have (giant) human skulls surrounding their "eyes", which are located right where their brains should be. Most notable of all, both the Graven-Mass and Graven-School Talismans state that "the seeds of stars" are made up of (human) sorcerers mashed together into stone balls, implying the Graven Masses are the egg stage of the Astel's life cycle (which fits it resembling an antlion's). It should be noted that the starspawn share a lot of motifs with the Great Ones from one of From Software's previous game, and at least some of them explicitly were former humans.

Deeproot Depths

Basilisks

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/basilisk_9.png

Our friends are back. Hooray. Familiar frog-like creatures with oversized eye-like poison sacs that spew deadly smoke upon travelers. They can be found primarily in underground areas.

Basilisk and Cockatrice: The former, though they still don't resemble conventional depictions of the monster.
Beware the Silly Ones: They look ridiculous, though also rather creepy. Even more now that they have a droopy look on their large eyeballs, but don't forget that their smoke can inflict instant death if you're in contact with it for too long.
Breath Weapon: As usual, they'll breathe out a toxic cloud that inflicts Curse, or rather "Death", upon your character unless you back away in time. This marks them as creatures spawned by the death prince, since Those Who Live In Death spread the Deathblight just like Basilisks do.
Death Glare: Invoked with their exceptionally large eye-shaped poison sacs, which are there for likely for intimidation and to confuse their prey. They also mark Basilisks as creatures spawned by the Death Prince, Godwyn's identity post-assassination; their eyes are shaped almost exactly like the Death Prince's that you see in the Deeproot Depths if you follow Fia's questline.
One-Hit Kill: As is tradition, the cloud they breathe out will instantly kill you if you stay in it too long.
Reused Character Design: They're the same old basilisks from Dark Souls with a fresh new coat of paint. Their arms are now spiked and the look on their fake eyes is dopey rather than a wide-open Death Glare.

Broken Statues

Damaged gargoyles who have been repurposed to act as sentries, guarding areas in both Deeproot Depths and Leyndell, Royal Capital.

An Arm and a Leg: Their limbs have broken off, leaving them in their immobile, decrepit state.
Breath Weapon: Breathes fire towards the Tarnished should they spot them.
Failed a Spot Check: Because of their immobility, an easy way to take them out is to simply go behind them, as they cannot turn around.
Glass Cannon: They don't possess a lot a health, but their fire breath can easily take down anyone who's hit by it.
Stationary Enemy: As a result of their limbs breaking off, they cannot move at all.
Two-Faced: Like the non-damaged gargoyles, their face is actually two faces mended together.

Fia's Champions

The spirits of those who had embraced Fia, now summoned to defend her near Godwyn's corpse. Two of the spirits are character specific while the rest use random player builds.

Ambiguous Situation: You may potentially find Lionel's armor set at a house in Leyndell from what appears to be his corpse alongside a Deathbed Companion, yet you could still summon him normally for the Radahn Festival. Ignoring time shenanigans, it's possible he was summoned by Fia to help assist against Radahn, though why she does is not known. The Radahn fight is required to access Deeproot depths, but whether she knew that or not is unsaid.
Assist Character: Lionel is one of many the participants of the Radahn Festival and can be summoned to help with the fight. It's unknown if he's still alive or if Fia is helping fight Radahn through him.
Dueling Player Characters: Like the Knights of the Great-Jar, three of the spirits summoned during this boss fight use builds randomly taken from players who hugged Fia.
Et Tu, Brute?: The second spirit that's summoned is none other than Sorcerer Rogier, the friendly sorcerer that the Tarnished can meet at Stormveil Castle. However, given than Rogier apologizes to the Tarnished for anything that may happen after his death, it's unclear whether or not he's doing this of his own free will.
Magic Knight: Aside from Sorcerer Rogier, Lionel is armed with a Great Epee, but can use the Prince of Death's Staff to cast Fia's Mist, which creates a cloud of Deathblight.
Parental Substitute: The descripion of Lionel's Set reveals that when Lionel met Fia, he declared himself to be her father.
Aseo: "Lionhearted" my ass! There's only one word for a guy who decides out of the blue that he's a total stranger's father, and it's "Creep."
Posthumous Character: The two set Champions. Lionel's set is found in Leyndell in a situation (on a corpse next to a bed with a Deathbed Dress) that implies that Fia either tried to revive him or gave him a Mercy Kill, and Sorcerer Rogier dies from Deathblight after stumbling upon Godwyn's face under Stormveil. As the others are randomly taken from player builds, it's unknown whether they're diagetically supposed to be other Tarnished who lost sight of Grace and died for good, since in practice the players might not have even died since they hugged Fia and it's theoretically possible to encounter yourself as one of Fia's Champions.
Recurring Element: Another iteration of players being summoned by an outside force to fight against someone. The fact that they're summoned to defend a specific person harkens back to the Spears of the Church.
Sequential Boss: The first spirit takes on a random build, the second spirit is Sorcerer Rogier, and the last three spirits are Lionel the Lionhearted and two spirits with random builds.

Volcano Manor

Abductor Virgins

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/abductor_virgin.jpg

Autonomous iron maiden-like devices sent out to kidnap people and take them to Volcano Manor. They come in two variants: One with massive sickle blades attached to chains, and another with grinding wheels that make them deceptively maneuverable.

Animal Motifs: Though very subtle, these machines have snake motifs that link them to Praetor Rykard and his inquisition. Looking past the red mist inside them reveals that the Abductor Virgins are actually piloted by snakes.
Attack Its Weakpoint: Their grab attack leaves their internals vulnerable if it misses, and attacking it will deal much more damage than normal.
Dual Boss: Two can be fought at once at the Volcano Manor, one with sickle arms, one with grinder arms.
Human Traffickers: As can be guessed from their names, these constructs were once used to teleport victims across distances without them being intercepted by other soldiers. Most have lost this power save one under the windmill in the Liurnia Academy. Considering you find yourself in an area adjacent to Rykard's dungeons if it kills you in its insides, it does not paint a pretty picture what they where used for.
Iron Maiden: It's basically an iron maiden scaled up and made into an autonomous attack machine, though it doesn't damage people trapped inside with a spiked lining.
Logical Weakness: As iron constructs, lightning will do noticeably more damage against them than anything else.
Mythology Gag: Like in Bloodborne, where dying to a Snatcher will lead to early access to a late-game area, getting killed by a certain Abductor found in the depths of the Raya Lucaria Academy will transport the Tarnished to Mt. Gelmir, probably far sooner than intended.
Spin Attack: The variant with sickles can spin rapidly, increasingly widening their radius of attack.
Unique Enemy:
- The Abductor Virgin at Redmane Castle has both a sickle blade and a grinding wheel attached to it, allowing it to attack with both.
- A headless Abductor Virgin can be encountered at the Hermit Village in Mt. Gelmir. It's visibly malfunctioning, with sparks flying out of it, and attacks much more erratically and aggressively.
You Will Not Evade Me: After a wind-up, the sickle variant fires one of its sickle arms at you and drag you directly in front of it. It shortly unleashes its Combat Tentacles for an often lethal grab.

Man-Serpents

Bipedal serpentine humanoids who reside exclusively in the Volcano Manor. One armed with the Magma Whip Candlestick can be summoned with the Man-Serpent Ashes.

Abnormal Limb Rotation Range: They can twist their upper halves a full 180 degrees in either orientation to try to attack a Tarnished behind them.
Animal Motifs: They match the serpentine theming of the rest of Volcano Manor, and the snakelike appearance of Rykard after merging with the God-Devouring Serpent.
Extendable Arms: Well, Extendable Neck, but they can stretch their necks out to bite and slash at the Tarnished from a longer range than might be expected. Then again, they're snakes.
Hot Blade: The basic version of the Man-Serpents wield a simple sword and a shield, but in the second half of Volcano Manor, some begin to appear using swords with molten magma serving as the blade, and they can appropriately channel fire-based attacks with it.
Immune to Fire: They can sometimes be found hiding in lava without any issue, and are highly resistant to any fire damage that they player can try to use on them.
Magma Man: Heavily associated with the Volcano Manor's magma magic, albeit that they don't cast any themselves- the sole Man-Serpent sorcerer, who drops the Gelmir Glintstone Staff, uses regular glintstone sorcery. They are, however, able to craft weapons out of lava, a feat described as "impossible for a human," and they are heavily resistant to fire damage to the point of being able to stand on Mt. Gelmir's lava without harm.
Poisonous Person: They can grab the Tarnished in their jaws and inflict poison on them, dealing damage in the process.
Snakes Are Sinister: They look like orange-scaled snakes with comically thin limbs and extendable necks, and are universally hostile to the Tarnished. With the sole exception of Rya.
Unique Enemy: A Man-Serpent sorcerer is encountered before the waygate to Rykard's arena. It's distinguished by the large egg sack worn over its head along with its red cape, and is able to cast Glintstone Pebble and Great Glintstone Shard.
Use Your Head: The Man-Serpent sorcerer will slam the egg sack over its head onto the Tarnished should they get near it.
Variant Power Copying: The Man-Serpent sorcerer wears a large egg sack over its head, seemingly an attempt to mimic the glintstone crowns worn by the Raya Lucaria scholars. Whether or not this actually increases its intelligence is unknown.

Serpent Snails

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/serpent_snail.jpg

Strange snail-snake hybrid creatures that lurk in the dark, hidden corners of the Volcano Manor and the ruins of Nokstella, Eternal City.

Animal Motifs: They're the first hint of the snake motifs that will continue throughout much of the rest of Volcano Manor.
Breath Weapon: Crystal Snails are able to breathe crystals which cause frostbite.
Ceiling Cling: Often cling to ceilings to drop down on the Tarnished as they navigate the areas they're found in.
Crystalline Creature: The Crystal Snails have crystals growing on their shells which they use for camouflage.
Dem Bones: Skeletal Snails, as their name suggests, are skeletal in appearance and have a large human skull as their shell.
Mix-and-Match Critters: They look like snakes, complete with scales and hissing forked tongues, but instead of eyes they have a snail's retractable eye-stalks, and they have a snail's shell in the center of their backs, but with a snake's tail poking out behind the shell.
Poisonous Person: They like to spit poison and their basic biting attacks build it up.
Shy Shelled Animal: Averted with the Crystal Snails. They hide in their shells to blend in with their environment and reveal themselves to attack anyone that gets near them.
Underground Monkey: Crystal and skeletal variants can be encountered in the wild as well, and attack by breathing out crystals and homing skulls, respectively.

Altus Plateau

Brown Slugs

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/brown_slug.jpg

Giant man-eating slugs that can be found in places infested with filth, such as sewers or toxic swamps. Sometimes a perpetually burning variant can be found, setting things on fire.

Early-Bird Cameo: Burning Slugs can be found in small groups around Limgrave and Liurnia, setting their surroundings alight.
The Goomba: They are extremely weak and slow-moving (they are slugs, after all). They are usually encountered in groups, but even that does little to raise their threat level. The only reason they're a threat at all is the fact that they're man-sized.
Living Lava: Based on their appearance, the fiery ones seem to be made of magma.
Playing with Fire: Burning slugs will spew fire towards any Tarnished that gets near them.
Poisonous Person: The most dangerous thing they can do is spit poison at the Tarnished.
Reused Character Design: Reuse the same model and animations as the rotten slugs in Dark Souls III.
Underground Monkey: Burning Slugs can also be encountered, and they deal fire damage instead of poison.

Wormfaces

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/wormface2.png

Voiced by: Kevin Howarth, Laurie Brett

Very tall humanoid creatures with a giant mass of worms for a face that inhabit the fog-shrouded forests of the Atlus Plateau.

Attack Its Weak Point: Hitting the worms on their heads does large amounts of damage, though it can be difficult to do so with melee attacks.
Bizarre Sexual Dimorphism: Code examination reveals that the giant Wormfaces are all female, while the smaller, regular enemy variant are all male.
Cthulhumanoid: Their faces are nothing but a mass of worm-like tentacles.
Degraded Boss: A female Wormface is fought as a boss near the Minor Erdtree in Atlus Plateau. Non-respawning ones are later fought at Mt. Gelmir (which is actually a Mimic Tear) and Crumbling Farum Azula.
Due to the Dead: Implied; they can be found mourning near graves.
In the Hood: They often wear a hood draped over their entire body.
It Can Think: Some wormfaces can be found sitting and seemingly conversing with each other, while others are found mourning near gravestones.
Lamprey Mouth: Their mouths, buried behind that mass of worms, are circular and ringed with teeth. The female wormfaces have worms writhing inside their mouths.
Meaningful Name: Internally, they are referred to as "Déraciné", which is French for "uprooted". This may refer to their worm-infested faces looking like a mass of tree roots pulled from the ground.
Prone to Vomiting: Their main attack is to projectile vomit worms on their victims, and letting those worms inflict Deathblight. Even when not in combat, they are constantly coughing up worms from their mouths.
Riddle for the Ages: Exactly who or what they are is left almost completely unexplained, with the tiny handful of limited clues about them boiling down to their location on Atlus Plateau and association with Deathblight seemingly connecting them to Godwyn and their presence in Crumbling Farum Azula dressed in gold wrappings rather than crude cloth covering. It can't even be conclusively demonstrated whether their current state is natural, or whether they used to be human or something else entirely.
Swallowed Whole: The female wormfaces can end up swallowing the player character if they are killed by their grab attack.
Tragic Monster: Their gibbering voices make them sound like they're in constant pain, and some can be found mourning near graves.

Celebrants

Voiced by: Mali Harries, Nia Roberts

Villagers celebrating festivities at Dominula, Windmill Village. The skull weapons they wield and the bloodstains on their dresses are a tiny hint of what their festival actually entails.

A Fête Worse than Death: It's heavily implied that Dominula's festival involves flaying people and giving their skins to the Godskin Apostle nearby.
Bad with the Bone: The weapons they wield are all crafted from human bones- except the Celebrant's Skulll, which notes in the description that the skull on top is too large to be human.
Body Horror: They're all flayed women.
Deranged Dance: They dance, sing, and laugh with each other while celebrating the festival of Dominula, and won't even attack the Tarnished unless provoked.
Expy: They are very reminiscent of the witches of Hemwick Charnel Lane.
I'm a Humanitarian: Implied, as multiple Raw Meat Dumplings can be picked up from the village and its surroundings.
Monogender Monsters: All celebrants encountered in Dominula and the surrounding area are female, and no male celebrants can be found. A few clues around the area seem to hint about where they've gone.
Night of the Living Mooks: They drop Human Bone Fragments, indicating that they are Those Who Live In Death.
Red Eyes, Take Warning: Their eyes glow red when they're aggroed.
Town with a Dark Secret: They live in one; it's heavily implied they're all Godskin Cultists, as a Godskin Apostle can be encountered at the edge of the village.
Underground Monkey: There are multiple variants, distinguished by the variants of the Festive Set they wear, weapons, and presumably position in the festival.
- Celebrant Harvesters wield two sickles and wear the Blue Festive Set, the description of which states that it's given to those who play the central role in the festivities. It's likely that they are the ones who actually skin corpses.
- Celebrant Gardeners wear the yellow Festive Set with altered headpiece (just the flower crown, not the hood) and wield the Celebrant's Rib-Rake. Presumably, they're the ones who move the bodies the other celebrants create around.
- Celebrant Butchers wear the altered Festive Set (no hood or cape) and wield cleavers. They probably butcher corpses to make them easier for the Harvesters to handle.
- Celebrant Threshers wear the unaltered Festive Set and wield the Celebrant's Skull. They seem to deal with the remains left behind after the others have done their work using their hammers to smash them to bits
- Celebrant Grenadiers wear the altered Festive Dress with unaltered Festive Hood. They throw firebombs and are presumably responsible for the piles of burning bodies around Dominula.

Maleigh Marais, Shaded Castle Castellan

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/maleigh_marais.jpg

Former Castellan of the Shaded Castle and the head of House Marais, who served as both castellans and executioners. The sons of House Marais are all born sickly, and for this reason the house admired and threw in with Malenia, the demigoddess born sick with the Scarlet Rot. They were chased away from their home by Elemer of the Briar, and now the only one to remain has gone mad, worshipping Malenia as Goddess of Rot and attacking anyone who comes near.

Abhorrent Admirer: A long-distance version, but we know that Malenia hated being worshipped for the Scarlet Rot, and this guy is a Rot cultist.
Alliterative Name: Maleigh Marais.
Cool Mask: He wears the Marais Mask, an Arcane-increasing headpiece shaped to look like the founder of the Marais family.
Disease Bleach: His hair and skin are very pale, and his family is known for being sickly.
Fisher King: The sickly Marais family (whose latest scion is obsessed with the Scarlet Rot) lives in a castle sinking into a poison swamp. Then again, maybe they’re born sickly because they live in a poison swamp.
Flunky Boss: Getting near him also causes a halberd-wielding golem to awaken and attack you.
How the Mighty Have Fallen: Maleigh was once head of a noble family with a long history as both castellans and Executioners, but Elemer chased out or killed all of his family, and now he roams the plateau, attacking everyone in sight with a sword that inflicts Scarlet Rot.
Royal Rapier: He wields the Antspur Rapier. It certainly looks fancy enough for a noble who used to own his own castle, if you don't count the fact that it's made out of a rot-coated ant stinger.
Stalker Shrine: Elemer’s boss room, apparently the Shaded Castle’s dining hall, prominently features a huge framed portrait of Malenia, multiple copies of her prosthetics mounted on either side of it, and sets of Cleanrot Knight armor lining the walls. No guesses who set all that up.

Necromancer Garris

An old necromancer found hiding deep within the Sage's Cave.

Cowardly Boss: For the most part he just tries to space you out with wide reaching magic skulls while his summons hack away at you. Closing in on him is the hardest part of the fight for most builds.
Epic Flail: Uses a special flail called Family Heads for his melee weapon. The heads of the weapon are modelled on his wife and two children, implying he made it himself.
Even Evil Has Loved Ones: He's a heretical necromancer, but he fashioned his weapon in the image of his family because he mourned them so much. It can be inferred that he pursued study of necromancy to try and bring them back.
Evil Old Folks: He's an old man with long, messy gray hair who wields heretical necromantic magic.
Expy: Being a necromancer hidden away in a cave who's implied to be mourning the loss of his family, he's a pretty clear one for Pinwheel. He isn't much harder than the aforementioned boss, either.
Skippable Boss: Garris can only be encountered through a hidden path in the Sage's Cave, and does not serve as the main boss of the cave.
Snakes Are Sinister: Aside from firing skulls and siccing phantom skeletons on you, he also sends out Skeletal Serpent Snails that are curled up inside giant skulls and can roll at you like the Wheel Skeletons from the Dark Souls series.
Squishy Wizard: His magic attacks are nothing to sneeze at, but if you can get your hands on him his health melts away like butter.

Leyndell, Royal Capital

Oracle Envoys

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/a6d70daf_2011_4fed_b101_61dc6f0e07ab.jpeg

Strange, bloodless beings said to serve as heralds of a new age. Even as the city has fallen to ruin, these inscrutable beings continue to sound their instruments. The Oracle Envoy Ashes summons a band of four of them.

Alien Blood: They bleed a pale liquid when struck, which is a slightly different color than the white blood of Albinaurics. Whatever the liquid is, it specifically isn't blood, as the White Flesh they drop is stated to come from bloodless creatures.
Blind Seer: Their weird turbans include strips of cloth covering their eyes.
Blow That Horn: Its hard to say why they keep blowing their horns, but they still persistently do even amidst complete ruin. The horn's description claims that the horn cannot be blown by a human, or the time is not yet right. They could be trying to herald the dawn of a new age.
Body Horror: The giant variants reveal that their round lower half isn't just layers of clothes, their lower bodies are actually legless fleshy balls. We can't tell what's inside the round head wrappings, but its item description says that faint whimpering can be heard deep inside, so not knowing is probably for the best...
Bubble Gun: Use their horns to fire magical bubbles, with the Large Oracle Envoys being able to fire a barrage of them.
Dissonant Serenity: The city is falling to pieces and has no sane residents left, but the Envoys keep blowing their horns and doing swirling dances regardless. Some are content to ignore you unless directly attacked.
Giant Mook: There are large Envoys that use bigger horns that can fire barrages of projectiles. An even bigger version of the Envoy is found among branches in the Haligtree that can shower you in projectiles.
Our Monsters Are Weird: They look like fleshy snowmen, move by spinning around, and attack by blowing bubbles at the player.
Vagueness Is Coming: The appearance of Oracle Envoys is said to herald the birth of a new god or the dawn of a new age.
- The ones in Leyndell are presumably there because of the player; after all, whatever you do once you finally enter the Erdtree, the age of the Golden Order is officially over.
- The ones in the Haligtree could either be there for Miquella (the Haligtree itself would've become a new Erdtree if Mohg hadn't ruined everything) or Malenia (as the second phase of her boss fight involves her temporarily becoming a god, and it's stated that if she ever bloomed again, she'd be the Goddess of Rot for good).
- 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.
- Interestingly enough, they pointedly do not spawn in Mohgwyn Palace, despite Mohg's ambitions to have Miquella become a god under the Formless Mother with himself as an Elden Lord, subtly underscoring that Mohg's goal is indeed impossible and he's kidding himself when he says his reign is "inevitable".

Pages

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/page_8.jpg

The loyal assistants and bodyguards to the nobility, recruited from those born in obscurity. Draped in anonymizing hoods and trained in fencing, they performed countless tasks before the Shattering but now mainly protect their long insane masters. The spirit of a page can be summoned with the Page Ashes.

Due to the Dead: A Page in Leyndell is seen playing a flute to a corpse, presumably their former master.
Elite Mook: Often times the deadliest human type enemy in the area, being surprisingly tanky and hard to stagger on top of their crossbows that shoot explosive Perfumer bolts. Then there are the High Pages, who are even deadlier and are equipped with Pulley Crossbows that can shoot Perfumer bolts in three round bursts, which will almost always mean instant death should all three bolts connect.
Hyper-Competent Sidekick: While the Page Ashes state that "nothing is asked of ability, talent, or volition" to become a Page, but Pages are currently much more of a threat than their masters, who are now the equivalent to Hollows.
In the Hood: Their Page Hood covers their entire face, which is meant to divert any attention towards them.
It Can Think: In contrast to their masters, they seem to still have some sanity left. Some can be seen tending to graves, conversing with perfumers, or practicing music, and when killed they use similar grunts to Tarnished instead of the crazed snarls of the Lordsworn.
Royal Rapier: As befitting the loyal retainers of the Nobility, they are equipped with an Estoc.
Slave Mooks: In a sense, as the Page Ashes state that people born into obscurity become Pages, and nothing is asked about whether they want to.
Underground Monkey: High Pages wear white clothing and are equipped with Pulley Crossbows.
Undying Loyalty: Nobles are long gone doddering husks. Pages can still be seen patiently watching over them.

Perfumers

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/perfumer.jpg

Thanks to their experience with chemicals and alchemy, Perfumers served as doctors and medics during times of peace. When the Shattering came along, those same skills made them into highly effective poisoners and chemical weapons experts.

One perfumer, Tricia, can be fought alongside a Misbegotten Warrior in the Unsightly Catacombs, becoming a spirit ash when defeated.

Friend to All Living Things: One traveling perfumer journeyed across the Lands Between to find new flowers and aromatics in hopes of treating Misbegotten, Omens, and those seen as impure. You can find his corpse in the Streets of Sages ruins in Caelid, along with his armor set.
From Nobody to Nightmare: Prior to the Shattering, perfumers worked as either pharmacists or perfume sellers. When war broke out, their skills in chemistry made them feared opponents on the battlefield.
It Can Think: They are seen in the capital conversing with Pages, tending to wounded Lordsworn, and generally acting much more intelligent and with purpose than most of the other survivors.
Mook Medic: They use Uplifting Aromatic to both heal and massively buff the defenses of both themselves and all other enemies in the vicinity.
Playing with Fire: Their main attack is to use Spark Aromatic, spraying explosive powder in front of them in a wide arc.
Secret Art: The art of perfuming was once closely and selfishly guarded from those outside the capital. When perfumers began fighting in the Shattering, however, their arts quickly became widely practiced throughout the Lands Between.
Squishy Wizard: They go down quick and stagger easily. However, given that they are found with large groups of other enemies and prefer to stay away from you, Shooting the Medic First will be quite a challenge.

Depraved Perfumers

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/depraved_perfumer_1.jpg

Heretical perfumers who practice their art not to tend to the sick and wounded, but purely to increase their own power.

The Depraved Perfumer Carmaan can be summoned as a spirit.

Fantastic Drug: The Depraved Perfumers are called such because they imbibe their own perfumes to "alter body and mind", and are much more ragged and dirty than regular Perfumers, making them the setting's equivalent of drug addicts.
Glass Cannon: Are as squishy as regular Perfumers and lack a defense buff, but are far more aggressive and can output a large amount of damage very quickly. They can even use Bloodboil Aromatic to increase the damage they both deal and take.
Playing with Fire: Like regular Perfumers, their main method of attack is Spark Aromatic.
Squishy Wizard: As stated above, they are just as squishy as regular Perfumers. However, instead of hiding behind groups of other enemies, they make it difficult to get close to them by relentlessly spamming Spark Aromatic, resulting in a very quick death for anyone even remotely in melee range.
Unusable Enemy Equipment: They will sometimes use a perfume that significantly heals them without providing any secondary effect, similar to drinking a Flask of Crimson Tears. Unlike the Uplifting Aromatic used by regular Perfumers, the player cannot craft this perfume.
Wicked Cultured: The Depraved Perfumer at the Village of the Albinaurics, who presumably took part in the massacre of its inhabitants, can be seen playing a flute.

Omenkillers

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/omenkiller.jpg

Former perfumers that have now taken up arms to hunt and kill Omens.

The first Omenkiller, Rollo, can be summoned as a spirit.

Badass Cape: A cape compliments their thick apron, and they are dangerous foes to encounter.
Breath Weapon: They will sometimes breathe fire while retreating.
Cool Mask: They use masks fashioned after evil spirits Omen encounter in their nightmares, with their mouth's twisted into a sadistic grin.
Degraded Boss: The first one you will likely find is the boss of the Village of the Albinaurics. There is one other boss version accompanied by Miranda, the Blighted Bloom in the Perfumer's Grotto, but the rest are all respawning normal enemies.
Emotion Suppression: Omenkillers have to take a physick that deadens their emotions so they can murder Omens without hesitation or remorse.
Expy: With their dual machete-like weapons they are reminiscent of the Capra Demons of Dark Souls. 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.
Grievous Harm with a Body: Their Great Omenkiller Cleavers are lined with the horns of Omens which cause blood loss.
Hell-Bent for Leather: They sport leather gloves and boots in their ensemble.
Hunter of Monsters: As their name suggests, they hunt down and kill Omens. Their armor set and weapons are specifically designed to intimidate and terrorize their prey.
Man of Kryptonite: Their gear specializes in killing Omens in the most efficient way possible. Their masks take on the appearance of an evil spirit known to frequently haunt the dreams of Omens, while their cleavers are lined with cut Omen horns.

Omens

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/omen.jpg

Accursed human beings who are utterly reviled. Their telltale horns are usually cut off during infancy, which leads to a high chance of the child dying in the process. Those that don't, or are of royalty and thus never have their horns cut off, are usually sent to the Subterreanean Shunning-Grounds.

Blessed with Suck: Horns and other animal growths appearing on humans is a vestige of the primordial crucible that was the Erdtree's original form. In ancient times, such growths were seen as blessings and signifiers of the divine, but under the age of the Golden Order, they became to be reviled as impurities, leading to the Omen's cursed lot in life.
BFS: Some of them wield the Omen Cleaver.
Body Horror: Omens that retain their horns have them growing all over their bodies and are genuinely difficult to look at. The dehorned ones aren't much better, but they don't look nearly as grotesque.
Breath Weapon: Horned Omens can spit blasts of cursed flame.
Boss in Mook Clothing: Horned Omens are tougher and far more aggressive than their dehorned brethren, and the majority of their attacks have hyper armor, making them nearly impossible to stagger.
Covered in Scars: Omens that survive their dehorning usually have these.
Dual Boss: The Fell Twins are two Omens, one dehorned and the other horned, that guard the path to the divine tower in Leyndell.
Due to the Dead: One Omen in the Subterranean Shunning-Grounds can be seen standing over a small grave. The talisman it drops implies that this grave is that of a child Omen.
Early-Bird Cameo: One dehorned Omen appears in Stormveil Castle.
Elite Mooks: The horned Omens are a lot tankier and have more poise than the regular Omens, which they supplement with magical projectiles and buffs that push them into Boss in Mook Clothing territory.
Fantastic Racism: Because of their association with the Crucible, due to their horn growths, they are persecuted heavily and either have their horns painfully removed and are later used as slaves or exiled into the sewers and undergrounds of Leyndell to be forgotten.
I Just Want to Be Normal: The Omen Bairn, a doll talisman which depicts a dehorned Omen child, contains the words of said child which implies they just want to be seen as normal.
Please, don't hate me, or curse me. Please.
Immune to Flinching: They get a spectacular amount of extra poise when punching and kicking, meaning that they are ironically more dangerous when not using their weapons. Swinging their axes and swords leaves them vulnerable to stunlocks, but trying to do that on an Omen ready to punch means you will get punched.
Magic Missile Storm: Horned Omens can perform an AOE explosion which summons 9-10 homing projectiles of cursed flame. Obtaining the Regal Omen Bairn lets you use the same attack.
Monstrosity Equals Weakness: Inverted. While the scars of the dehorned Omen aren't pretty-looking, Omens that have full grown horns over their bodies are both stronger and more monstrous looking.
Morton's Fork: Even setting aside all the social and spiritual stigma that surrounds being an Omen, shearing off an Omen's horns is a dangerous procedure that can kill them. But not shearing them off seems to cause the horns to grow uncontrollably, often piercing and tearing the poor Omen's flesh; one Omen in game is missing an eye from simply having his horns start to grow inward and another is barely mobile, virtually encased in his horns and seemingly in constant pain.
Mutants: Their size and horns sprouting from their bodies are natural mutations for humans living in the Lands Between. However, since it proves that a life before the Erdtree once existed, the Order has attempted to hide these growths by branding them as cursed.
Plagued by Nightmares: All Omens are said to be haunted by nightmares. The Omenkiller mask is modelled after a particular demon that frequently appears in these dreams (which raises questions as to what kind of being can haunt the dreams of an entire race).
Recurring Element: Visually, they greatly resemble the Infested Barbarians of Dark Souls, and the majority of them are found in this game's Blighttown equivalent, the Subterranean Shunning Grounds. They're significantly faster than their Dark Souls counterparts, however.
Slave Race: When they aren't living in the Shunning-Grounds, they are conscripted as soldiers due their immense strength. They're even given weapons, but those are designed to be taken back when their "wardens" feel the need to.
Unique Enemy: An Omen near the Minor Erdtree in the Capital Outskirts is able to cast Fia's Mist.
Would Hurt a Child: Non-royal Omens have their horns removed as babies, with a very high mortality rate.

Nomads

Survivors of The Golden Order’s attempt at burying the Great Caravan, having now been driven mad upon releasing the Frenzied Flame. One can be summoned with the Nomad Ashes.

Driven to Madness: Unleashing the Frenzied Flame has left them in their emaciated, maddened state - or perhaps their emaciated, maddened state unleashed the Frenzied Flame.
Early-Bird Cameo: The spirit ash of a Nomad can be acquired before they're encountered as enemies.
Glass Cannon: They have very little defense and can be taken down quickly, but their frenzied attacks will hurt immensely.
Grief Song: One Nomad can be heard playing a solemn song on their fiddle, which serves as the background music for the entire area.
Hope Spot: A rare case where it's an implied one for someone other than the player; the Nomad Ashes are found on a corpse in the Subterranean Shunning-Ground, implying that this particular Nomad was able to escape the Frenzied Flame Proscription but wasn't able to make it to the surface.
Harmless Enemy: Some Nomads will just sit and not react to the Tarnished at all, even if they are attacked.
Improbable Weapon User: They use the bows of their fiddles as weapons.
Playing with Fire: They are able to emit the flame of frenzy from their eyes.
Unique Enemy: They are only encountered on the path leading to the Three Fingers.

Esgar, Priest of Blood

A blood priest that dwells in the Leyndell Catacombs, located within the Subterranean Shunning-Grounds.

Bloodlust: Everything about this guy is associated with blood: his weapon, his incantations, the two Bleed Dogs that fight alongside him, even the talisman he drops boosts attack power when blood loss occurs nearby. It seems to come with being a priest to The Formless Mother.
Blood Magic: He uses both the Swarm of Flies and Bloodflame Talons incantations.
Bloody Murder: Both his incantations and his weapon can inflict blood loss.
Flunky Boss: He's accompanied by two Bleed Dogs. Humorously, if the Tarnished is holding the Beast-Repellent Torch, the two Bleed Dogs will not attack at all, making the fight much easier.
Glass Cannon: Being an incantation user, he doesn't have much in health nor defense. However, his use of the Reduvia along with two blood incantations can quickly drain any Tarnished of their health.
In the Hood: Wears the exaggeratedly-large Greathood, which increases intelligence and faith at the cost of health.
Psycho Knife Nut: Wields the Reduvia, a dagger favored by those who follow Mohg & The Formless Mother.
Sinister Minister: A priest that seems to revel in blood.

Mountaintops of the Giants

The Guilty

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/fire_monk.jpg

Criminals exiled to the Mountaintops of the Giants and made to serve the Fire Monks. Part of their exile included being blinded by thorns, which had the unintended side effect of letting them find something called the "Blood Star" and thus invent Aberrant Sorceries.

All of the Other Reindeer: Their magic is said to be reviled at Raya Lucaria, as it's a form of sorcery that scales with Faith instead of Intelligence.
Blood Magic: They can use blood magic to conjure massive briars to attack enemies with. This magic derives its power from red glintstone, which itself only reacts when coated with the caster's blood, necessitating that they harm themselves in order to cast magic. This magic (and the staff that they wield) are also notable for being the only sorceries that scale solely with Faith.
Carry a Big Stick: They wield the Staff of the Guilty, which isn't so much a staff as it is an entire tree branch with a red glintstone awkwardly slotted in. Bizarrely enough these staves — the version that the enemies wield, at least — seem to be still alive as they are capable of extending to twice their original length when used for melee attacks.
The Computer Is a Cheating Bastard: A minor version, but the Briars of Sin/Punishment incantations that they can use vary wildly from the player's. While the Tarnished-usable version is Cast from Hit Points upon use, the enemy-usable version isn't, allowing them to use their Blood Magic over and over without so much as a sliver of health being lost whenever they use it.
Disability Superpower: They discovered the Blood Star within the darkness caused by their forced blindness.
Eye Scream: The crown of thorns they are made to wear are lined with spikes that are then driven into their eyes, driving them irreversibly blind.
The Goomba: They are this for the Fire Monk faction, being not very strong or tough to defeat one on one. Their saving grace is that they can rack up a surprisingly high amount of damage in a short period of time, which is exacerbated by the fact that they are often found in groups.
The Hedge of Thorns: They can use two different variants of this as part of their Blood Magic: Briars of Sin, which cause a large blood briar to explode around the caster, and Briars of Punishment, which creates a hedge of blood briars to undulate along the ground to stab at enemies from afar.
Playing with Fire: Naturally capable of doing this as members of the Fire Monks, though it is to a very limited extent as they seem only capable of enchanting their staves.
Prophecies Are Always Right: The prophecy that they saw eventually ends up coming true. Although it doesn't necessarily have to be the Giants' Flame used in the process, the Tarnished ends up burning the Erdtree with the flame of ruin. Subverted in that, for the Elden Lord endings, at least, the Erdtree is restored to what it once was before it burnt down^note.
Trauma Conga Line: If being deported from their homelands and sent into the inhospitable cold of the Mountaintops, they then have their eyes gouged out and are forced to live a life of eternal self-flagellation and extreme Corporal Punishment by the hands of the Fire Monks.

Fire Monks (Blackflame Monks)

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/fire_monk_8.jpg

The Fire Monks are an ancient order established by Queen Marika herself for the purpose of sealing and protecting the Giants' Flame. Taught to fear the flame, the Fire Monks are highly trained in both close combat and offensive incantations. A Fire Monk can be summoned as a spirit, and the Renowned Spirit Ashes Blackflame Monk Amon can be found in the Hidden Path to the Haligtree.

Some of the Fire Monks, however, have turned traitor and allied themselves with the Godskins. Rechristened as Blackflame Monks, they are capable of wielding the god-slaying black flame with destructive efficiency.

Boss in Mook Clothing: The Blackflame Monks are much stronger and tougher than the normal, red-robed versions, boasting almost bloated amounts of HP and damage. This discrepancy is reflected in their respective Spirit Ashes, as while the Fire Monk Spirit Ashes simply summon a nameless Elite Mook, the Blackflame Monks' equivalent lets you summon the Renowned Spirit Ashes, Blackflame Monk Amon.
Church Militant: The faith of the Fire Monks is based around protecting the Giants' Flame from anyone who might use it against the Erdtree, and to this end they're all highly capable warrior monks who wield their flameblades and flamemaces with deadly efficiency. This also serves them well in their secondary role of teaching people to fear the Giants' Flame, which they do by beating the crap out of their foes with equipment made to resemble the giants and their fire.
Crisis of Faith: Many of the Fire Monks are actually undergoing a version of this, as while they are taught to derive their faith from fear of the flame by their doctrine, viewing the flame as taboo inadvertently inspired worship of the Giants' Flame itself. No wonder some of them opted to join the Godskins instead.
Elite Mook: The Fire Monks are in charge of corralling around the Guilty, and to reflect this they have much higher health, poise and damage output than them and spawn much less frequently. The flameblade-wielding monks seem to be the elite among the elite, as they have more damage and health than the mace-wielders.
Fanatical Fire: Their ability to harness flame comes directly from their faith, and they are much more proficient at harnessing it than the Guilty.
Forbidden Fruit: Are currently suffering the consequences of this trope. Fire Monks are taught to draw power from the Giant's Flame by fearing it so as to use it against itself, but many monks have lost sight of their fear as "the seduction of a taboo is never easily spurned." Some monks have taken it even further by allying themselves to another apocalyptic fire- the Blackflame.
Hellfire: Due to flames as a whole not being held at high regard in the Lands Between, both can be considered a type of hellfire. The Giants' Flame as wielded and guarded by the Fire Monks is one of two Outer God powers capable of burning down the Erdtree, while the blackflame shares its roots with Destined Death, and is such, is capable of killing gods.
The Heretic: The Blackflame Monks are part of a legacy of turncoats that started with Amon. Though Amon's lore states that he fled the order out of cowardice, those who followed after him sought the black flame after being enthralled by its power instead.
In the Hood: Both flavors of Fire Monks wear rather spiffy chainmail hoods as part of their holy robes.
Manly Facial Hair: All of them sport an unkempt but well-shaped full beard that covers their entire upper lip, lower jaw and then some. In the Fire Monks' case their beard is red to match their robes, while the Blackflame Monks' beards have seemingly turned gray.
Non-Indicative Name: Despite their association with fire and using Giant iconography in their weapons and clothing, the Fire Monks are actually the sworn enemies of the Fire Giants and their Fell God; their doctrine is to fear and imprison the flame, and the Fire Giant iconography is to make sure that others associate the Fell God with getting the crap beaten out of them by Fire Monks. That said, some monks have been lured by the taboo of the flame and actually do worship it.
Playing with Fire: As their name suggests, they are capable of seamlessly weaving flame incantations in between their melee attacks.
Religion of Evil: While the Fire Monks themselves aren't this, instead teetering on the more "extremist" end of Well-Intentioned Extremist, the Blackflame Monks qualify fully for this trope as they willingly serve an Ancient Evil-worshipping cult consisting of god-skinning serial killers.
Unique Enemy: Blackflame Monks are among the rarest enemies that respawn. There are only three in the entire game: two at Radahn's Divine Tower and another at Volcano Manor.
Unusable Enemy Equipment:
- While both varieties of monks will drop their respective armor set, only the regular Fire Monks can drop their weapons. The game does not tell you this, even though the Monk's Flameblade is far more commonly seen wielded by Blackflame Monks.
- Blackflame Monks can cast a Blackflame version of "O, Flame!" that cannot be obtained by the player.
Warrior Monk: Their faith in their order's purpose allows them to harness fire incantations, which they use alongside maces and greatswords to destroy anyone who tries to reach the peak of the Mountaintops of the Giants.

Fire Prelates

Abbots in charge of the Fire Monks who wield massive weapons, distinctively rotund armor and more powerful incantations of the Giants' Flame. Their purpose in their organization is to inspire faith and instill fear in the flame, through any means necessary.

All for Nothing: Despite their efforts they've put in to inspire faith in their fellow guardians and the lengths they've went through to keep the Erdtree-ending Giants' Flame out of the hands of anyone who'd misuse it, it proves all for naught as the Tarnished strongarms their way through the Fire Monks' defenses, slays the Fire Giant and burns the Erdtree. Even worse, it turns out that there's a different, even more destructive flame capable of burning the Erdtree in the form of the Frenzied Flame, and the Fire Monks were kept unaware of this threat until it was too late.
Asskicking Leads to Leadership: They are the head honchos of the Fire Monks, and between their high damage and poise, massive health pools and fire incantations, they can easily turn an unprepared Tarnished into paste.
Boss in Mook's Clothing: While all of but one of them respawn, their numbers are far and few between and they're definitely much harder to kill than the average Fire Monk.
Church Militant: The entire purpose of their order is to guard the Giants' Flame from anyone who might use it against the Erdtree, while not falling to its lure themselves. The Prelates accomplish this duty with giant hammers, whips, and powerful fire magic, while also serving to police their fellow monks to make sure they're properly fearing the flame.
Expy: The hammer-wielding Prelates are a dead ringer for Executioner Smough, if he'd learned Pyromancy on the side. They can even use Smough's signature Foe-Tossing Charge-with-a-hammer attack — albeit theirs is powered up with the addition of a trail of red-hot Giants' Flame being left in their wake of their charge.
Fat Bastard: Played With. Their armor only makes them look fat. That said, they are still bastards of some kind given the gauntlet of Corporal Punishment that they run the hapless Guilty through.
Fanatical Fire: Much like the Fire Monks, their ability to harness the Giants' Flame comes from their faith, although the Prelates display more finesse and discipline in their use of it. Their distinctive cauldron-shaped helmet is said to contain an ember that burns brighter in response to their faith, which they can put to deadly use in battle by igniting the ember and raining down a constant hail of Fireballs.
Heroic Sacrifice: The most eminent Prelate of the order, Birac, is said to have become indignant with how lax his former Monks have becoming in his duty. To teach them a lesson, he decapitated himself and had his severed head — with cauldron-helm still worn around it — fused to a candlestand as an eternal reminder of their failure. And then, in a bizarre twist of fate, said candlestand eventually ends up being used by the Tarnished as a makeshift, fire-spewing warhammer.
Humongous-Headed Hammer: Some of the Prelates wield an utterly colossal great hammer dubbed the Prelate's Inferno Crozier, with a head modeled after undulating flames and colored blood red from top to bottom.
Playing with Fire: Naturally their forté as leaders of the Fire Monks, although they take it up a notch through weapon enchantments and conjuring a rain of Fireballs from the cauldron on their helmet.
Mighty Glacier: Predictably they are sluggish and tanky. They make up for it there very hard-hitting attacks and ability to unleash the Giants' Flame from their helmets.
Nice Job Breaking It, Hero: Their doctrine states to fear the flame and to view it as taboo... but didn't seem to account for the fact that declaring the flame as taboo would cause the monks to worship it instead. The Crisis of Faith that resulted from this discrepancy eventually lead to a number of the Fire Monks to betray the order and join the Godskin Cult.
A Taste of the Lash: The thorned whips used by some Prelates are used outside of battle as a weapon of "fearsome religious encouragement" for the Guilty and Fire Monks who have forgotten their fear.
Well-Intentioned Extremist: With a little emphasis on the extremist side, as their displays of faith can get a little... eccentric, to say the least. Regardless of how cruel they can be in performing their holy work, it's not a matter of debate that the Giants' Flame is definitely not the sort of power that should fall into the hands of any of the other factions.
Wilfully Weak: Their thick armor weighs them down to the point that they can barely walk, much less run, but this is a deliberate handicap meant to remind them of the weight of their duties as guardians of the Giants' Flame. Not that it really stops them from kicking ass.
Fire Prelate Set: The weighty frames of the Prelates symbolized the onus of their grave vows as guardians of the flame. "Etch this sight upon thine breast. Of my thunderous gravity."

Knights of Zamor

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/zamor.png

Long-lived warriors from the Town of Zamor that utilize frost magic. They have been longstanding enemies of Fire Giants. One of them, the Ancient Hero of Zamor, is imprisoned in the Weeping Evergaol in the Weeping Peninsula. Other Heroes of Zamor can be found in the Giant-Conquering Hero's Grave and the Sainted Hero's Grave.

Arch-Enemy: To the Giants, apparently the two races were at war long before Queen Marika exterminated the Fire Giants.
Ambiguously Human: They are twice the height of humans (but then again, some confirmed humans like Godfrey are even taller), have lanky proportions and are said to be long-lived.
Breath Weapon: They can spit icy vapor that covers a wide area with icicles that cause Frostbite and rapidly explode.
Dance Battler: They leap and somersault gracefully as they land rapid swings with their curved greatswords.
Degraded Boss: The one in the Weeping Evergaol is the earliest possible encounter, and another one appears as a dungeon boss in the Altus Plateau. They become common enemies in certain areas of the Mountaintops of the Giants.
Early-Bird Cameo: A boss version named Ancient Hero of Zamor appears in the Weeping Peninsula Evergaol, much earlier than their late-game appearances.
Elite Mooks: Individual Zamor Knights are tough enough to be boss encounters. When they start showing up as regular foes they're some of the toughest enemies you can face.
Expy: Their tall, emaciated appearances, unorthodox sword techniques, and usage of ice spells are all inherited from the Pontiff Knights of Dark Souls III.
An Ice Person: All their attacks inflict Frostbite, and they have several ice spells at their disposal. Which is probably the source of their conflict with the Fire Giaants...
Lean and Mean: They are tall, lanky and pack a hell of a punch.
Lightning Bruiser: They have a lot of health, attack fast and hit hard, especially with their icy breath.
Shrouded in Myth: All we know about them is that they don't belong to Queen Marika's empire and hate the Fire Giants. Where they come from, what race they are and their motives now that the Giants are extinct are all a mystery.

Inaba, Disciples of Okina

Samurai who were members of the White Reed, head disciples of Okina, who traveled to the Lands Between so that they could die by the sword.

Bloody Murder: Utilize the Seppuku Ash of War, which has them stab themselves to coat their katanas in blood to increase damage and inflict blood loss rapidly.
Death Seeker: As followers of a guy whose life philosophy can be summed up as 'bloodshed', a death in hard-fought combat is their life's goal. As you only meet them in spirit form, it seems they succeeded.
To be a White Reed is to seek death; fitting for the Inaba, who desired nothing more than to die by the sword.
Dual Wield: Wield both the uchigatana and wakizashi, like their master Okina.
Keystone Army: They're summoned by the Spirit-Caller Snails inhabiting the Spiritcaller Cave, and will quickly die if said snails are killed.
My Master, Right or Wrong: Even after Okina had abandoned them once he succumbed to his bloodlust, the Inaba still traveled to the Lands Between in an attempt to find him.
Red Eyes, Take Warning: Though you'll probably need hacking to see that they've got red eyes.
Unique Enemy: Three of them appear only in the Spiritcaller Cave.

Flame Guardians

Masked humans working with the Fire Monks to guard the path leading towards the Giant's Flame.

Ambiguously Related: They wear the Guardian Mask, the same mask worn by the Erdtree Guardians. Though in this case, it can be said they're helping to guard against anyone using the Giants' Flame to burn down the Erdtree.
Carry a Big Stick: Use torchpoles as their main weapon.
Playing with Fire: Are able to cast fire incantations.
Unique Enemy: Only three of them are encountered at the Guardians' Garrison.

Chief Guardian Arghanthy

The head of the Guardians' Garrison, utilizing both her One-Eyed Shield and flame incantations to take down anyone intruding her fort.

Ambiguously Related: Interestingly, she wears the Marais Robe, a robe stated to be worn by "the head of House Marais". However, any connections between her and House Marais are never brought up within the lore. Her helm, the Ruler's Mask, could possibly indicate she was a former lord of House Marais, though nothing supports this claim.
Fiery Redhead: Under the Ruler's Mask she wears, her hair is bright orange, and she is a skilled fire mage.
Luckily, My Shield Will Protect Me: She wields the One-Eyed Shield, a large greatshield sculpted in the visage of the One-Eyed God, which also doubles as a small cannon.
Playing with Fire: Can cast three flame incantations: Catch Flame, Burn, O Flame, and Surge, O Flame.
We Hardly Knew Ye: Besides her working with the Fire Monks and her possible connection to House Marais, no background is given on her, and she only serves as yet another enemy for the Tarnished to take down.

The Fire Giant

The Fire Giant

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/fire_giant.jpg

Voiced by: Shaun Dooley

A survivor from the empire's ancient war with the Fire Giants. Though seldom talked about and considered nightmares long gone, the Tarnished will discover the supposedly extinct race is not so extinct after all, once they reach the top of the mountains which was once their homeland.

An Arm and a Leg: Breaks one of his legs during the fight. He then inflicts this trope on himself by ripping it off and using it as another weapon.
Attack Its Weak Point: His ankles are generally the safest areas to attack: his left leg, in particular, is being supported by a splint, and dealing enough damage to it will stagger him, take off a chunk of his health bar, and shatter the splint, leaving it even more vulnerable to follow-up attacks. He breaks that leg and then rips it off once he Turns Red however, reducing his weak points to just his other leg or his wrists, which are considerably harder to hit even when he's reduced to crawling.
Attack of the 50-Foot Whatever: In terms of size, this giant is easily among the largest enemies in the game, standing taller than most ancient dragons in length.
Belly Mouth: As part of the face on his torso. Most of his fire attacks come from this mouth.
Body Horror: Once the Fire Giant Turns Red, 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!
- If you look closely enough the aforementioned splint seem to be made out of the giant's own bones and hair. More precisely it seems that the giant's own left fibula has been removed and is now used as a splint with braids of his own hair keeping it in place.
Breath Weapon: The fire magic he uses is apparently breathed out by the mouth on his stomach.
Brainwashed and Crazy: Marika's curse seems to have afflicted him with an uncontrollable compulsion to attack anyone who tries to approach the Forge, to the point that he'll go as far as ripping of his own limbs for the sake of protecting the empire that slaughtered his entire race and destroyed his home.
Cephalothorax: An unusual example, in that he has a normal humanoid head on top of his grotesque torso-face, and a single cyclopean eye in the center of his chest rather than the usual nipple-eyes.
Cyclops: A variation. The Fire Giant's 'main' head has two eyes, but the face on his torso has only one.
Damage-Sponge Boss: Has an unbelievable 43,000 HP, putting him behind only Rykard in terms of total health pool, but while Rykard can be easily melted with the Serpent Hunter, no such gimmick exists for the Fire Giant. Expect to be hacking away at him for a while.
Divine Assistance: Implied. After the Fire Giant breaks his left leg, he burns and rips it off, then raises it with two hands toward the sky as if he was offering it. After the leg burns completely, the eye on his torso opens wide, resembling the One-Eyed God said to be worshipped by the Giants and believed to be slain by Marika. All of these suggest the Giant offers his leg to invoke the presence of their god.
Eyes Do Not Belong There: In the second phase, the Fire Giant reveals that he has another face with only one eye in the middle of his torso, with the proboscis just under being his nose. The nose and mouth can be spotted during phase one, but the angle of his pectorals gives the illusion that he has two eyes until the phase transition.
Fantasy Counterpart Myth:
- Of the Jötunn Surtr from Norse Mythology, a fiery, red-headed giant who opposes the Gods as his Arch-Enemy and is an unparalleled blacksmith. His facial features and hair bears resemblance to The Giant with the Flaming Sword (1909) by John Charles Dollman, a 19th century artistic rendition of Surtr.
- He also has a strong resemblance to Xingtian, a giant in Chinese mythology who served the "Flame Emperor" in a primordial war against the "Yellow Emperor," the supreme deity of the world. Although defeated and decapitated, Xingtian's indomitable spirit caused his torso to become a head, its features turning into the features of a face.
Faster Than They Look: Although he is one of the most massive opponents in the game, easily outsizing the Guardian Golems, Theodorix and Placidusax, the Fire Giant moves in a way that is roughly equivalent to how a normal human would move if they were supersized. This means that despite looking like a slow, lumbering brute at first, the Fire Giant can swing his shield, jump and even roll around at much faster speeds than the aforementioned giant enemies. Even when he loses a leg after he Turns Red, he can still roll and crawl around with surprising speed.
Fate Worse than Death: This poor Giant has spent centuries trapped on the Flame Peak; surrounded by the long-dead corpses of his entire race, stuck with a crippled leg, and enslaved by the very Order who butchered his kin. One item description outright calls his death at the Tarnished's hands a Mercy Kill.
Fiery Redhead: As with the rest of his species, every single Fire Giant had red hair. Apparently, red hair is considered evocative of the fire giants, to the point Radagon hated his hair due to the association.
Foreshadowing: You might wonder how the Forge of the Giants's flame could still be burning if the mountaintops are forbidden territory, the giants are long dead, and the Frenzied Flame is explicitly not involved. Turns out not all of the giants are dead...
Handicapped Badass: The Fire Giant's left leg is already heavily injured before the fight even begins, as he has it held together with a makeshift splint, but this doesn't stop him from dancing around the battlefield and giving you a world of pain. Eventually, you end up snapping this leg, but this only prompts him to rip it off and fight you while on his knees, opting to roll around the arena for movement.
It Can Think: A bit of an Inversion; The Giants were known to have invented blacksmithing, worshiping their own unnamed god and having a dedicated society before Marika hunted them to (almost) extinction. This one has been left frenzied, dedicated solely to guard those that would use the Forge to burn the Erdtree. Still, it holds onto just enough intelligence to cast its Giantsflame incantations and offer its leg as a sacrifice to its god.
Last of His Kind: He's the only remaining giant left alive seen in the game, and likely in all of the Lands Between.
Made of Iron: He has a massive healthpool, and on top of that his skin is tough, taking reduced damage from pretty much everything. The only places he doesn't take reduced damage are his head as well as his wounded leg and arms; and considering how gigantic he is, you will rarely get chances to hit his head.
Marathon Boss: His absolutely titanic health pool, wide ranging attacks, and ability to reposition surprisingly quickly in his second phase mean that you're going to be fighting him for a while.
Mighty Glacier: He's a lot faster than you'd expect from looking at him, but he's a long way from being a Lightning Bruiser. He's incredibly strong and does massive damage with each blow, but all of his attacks are highly telegraphed and until he starts rolling around in his second phase, his movement speed is glacial. He compensates for this by having such wide hitboxes (especially with attacks where he uses his shield) that he's difficult to get away from even on Torrent.
Monster Modesty: Zig-zagged. What appears to be a kilt around his waist is actually the beard of the second face on the giant's chest. But he does have some underwear on underneath it.
Normal Fish in a Tiny Pond: Even crippled he remains terrifyingly powerful, to the point that Alexander considers him "practically a god". But looking at the corpses of the other fire giants scattered throughout Flame Peak implies that this Fire Giant was actually small by the standards of their species.
Not So Extinct: The Giants were infamously culled thousands of years ago, wiped out to the last man. It's one of the Empire's greatest secrets that that's not quite true...
Ominous Mundanity: It has no actual name, nor any ornate titles preceding or following one. It is simply referred to by its species... which by itself is significant, being the species Marika deemed a threat to the Erdtree and her rule with Godfrey, becoming the subject of a war that haunts much of The Lands Between. As certain item descriptions bearing their likenesses claim they're all extinct, seeing this boss at the base of the Forge becomes quite shocking, to say the least.
Our Giants Are Bigger: Truly gigantic humanoids (about 30 meters tall; the Fire Giant hits 25 meters while heavily slouching◊) implied to be part of a Hive Mind controlled by the One-Eyed God, who can (in exchange for a sacrifice) manifest as a second face on their torso and empower them with tremendously potent fire magic. This Giant in particular is covered in Norse iconography, and really leans into the Humanoid Abomination nature the Jötunn had that's usually ignored.
Physical God: Even when wounded and reliant on raw strength, the Fire Giant commands greater respect and fear than several demigods. But once pushed, this trope becomes more literal and the Fire Giant sacrifices its own leg to become the vessel of the Fell God itself, an entity who casts great baths of flame no other creature in this setting can match.
Playing with Fire: As his name suggests, the Fire Giant can manipulate fire and cast fire spells, most of it coming from the extra mouth on his belly. He can notably hurl fireballs at the Tarnished or spit a volley of fiery rocks that will fall around him.
Prophet Eyes: His two main eyes on his head are completely white, without even the barest hint of a pupil or iris. Interestingly, this implies that he was possibly having to fight you blind before he opened up the eye on his chest.
The Punishment: After he survived the ancient war against Marika's armies led by Godfrey, Marika cursed the Fire Giant to tend to the flame of the Forge of the Giants for eternity.
Race-Name Basis: While it's unknown if the Fire Giants used personal names, this particular giant is never given any personal identification beyond his species. There's no need; there are no other giants to confuse with him.
Recurring Element: Has a lot in common with the Last Giant from Dark Souls II, being one of the only remaining members of a race of giants that were wiped out in a huge war before the game takes place. He even tears off one of his own limbs during the phase transition, though unlike the Last Giant he doesn't actually use it as a weapon.
Riddle for the Ages: Due to his species being utterly decimated down to the very last, there are many questions about the Fire Giants which remain unanswered, and the game itself doesn't provide much information about them. However, the biggest mystery about them is the flame in the Forge of the Giants — just what kind of flame could not be extinguished, even by Marika and the Elden Ring, that she'd curse the last fire giant to watch over it for eternity? The Flame of the Fell God incantation indicates their flame contains the literal presence of a "fell god". The implication appears to be that this being is another Outer God who is a threat to the Greater Will and that was the reason for the entire war to start with. This is likely the origin for the Fire Giant’s One-Eyed torso face, and likely also the reason why their flame was feared by Marika and her brood, but the manner and the forms the fell god can take (the One-Eyed God, the fire in the Forge) as well as how they differ remain unanswered.
Shield Bash: The Fire Giant carries a large circular shield proportionate to his size, which he doesn't actually use for defense: he will use it to smash the ground and the Tarnished along with it whenever he gets the chance.
Signature Move: Like Malenia, he has two:
- "Burn O Flame!", with which the Fire Giant presses his hands to the ground and quite literally causes everything around him to erupt in gigantic pillars of fire. It's one of his most dangerous attacks and the player can pick it up for themselves as an Incantation by using his Remembrance.
- Flame of the Fell God, where he casts a slow-moving fire orb which homes in on the player and eventually detonates once within a certain range of them or if enough time has passed. He frequently casts it throughout the fight to prevent you from getting too comfortable in one spot underneath him, meaning the player will see it even more frequently than Burn O Flame!. The player can also pick this up as an incantation, but not by killing the Fire Giant; it's dropped by Adan, Thief of Fire in the Malefactor's Evergaol in Liurnia.
Turns Red: The giant initially fights like a player would expect any boss his size would — relatively slow moving, attacking with fairly telegraphed strikes from his arms, legs, or his shield, and occasionally throwing fire like it is a handheld bomb. But once his health goes down far enough, one of his legs breaks, he sets it ablaze and rips it off, then reveal another face on his torso. The Giant then begins a brief ritual where it offers its leg to something in the sky and his second face is fully awakened. Now on his knees, he ditches his shield, starts rolling around for mobility — which can flatten the player if they are not careful — and uses fire in earnest: his chest mouth can breathe out fire over a large area whether around him or forwards like a flamethrower, spit out volleys of fire upwards before splitting into smaller projectiles as they rain down around him, and cast what seems to be the Flame of the Fell God Incantation stolen by Adan — floating, miniature suns which home in and track the Tarnished. His hands are also burning and can shoot fast moving fireballs, whenever he doesn't just punch the Tarnished with them.
The Voiceless: All that comes out of his mouth are assorted roars and screams, he never says a proper word.
Ultimate Blacksmith: The Fire Giants are said to have invented blacksmithing, and even thousands of years later, no one has been able to surpass their work. This one in particular has been tending to its hellish Forge for centuries.
Worf Had the Flu: He's in terrible shape, suffering from severe injuries he took against Godfrey and his knights, possibly blind, unarmed and undefended except for his shield (which he never actually uses as a shield), and has to spend some of his own health to activate his second phase. That's why he's merely an endgame boss instead of a Superboss.
World's Strongest Man: His prowess is due to his physical size. Not only is he statted as the most durable boss, but Alexander, who fought the demigod Radahn, states of him:
Alexander: I doubt there's a single soul who could've handled that giant, other than you. It was practically a god.
Wound That Will Not Heal: Parts of his body are severely wounded, likely from the war he had fought in, and the skin looks like it was flayed off. His bad leg in particular is held up by a makeshift splint made of his own hair. Considering how ancient the War against the Giants is by the time the game starts, the Fire Giant had to suffer with those wounds for a long, long time.
Wrestler in All of Us: One of his moves in phase 2 is a diving elbow drop.

Consecrated Snowfield

Direwolves

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/direwolf_1.jpg

Much larger wolves that can be found dwelling in forested areas of snowy tundras.

Angry Guard Dog: Three direwolves guard the upper levels of Caria Manor.
Breath Weapon: Direwolves at the Consecrated Snowfield are able to breath frost as an attack.
Canis Major: Much larger variants of the standard wolves found in the world.
Early-Bird Cameo: They can be encountered early on at Caria Manor in Liurnia.
Horse of a Different Color: Mounted by the Albinauric Archers at the Consecrated Snowfield. Latenna, if summoned near one, will be able to mount it as well.
Savage Wolves: Even more so than their lesser counterpart, attacking much more violently.

Albinauric Archers

Female First-Generation Albinaurics skilled in archery that serve as sentries guarding several important locations.

One Albinauric Archer, Latenna, hides in a cave to the west of the Laskyar Ruins which jut from the mist-shrouded lake of Liurnia, and can be recruited as a spirit ash.

Alien Blood: As it comes with being an Albinauric, they have white blood.
Amazon Brigade: All archers encountered at the Consecrated Snowfield are female.
Early-Bird Cameo: Latenna, an Albinauric Archer, can be encountered in Liurnia far before they're encountered as enemies in the Consecrated Snowfield.
Guarding the Portal: The ones at Ordina, Liturgical Town guard the waygate to Miquella's Haligtree, a large tree created to serve as a refuge for those persecuted by the Golden Order, such as Albinaurics.
Handicapped Badass: They've all lost use of their legs, which doesn't stop them from being incredibly powerful archers.
Horse of a Different Color: Most of them ride Dierwolves.
Multishot: Archers with enchanted bows are able to fire three magic arrows.
Stationary Enemy: As a result of their weak legs, they cannot move at all unless mounted on a Direwolf.

Mohgwyn Palace

Sanguine Nobles

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/sanguine_noble.jpg

Blood mages that serve Mohg, Lord of Blood, using his blood magics to spread the word of blood and carry out assassinations.

Ambiguously Human: While they appear humanoid, it's never made clear if they're actually humans or not, as not only do they have horns growing out of them, but looking inside their hoods reveals that they have no head nor body.
Bloodlust: They revel in blood and use its sorceries to drain any living being of their blood.
Blood Magic: Efficient users of the blood magics taught to them by Mohg.
Bloody Murder: They use their blood magics to take down anyone who threatens Mohg's dynasty.
Degraded Boss: They're Elite Mooks in Mohgwyn Palace, but you fight one with a boss health bar in Altus Plateau at the Writheblood Ruins. Oddly, you can also encounter a weaker non-boss version at the Rose Church in Liurnia, far before the boss.
Early-Bird Cameo: One Sanguine Noble can be encountered at Rose Church in Liurnia.
Mook Lieutenant: They and the White Masks constitute both the commanders and assassins of Mohg's dynasty, with Albinaurics making up most of the soldiers. Nobles can be found leading Albinaurics in Mohgwyn Palace, and in particular one seems to be giving a sermon to an assembly of red-skinned mutant Albinaurics right outside Mohg's boss room.
Royal Rapier: The Bloody Helice, their signature weapon, is a suitably vicious-but-noble weapon for the Lands Between's new aristocracy.
Sinister Minister: Their armor set description labels them as both "missionaries" and "assassins".
This Is a Drill: Their signature weapon is the Bloody Helice, a rapier with a spiralling, drill-like blade designed to make its victims bleed out faster.

Miquella's Haligtree

Cleanrot Knights

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/cleanrot_knight2.png

Elite knights of Malenia's army who fought fiercest of all during the Shattering. They swore eternal fealty to Malenia, and despite the fact that their proximity to her lead to the gradual putrefaction of their bodies, they accepted this fate and continue to fight under her banner. While remnants of Malenia's army continue to fight in the swamps of Caelid, most Cleanrot Knights guard their home territory, the Haligtree.

One Cleanrot Knight, Finlay, can be summoned as a spirit.

Advertised Extra: Among the characters seen in the E3 2019 reveal trailer, we have Marika, Radagon, Godrick, Malenia, Radahn... and a nameless Cleanrot Knight shown plunging their spear into Radahn's armor. Despite speculation as to the then-unknown spear knight's significance, lo and behold, it turned out they were simply another Elite Mook.
Animal Motifs: They're heavily associated with birds, just like their leader. They wear winged helmets, carry winged talismans (the Winged Sword Insignia), have cloth drapes on their uniforms that resemble wings, and the top of their helmet looks like a plume. Even their spear heads have wings. Their gold-white uniforms, gold holy magic, and halo scythes add angelic imagery to the mix.
Ambushing Enemy: Some Cleanrot Knights at the Swamp of Aeonia are submerged within the rotten waters, popping up whenever an enemy comes nearby.
Badass Army: 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
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.
Bling of War: Their armor and weapons are both decorated with patterns on the metal and daubed in gold, presumably the same unalloyed gold that resists Scarlet Rot (hence their set having high Immunity and their spear having a unique property of boosting the user's Immunity).
Body Horror: Their flesh is constantly rotting. Doubles with Gory Discretion Shot as the full extent of their rot is never shown, due to them wearing full plate and all, but it's apparently progressed to the point where they often suddenly and violently puke out their rot-infected guts even in the midst of combat.
Deadly Disc: The Halo Scythe-wielding knights can send out massive discuses of pure light.
Degraded Boss: Cleanrot Knights serve as bosses in two dungeons: one on their lonesome in the Stillwater Cave of Liurnia, and a Dual Boss in the Abandoned Cave of Caelid. Besides those instances, they serve as Elite Mooks everywhere else.
Dual Boss: Two Cleanrot Knights, one wielding a scythe and the other a spear, serve together as the boss of the Abandoned Cave in Caelid.
Dual Wielding: Always seen with a thrusting sword in their right hand and either a Halo Scythe or a Cleanrot Spear in their left hand.
Eating the Enemy: One poor knight finds themselves on the receiving side of this in Radahn's intro cutscene.
Elite Mook: Serve as this both in the lore, as the elite knights of Malenia's army, and in game, as formidable opponents found only in small numbers throughout the Lands Between.
Field of Blades: The spear-wielding versions are able to conjure a field of holy spears from the ground in a column before them using the Sacred Phalanx spell.
Large and in Charge: As knights they obviously outrank common foot soldiers, and they're all tall enough to outright tower even regular Lordsworn Knights (over seven feet themselves). At a few inches over eight feet they're all about the same height as Malenia herself.
The Last Dance: Their acceptance of their inevitable death is noted to have made them the fiercest of combatants.
Lost in Translation: Their Japanese name better translates to Noblerot Knights, referring to Noble Rot, a kind of fungus that infects wine grapes and, if managed correctly, can result in particularly concentrated and sweet wines.
Magic Knight: They're huge, armored knights who skillfully wield their large swords and polearms in combination with a variety of Holy incantations, including Sacred Ring of Light (which launches powerful homing light discs) and Sacred Phalanx (which blankets a large path in front of them with Hard Light spears). Their spears and scythes also both do Holy damage on top of physical.
Mook Medic: The scythe variants can cast a spell on themselves and allies that causes them to slowly regenerate health.
Non-Standard Character Design: Compared to every other lord's knights who are all Underground Monkey variations of each other, Malenia's Cleanrots have unique uniforms, weapons, talismans, animations, and character models. Only the Banished Knights of Stormveil get the same treatment among the generic enemies.^note They also have their own unique heraldry that isn't shared by the Haligtree Knights, visible on both Malenia's cape and in the sigil that shows up when the scythe variants cast a buff spell. Their text mentions that they're specifically Malenia's personal troops (her name is even on their Boss Subtitles in Japanese), likely putting them in a different corps than the Lordsworn Knights of her faction. Their organization is heavily implied to predate the Shattering too,^note but it's not clear what role they had before it to be distinguished so significantly from the other knights of the kingdom.
The Paladin: In an interesting take on this trope, the Cleanrot Knights' arms and armor are positively overloaded with holy and light-related imagery and are imbued with holy magic and various incantations. On the other side of the coin, the Knights are horribly rotten from head to toe and fight under the banner of a dangerous Demigod whose very existence spreads the rot that they suffer from, and though most of their moveset fits the expectated attacks of a holy knight, they can also violently puke out scarlet rot at a moment's notice.
The Remnant:
- Most of them seem to have perished in the Caelid campaign, but a lot of them didn't participate, so garrisons can still be found scattered throughout the Lands Between at places like Elphael in Miquella's Haligtree, the Consecrated Snowfield Catacombs, and the Shaded Castle on the Altus Plateau. As for the survivors of Caelid, they still remain occupying central Caelid even though it has now rotted into a swamp, and can be found either sitting in the dirt waiting for an enemy to pass, guarding caves that were presumably important in wartime but are abandoned now, or semi-mindlessly patrolling the site of their last battle among the skeletons of their comrades and enemies.
- In spite of the heavy fighting they were involved in, they seemed to have gotten off significantly better compared to the other elite troops. They have 29 spawns on the map,^note most of which also have respawns, making them the single most common knight type in the game.
Royal Rapier: Fitting their image as skillful and decorated (both literally and figuratively) warriors, every knight wields a Cleanrot Knight's Sword in their offhand while using their main hand for their polearm. These resemble giant estocs and are mainly used for thrusting, though (unlike you) they have some slashing attacks with them as well. They're classified as Thrusting Swords and have the highest base damage in that class.
Secret A.I. Moves: The spear variants can thrust with their swords and spears simultaneously, essentially power-stancing the sword as if it was a second spear.
Sinister Scythe: One of the polearms a Cleanrot Knight may wield is the Halo Scythe, which resembles a large crescent blade affixed in the midway point to a wooden pole, thus giving it blades on both ends of the shaft. Its skill is Miquella's Ring of Light, which unleashes the incantation as a potent projectile.
Undying Loyalty: To Malenia. They accepted the fact that their close service to Malenia would doom them to a slow and painful death by scarlet rot, and willingly chose to faithfully serve her anyway. This trope is exemplified by Finlay in particular, who carried an incapacitated Malenia across the Lands Between to Haligtree in her most vulnerable moment, in the midst of the Shattering.
Your Days Are Numbered: Every Cleanrot Knight is plagued by the scarlet rot and knows that they live on borrowed time, which serves to make them all the more fierce in battle.
Weak to Fire: Zig-zagged. By default, Cleanrots take 20% extra damage from fire, unlike their boss (but like regular Haligtree Soldiers). But the scythe-wielding ones can cast a buff on themselves and all their comrades which both heals them and adds 60% fire negation, equivalent to the Flame Protect Me incantation; if allowed to cast it the Cleanrots go from relatively weak to fire to boasting the highest fire damage resistance of any knight type in the game.
Worf Had the Flu: The knights have been decaying from Scarlet Rot since the end of the Shattering. By the present, they are so sickly that they visibly lean on their weapons to walk and will occasionally stop mid-battle to puke their guts out. Some of them are so spent that they'll just lie on the floor most of the time, and only get up to attack enemies who pass near their patrol zones (like you). They're still among the toughest humanoid enemies in the game. This is especially case for the few remaining ones in Caelid, who have significantly lower stats than the ones at other locations such as the Consecrated Snowfield and the Haligtree (e.g. only 1,052 hit points compared to 3,004-3,202 for the latter two versions), likely because they were at ground zero for the first Scarlet Aeonia and have spent the last few years guarding the swamp. This is reinforced by the two in the Abandoned Cave being, while still weaker than the ones in their home region, over twice as tough as the ones in the neighboring swamp: they aren't as directly exposed to rot.
Zombie Puke Attack: Despite their ornate appearance and graceful movements, they will occasionally projectile vomit out of their visors, due to being knights of Malenia. Naturally, said vomit builds up Scarlet Rot.

Crumbling Farum Azula

Azula Beastmen

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/beastmen.jpg

Bestial humanoids chosen to serve as the guardians of Farum Azula. Two can be summoned with the Azula Beastman Ashes.

Breath Weapon: Large Beastmen Skeletons are able to breath fire at the Tarnished.
Degraded Boss: One is fought as a boss in Limgrave not far from where the Tarnished first arrives, along with a Dual Boss encounter in Dragonbarrow Cave. They become regular enemies near the end of the game.
Early-Bird Cameo: One can be fought as a miniboss in Groveside Cave near the first areas of the game. Dubbed "Beastman of Farum Azula", the term "Farum Azula" won't be clarified until much later.
Expy: Between their hunched posture, lanky proportions, and black fur with hairless faces, they distinctly resemble Berserk’s trolls.
Improbable Cover: The shields used by the Beastmen are actually just shards taken from a large broken jar. The description of the shield even remarks that the Beastmen seem to make large jars for the sole purpose of using them as shields.
It Can Think: Despite their seemingly feral bestial nature, item descriptions tell of their peculiar cultural practices, such as firing clay pots just to use them as shields, or the expert craftsmanship of their outwardly crude looking weapons, even admitting that they posses greater knowledge than humans.
Non-Human Undead: Beastmen Skeletons can be encountered in some areas of Farum Azula. Seeing as how Deathroot can also be found in the area, it seems not even Farum Azula is safe from the Prince of Death's curse.
Red Baron: Cleverly subverted. The early game boss in Groveside Cave is known as the "Beastman of Farum Azula", suggesting that this is a notorious title; however, as you start seeing more beastmen and reach Farum Azula proper, it becomes clear that it was never a title at all, merely a descriptor, akin to "a beastman from Farum Azula".
Shock and Awe: Several of them are able to wield red lightning, either through incantations or as enchantments on their weapons.

Maliketh, the Black Blade

Maliketh, the Black Blade

The Black Blade

Voiced by: Jonathan Keeble

"O, death... become my blade once more."

Marika's shadowbound beast and half-brother, whom she charged with guarding Destined Death. He is also revealed to be the true identity of Gurranq, the Beast Clergyman, and he takes up his former mantle once more to prevent the Tarnished from unleashing the Death Rune to the lands.

Given the important revelations which come with the character's introduction during the game, Maliketh is a Walking Spoiler, so all spoilers are unmarked.

Achilles' Heel: The Blasphemous Claw, an artifact created by Ranni and given to her brother Rykard. It contains part of the fragment of Destined Death she stole, and is capable of parrying Maliketh's strongest attacks, which also stuns him badly. Ranni apparently made it because, while none of the demigods had any intention of challenging Maliketh, she foresaw it may be necessary, and wanted to give them at least something of a chance against him.
Anti-Villain: Maliketh is a noble warrior, said to have Undying Loyalty to his sister, is desperate to protect the Rune of Destined Death, and what's left of the Empire. The reason he must be killed regardless is that he refuses to let the Rune of Death be used by anyone else for any reason, even though by the time of the game using it to burn the Erdtree is the only way left to mend the Elden Ring and save the Lands Between.
Angel Unaware: The mysterious wolfman you can learn Bestial Incantations from turns out to have once been the right-hand man of Marika herself. It's implied Maliketh assumed the identity of Gurranq and stowed himself away in a far-off corner of Caelid in an attempt to hide the remains of Destined Death from any Demigods looking for a potential trump card during the Shattering.
The Atoner: The successful theft of a portion of Destined Death is Maliketh's greatest regret, and he blames himself for Godwyn's death and the subsequent cataclysmic Shattering so much that he sealed the remains of Death within his body, heedless of the damage it would wreak on his body and mind, and began hunting Those Who Live In Death in an attempt to atone.
Barrier Maiden: As long as Destined Death remains sealed within his Black Blade, no permanent harm can be brought onto the Erdtree or its vassals the Greater Will can't eventually nullify. And because Maliketh has sealed his sword and the majority of Death's essence within his own body, the Tarnished must kill him so the Flame of Ruin from the Forge of Giants can begin to truly burn the tree.
Big Brother Instinct: The reason he seemed to be so loyal to Marika was this, Maliketh just wanted to protect his sister.
Black Knight: An extremely imposing beastman adorned in gold and ebony armor. In gameplay said armor comes with high resistances expected from an endgame boss, which he definitely needs considering his low HP relative to the point he is fought in game.
Black Swords Are Better: Maliketh's Black Blade appears hewn from obsidian. When fought as the Beast Clergyman it is effectively just a glorified BFS which only deals physical damage, but once Maliketh is forced to his 2nd phase he stabs his own hand to once again harness Destined Death's power currently sealed in his flesh, allowing it to fire Sword Beams and inflict Maximum HP Reduction on top of Damage Over Time. However, even that is noted to be only a reduced version of the deadly godslaying weapon it once was while bearing the complete Rune of Death.
Bling of War: He wears a lavishly decorated suit of ebony armor, interlined with specks of gold and ridges of dark plate-mail.
Boss Tease: You fight him in Beast Clergyman form (briefly) as part of Gurranq's quest, where he has the same stats as his first stage but lacks access to some of his stronger attacks. Uniquely, he and Godfrey/Hoarah Loux are each two different boss fights for the price of one: the Beast Clergyman shares zero moves in common with the Black Blade and is a different entity with his own ID (he's spawned in to the game during his transition cutscene).
Broken Ace: Maliketh was Marika's best enforcer but being a shadowbound beast she had to keep him in the dark of her plan out of fear that the Two Fingers turn him against her. This turned Maliketh into a mess as he tries his best to keep Destined Death out of reach and the Golden Order safe when Marika herself is trying her best to undermine it. He is now suffering of eternal hunger and going mad from it.
Brought Down to Badass: As "Gurranq", Maleikth is an acrobatic 27-foot plate-armored werewolf with a gigantic knife, a mastery of the stone-manipulating Bestial Incantations, and the strength to leap dozens of feet and shatter pillars made of thick rock; in other words, a respectably powerful warrior. Still, he is noticeably lagging behind other endgame bosses in either mobility, damage output, HP and/or defenses — leaving him relatively manageable; it's only after the Tarnished pushes him hard enough to harness the power of Destined Death within his flesh and take up his mantle as Black Blade once more, he becomes a much more dangerous opponent worthy of being a Climax Boss. However, an attentive player who pieces together lore details pertaining to Destined Death and its effects on living beings will realize this is Maliketh after years of sealing the purest form of Destined Death in his own body; given years of being tainted by half of Godwyn's Cursemark of Death is sufficient to reduce an Ancient Dragon like Fortissax into a Lichdragon, and simply ingesting Godwyn and Ranni's Cursemarks is enough to kill a pseudo-immortal Tarnished and a disciple of the Prince of Death like Fia, it's all but stated Maliketh is nowhere near his prime as "Death of the Demigods".
Climax Boss: Fittingly as one of the few mandatory bosses in Elden Ring. Maliketh is fought at the end of the game's last mandatory dungeon and is one of the most ferocious, unrelenting bosses you can face, with unbelievably high damage output and a blindingly quick and agile moveset. His defeat marks the game's Point of No Return, burying Leyndell in ash and opening the way to the game's concluding Boss Rush. It can be even more climactic if you finish his sidequest in the overworld, which further builds up his character and gives him special dialogue where he reacts to you with a sense of betrayal.
Combat Parkour: Not so much in his 1st phase as Beast Clergyman, but in his 2nd phase as the Black Blade he is easily among the most mobile and acrobatic bosses in the game, given his maneuvers and how easily he leaps from one pillar to another in his arena.
Compressed Hair: The hood he wears in his clergyman guise hides a huge white mane.
Cursed with Awesome: Marika had tasked him with guarding the Rune of Death within his sword. While a monumental responsibility which left Maliketh shunned out of fear by the rest of his family, this also left him with sole command of the power of an Outer God and one of the few entities in the Lands Between able to inflict a True Death; all of which contributed to a truly fearsome reputation.
Dark Is Not Evil: He might be a giant, ferocious beastman with a fearsome reputation and command over one of the most feared and dangerous powers in the world; but Maliketh simply wishes to guard Destined Death from any who would abuse its power, and is a noble soul underneath his frightening exterior.
Dishing Out Dirt: He fights primarily with Bestial Incantations whenever fought as Beast Clergyman, rapidly pelting the Tarnished with stones to stun them so he can close the distance and finish them off with his Cinquedea. After unsealing the Black Blade, he'll switch between his spells and the Black Blade's Sword Beam.
The Dragon: He was Marika's most trusted warrior and enforcer since before the Golden Order was established. Maliketh defeated the Gloam-Eyed Queen leading the Godskin cult on Marika’s behalf, and might have been stalking and silencing her enemies even before her rise to the throne, given one of his titles was "Death of the Demigods" — possibly referring to a prior age in which Marika had demigod contenders to the Elden Ring.
Dramatic Irony: If killed in the Beast Sanctum as Gurranq, his last words are questioning why Marika "Shatter", suggesting he is aware of Marika's responsibility of Shattering the Elden Ring. However, if his Paradox Person self in Farum Azula is killed, he spends his last moments desperately apologising to Marika, believing his failure to properly guard Destined Death had doomed the Golden Order — clearly unaware Marika herself was the one responsible for the whole disaster.
The Dreaded: Maliketh was feared by everyone; especially the Demigods, with the likes of Morgott and even Radahn scared shitless of him, and was said to be always on their minds as a "dark shadow". Even after also gaining access to Destined Death's power, Ranni considered engaging him in battle a measure of absolute last resort, and gave Rykard a portion of the stolen Rune of Death just to give him a fighting chance should it become necessary to do so.
Et Tu, Brute?: If the Tarnished completed his questline as Gurranq, Beast Clergyman, when encountered in Farum Azula his dialogue changes slightly; he sounds hurt as he weakly tries to ask the Tarnished why they've come, before realizing the Tarnished's purpose and resolving to stop anyone, including them, from taking Destined Death from him again.
Beast Clergyman: Tarnished, why wouldst thou... Why... Tis no matter. I hereby vow, that Destined Death shall not be stolen again.
Evil Uncle: Downplayed. Maliketh's nieces and nephews were all terrified of him (and it's implied dying by his hand was held over their heads as punishment for betrayal), but it's implied he was fond of at least Godwyn enough to blame himself for his death.
Family Theme Naming: His name begins with "Ma-", as does his sister Marika, and his niece, Malenia.
Forgot About His Powers: Maliketh does not use his Bestial Vitality in his boss fight. It's impossible that he actually forgot given it's among the basic Incantations he could teach the Tarnished as Gurranq, and he could use his superior Bestial Incantations with no issue. This is likely because Bestial Vitality is always a flat +5 HP per second over 120 seconds in exchange for taking a few seconds to cast (it doesn't scale with the user's power at all), which would be almost completely useless for someone with 10,600 HP.
Foreshadowing: A lot of hints are given before you reach him in Farum Azula that Maliketh and the Beast Clergyman are one and the same.
- Gurranq's Sanctum is guarded by a Black Blade Kindred, beating it rewards you the Gargoyle's Blackblade, whose the item description states the Kindred all serve Maliketh.
- The Vulgar Militiamen outside the Bestial Sanctum can use the Beast Claw incantation and imbue their weapons with the reddish-black flames of Destined Death. No other Vulgar Militiamen in the game (with one exception) are capable of either feat, which can only mean this group learned both of these moves from the same teacher.
- If you follow Gurranq's questline, you're forced to fight him until you calm him down. His animations, attacks and model are completely unique to not only any NPC, but also any enemy you've find up until that point, and an observant player may think he should be a boss fight... which is exactly what he becomes much, much later in the game.
- The item description of one of the Bestial Incantations (Stone of Gurranq) outright states Gurranq was once "a beast of such terrifying ferocity that his former name meant 'Death of the Demigods'".
- Completing his quest causes him to give you an Ancient Dragon Smithing Stone as a reward. The description for it notes that it's a scale of Dragonlord Placidusax, who is currently at Farum Azula, making one wonder how the heck Guarranq could've gotten one. It turns out it's because Gurranq's Paradox Person self is in Farum Azula.
Glass Cannon: Maliketh's Black Blade phase hits extremely hard because his attacks inflict both Damage Over Time and Maximum HP Reduction. As a tradeoff, he has very low health for this point in the game, and only a few good hits are needed to put him down. He's very acrobatic, however, so good luck actually landing those few hits.
Godzilla Threshold: After losing a fragment of Death to Ranni, Maliketh keeps the Destined Death sealed within his flesh at all times to ensure another theft isn't possible. This determination to guard it is such, even after the Tarnished proves strong enough to match him in his "Gurranq" form and he stabs his own hand to harness Death's power into his Black Blade as a desperate attempt to keep it out their hands, it is still not completely unbound as Enia only senses the Rune of Death is unbound minutes after he is dead, implying he is unwilling to unseal it entirely even when pushed to the brink of death (which makes sense, as unleashing the Rune of Death is noted by Enia to be a cardinal sin on the same degree as burning the Erdtree).
Have a Nice Death: Notably, his victory quotes change depending on whether the Tarnished gave him all of the Deathroots as Gurranq.
Phase 1: I shall not part with it again.
Phase 1 (all Deathroots): Stay away from Destined Death.
Phase 2: Cower. Before Maliketh, the Black Blade.
Phase 2 (all Deathroots): Cower. Before Maliketh, Marika's Black Blade.
Hidden Eyes: Both of his armor sets hide his eyes. Seeing as he apparently gets around mostly by smell, it's unclear if he even has or needs them.
Immortal Breaker: As the holder of Destined Death, Maliketh is most feared for his ability to bypass the Resurrective Immortality bestowed by the Erdtree and permanently kill someone. While other forces able to inflict true death (such as the Flame of Frenzy) do exist, Maliketh is the only entity with the capability widely known to the Golden Order, contributing to his status as a deterrent to any rebellious Demigods. That said he still cannot stop the Tarnished from returning.
Irony: One of the Golden Order's most famed and capable warriors is the master of a power its followers are taught to despise and whose other manifestations (such as Those Who Live In Death and the Deathbirds) are hunted down and persecuted.
Instant Costume Change: Once the Tarnished reduces him to half-health and he stabs the gem in his left hand with his knife to unleash Destined Death. Red-and-black fire spreads all over his body from the wound, transforming his tattered friar robe into a suit of gilded ebony armour and his worn-out knife into the legendary Black Blade.
Kill the God: Though a portion of the Rune of Death had been lost long ago, what remains still has sufficient power to allow a mortal kill even a god, which is why the Tarnished needs to defeat Maliketh to unbound it from his flesh, so the otherwise impenetrable holy thorns of the Erdtree can be completely burnt down.
Lady and Knight: As Marika's personal Shadowbound Beast, he is the Knight to her Lady.
Man of Kryptonite: As bearer of the Rune of Death, Maliketh can inflict True Death on the demigods who benefit from Resurrective Immortality possessed by those the Erdtree and Golden Order's system, which made him a huge deterrent for any of them trying to side against their mother Marika.
Mythical Motifs: With the game's many allusions to Norse mythology, Maliketh fills several parallels to Fenrir, as both are wolf-like entities feared by the gods for their power to slay them. The manner in which Maliketh's Rune of Death is used to burn the Erdtree to let the Tarnished choose the Land-Between's future mirrors Fenrir's role in Ragnarok, as both events can pretty much be considered the end-times before a new world comes around.
Mythology Gag: He inherits many elements from past Fromsoft bosses: he's an acrobatic greatsword-wielding black knight with a wolf motif like Artorias, and his mid-fight cutscene where the sight of a greatsword causes a boss to take on a whole new posture, move set and even new Boss Subtitles comes from Ludwig. Thirdly, as a sword-wielding lupine warrior with Undying Loyalty to his master, and whose attitude with the player character changes depending on if the player has completed a specific sidequest, he's one for Great Grey Wolf Sif. Visually, he is a Spear Counterpart to Vicar Amelia of Bloodborne, being a huge werewolf with white fur, a long, flowing mane, and Hidden Eyes.
Names to Run Away from Really Fast: On top of his already intimidating sobriquet, it's stated in one of his item descriptions that his given name literally means "Death of the Demigods."
Not So Stoic: Generally, Maliketh seems to have two emotional registers: grim determination, and frenzied rage. This is shaken on two notable occasions:
- Upon completing his questline as Gurranq, he will sound intensely frustrated and remorseful, to the point of shouting.
  Maliketh: Marika... Is this... what it is.. to sin? Will things... never be the same... again?
- After the above, when you fight him as Maliketh he will recognize you, and address you in an audibly sad, shocked tone as he realizes why you've come to face him.
Offscreen Moment of Awesome: He defeated the Godskin cult and slew their Queen (at a point in time when their spells were many times deadlier then now thanks to Destined Death being free) before becoming the Black Blade.
One-Man Army: Singlehandedly defeated the Godskin cult and killed the Gloam Eyed Queen, reducing them to a shadow of their former power.
Our Angels Are Different: Maliketh is the first (and likely the most powerful) of the Shadowbound Beasts — a species of Wolf Men with an innate gift for combat created by the Two Fingers with the duty of guarding one of the Empyreans, potential successors to Queen Marika, with their life.
Paradox Person: Even if you kill Gurranq, Maliketh will still appear in Farum Azula to protect Destined Death from the Tarnished. Implied to be a side-effect of the realm's strange relationship with time. The effect also persists both ways; as Gurranq is wholly unaffected by Maliketh dying before the completion of his questline.
Physical God: As Marika's half-brother and the first of the Shadows he is this. Even before he became the Black Blade, Maliketh was still able to slay the Gloam-Eyed Queen — an Empyrean who harnessed Destined Death, the undiluted essence of an Outer God — and claim its power for himself. After that, he was likely stronger than all of the Demigods, and perhaps even on the level of his sister considering the Rune of Death's ability to harm the Erdtree empowering her as an Empyrean.
Primal Stance: He seems to be most comfortable on all fours.
Red Baron: "The Black Blade".
Rush Boss: Maliketh is a classic example, as he's very fast, agile, and can kill you in one or two hits even with high vigor, but himself has low health and poise for an endgame boss. It's hard to land a hit on him, but every hit you do takes noticeable chunks off his health bar and has a chance of staggering him for even bigger damage.
Sad Battle Music: His boss theme has a grim, tragic tone to it, with tolling bells and an Ethereal Choir that starts to crescendo as he enters his second phase, highlighting Maliketh's determination as he fully unbinds his power to make his last stand in defense of Destined Death.
Signature Move: In a more broad sense, his Destined Death attacks which cause Maximum HP Reduction are unique to him and a very select few of his disciples, as well as the Black Knife Assassins who stole the ability from him. In a more specific sense, his move which is actually called Destined Death, the powerful explosion of flurried Destined Death blades he uses at the end of one of his longer attack strings which is all but guaranteed to One-Hit Kill you unless you have godlike reflexes or defense. It's also the unique skill of Maliketh's Black Blade, meaning the player can use it for themselves by cashing in his Remembrance.
Sorry That I'm Dying: If the player gave him, as Gurranq, all the nine Deathroots needed to complete his quest, Maliketh's final words are to beseech Marika for forgiveness and to concede the Golden Order cannot be restored. If his quest wasn't completed, he just asks, baffled, what the Tarnished could possibly want to kill with Destined Death.
Sword Beam: After unsealing the Black Blade for his second phase, Maliketh will regularly fire crimson-and-black waves of energy with his swings that have a nasty side-effect of lowering your total health and causing extra damage over time if you let them hit you. Transposing his Remembrance can also reward the Tarnished with the "Black Blade" spell; an Erdtree Incantation that conjures a spectral copy of Maliketh's sword with the same effect.
Third-Person Person: Dying in his second phase will have him command you to "cower in fear of Maliketh the Black Blade."
Turns Red: Reducing the Beast Clergyman to half-health will force him to unbind Destined Death from his flesh and reveal himself as the legendary Maliketh. Thereafter he gains a completely different, much more dangerous moveset.
Undying Loyalty: Maliketh holds this towards his half-sister, though she did not return it.
Walking Spoiler: Not only is he revealed to be the same individual as the Beast Clergyman, whom the Tarnished can potentially meet not long after starting their grand quest, Maliketh's defeat marks the game's Point of No Return. On top of that, his Remembrance further sheds light on the true nature of Golden Order, Destined Death, and the supposed theft of the Rune of Death which preceded the Shattering.
Worf Had the Flu: Years of keeping Destined Death sealed inside his body been utterly detrimental to Maliketh's physical and mental wellbeing, inflicting him with a bottomless hunger for the powers and manifestations of Death such as the Deathroot, threatening to drive him mad. The fact he still puts up one of the most harrowing fights in the game just proves why every Demigod feared him.
World's Best Warrior: Another potential contender. Though unlike Radahn, Godfrey, and Malenia, this reputation has less to do with personal capability (though he's by no means unskilled) and more his control of Destined Death. At the height of his power, he was feared by all of the demigods, as his preexisting might combined with his possession of the Rune of Death made fighting him literally unthinkable. While he has fallen far from his peak by the time you confront him, he still gives you one of the hardest fights in the entire game.

The Elden Throne

THE FINAL BOSS

The Elden Beast

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/elden_beast_boss_elden_ring_wiki_guide.jpg

Order Incarnate

A divine being residing within the Erdtree, the Elden Beast is a vassal of the Greater Will. The Elden Beast attacks the Tarnished shortly after their battle with Radagon and acts as the Final Boss of the game.

Given the character's status as a late game Diabolus ex Nihilo, the Elden Beast is a Walking Spoiler, so all spoilers are unmarked.

Aliens Are Bastards: A unearthly creature who crashed down in the Lands Between as a falling star. And unlike the Star-Spawn (which are at worst just very dangerous wild animals) the Beast is both intelligent and extremely hostile to those who would defy the Greater Will.
Ambiguously Evil: It's unclear why it attacks the Tarnished at the end of the game. Is it simply defending the Elden Throne against the invader who made themselves an enemy of the Golden Order by burning the Erdtree? Is it testing them and their worthiness? Is it simply a scared and wounded animal lashing out in self-defense, hence why it spends most of the battle running away? Does it not want anyone to use the Elden Ring ever again? Does it want to take the Great Runes you're holding so it can repair the Ring and thus itself? Does it suspect that the Tarnished will undo The Golden Order established by The Greater Will and replace it with a new one (as happens in pretty much all of the endings)? If so, is that out of its own volition and judgment, or because of the Greater Will's orders?
Ambiguously Related:
- Its Nebula attack (a hand swipe that leaves behind a field of stars which explodes after a delay) is shared with the Astel Star-Spawn; in addition to having supposedly arrived in the Lands Between on a falling star like the Naturalborn did. It's possible the Elden Beast is actually the same class of being as Astels, just linked to the Greater Will rather than the Dark Moon.
- It also breathes golden fire, something only a single other entity is seen doing: Dragonlord Placidusax, an ancient, semi-divine dragon (likewise linked directly to a now-vanished god) said to have been Elden Lord in an age before the Erdtree even existed. What this means is even less clear.
Ambiguous Situation:
- The Elden Beast's role in the setting as a whole, particularly among the divine hierarchy. It's heavily implied to be superior to Queen Marika/Radagon since it literally uses them as a tool/weapon in battle, but everything else is up in the air. Did Marika answer to it as a vassal of the Greater Will? Did it attack the Tarnished to test their mettle, or to prevent them from becoming the next Elden Lord?
- Just what is up with all those Erdtrees off in the distance of its Pocket Dimension? Is it symbolic? Are they the minor Erdtrees seen throughout the land? Visions of Erdtrees of other planets that the Greater Will seeded? And if the latter is the case, do each of those Erdtrees have their own Elden Beast, or is it one-of-a-kind? We'll likely never know for sure.
- Due to in part being the Elden Ring, it's left unclear what killing it does to the Ring itself, as it seems otherwise unaffected. It's possible that killing was essentially giving the Elden Ring itself a metaphorical lobotomy and forcing it to bend to your will, but it could also just be that the Beast is mended along with the Ring.
- Was the Elden Beast the one who sealed away the Erdtree? The seal bears Radagon's distinctive cross-hatch symbol and the Elden Beast has no obvious motive for wanting the Elden Ring to remain shattered (or for much of anything, given how little screentime it gets), but it's implied in the Radagon of the Golden Order fight that Radagon is currently braindead and a puppet for the Elden Beast. So did Radagon seal the Erdtree before being reduced to that state, or did the Elden Beast use him to do it afterwards?
Angelic Abomination: It's the physical avatar of a Sentient Cosmic Force vaguely resembling a translucent dragon with multiple tree branch-like wings and a Celestial Body with a visible glowing gold nervous system similar to the Laniakea Supercluster, lacking a discernible head. Despite its alien form, there is definitely an ethereal, almost divine aura from this creature made of stars. As a servant of the Greater Will, it also plays out that angelic part as being a servant and messenger to a higher being.
Anthropomorphic Personification: As the true form of the Elden Ring, the Beast is the physical avatar of the natural laws and principles that make up the Golden Order, and thus the Greater Will’s dominance over the reality of the Lands Between.
Beam Spam: It can cast dozens of different ranged spells, most of which reflects the Beast's space motifs. Ranging from blade-shaped projectiles launched from its Sacred Relic Sword, to an orb that constantly tracks the Tarnished while also emitting Beam Spam (reminiscent of the Elden Stars Incantation) to a mist resembling a miniature galaxy that explodes a few seconds after being summoned.
BFS: The Beast's Sacred Relic Sword, wrought from the remains of Marika and Radagon, is very long even proportional to its body. It's about twice the player character's height.
Breath Weapon: It's capable of breathing golden flames despite lacking a discernible mouth.
Bullet Hell: Some of the Elden Beast's attacks and spells require precise evasion from the Tarnished; namely, a hand swipe that leaves a cloud of magic dust that quickly detonates, its Breath Weapon, a flurry of Wave Motion Sword slashes, the Elden Stars incantation, and the insignia of the Elden Ring itself closing in on you unless you jump out of it.
Celestial Body: Its body is a translucent black filled with tiny stars, making it resemble a draconic nebula or galaxy.
Combat Pragmatist: It has a sword but would much rather stay far out of the Tarnished’s range while pelting them with magic.
Contractual Boss Immunity: The Elden Beast is immune to all status effects; understandably, given that it has no blood to spill or flesh to be frostbitten, no biology to be affected by poison, presumably no need to sleep, and as a direct vassal of the Greater Will it's obviously immune to the powers of other Outer Gods, accounting for Madness and Scarlet Rot.
Contrasting Sequel Antagonist: To The Moon Presence from Bloodborne. Both are dimly foreshadowed, otherworldly beings who act as surprise final bosses after a fight with a human whom they were The Man Behind the Man for (Gherman and Radagon) and whose personal motivations are largely unknown, but while the Moon Presence is a visceral barely-humanoid horror associated with the moon and who largely fought physically (excepting a HP-to-1 attack), the Elden Beast is a graceful, even beautiful draconic entity that is associated with stars and fights primarily with its magic.
Crippling Overspecialization: Almost all of its attacks deal exclusively Holy damage. This means should the Tarnished have a good amount of Holy damage negation, the boss turns into a minor nuisance at best. For example, clearing the Haligtree before going to fight it gives you Lord's Divine Fortification (+60% Holy resistance), the Halidrake Talisman +2 (+20% Holy resistance), and the Pearldrake Talisman +2 (+10% Holy resistance), which combined with a decent armor like the standard knight sets (+20% Holy resistance) and your own natural defense can basically render you immune to its attacks.
Diabolus ex Nihilo: The Elden Beast comes out of nowhere following the much hyped-up battle against Radagon, turns their corpse into a sword, transports the Tarnished into an Eldritch Location, and proceeds to duel them in what could be considered a more extravagant Final Boss fight. The only hint that it even exists is the Flavor Text for Elden Stars, which states that it was sent alongside a star that would become the Elden Ring to the Lands Between, implying it is the Elden Ring's guardian.
Draconic Humanoid: It's not immediately obvious, but the Elden Beast has human-like arms and legs and is capable of standing upright. Its name in the game files is "NebulaDragon."
The Dreaded: To the very few who know it exists. Gideon went insane with despair when he learned Marika's plan was for the third Elden Lord to kill it, because "a man cannot kill a god." while Marika herself regarded it so cautiously that she created multiple back-up plans in her multi-century plot to slay it (her Demigod children, Godfrey, and the rest of the Tarnished) and it still (seemingly) cost her her life to defy it.
Dub Name Change:
- In Spanish it's known as Bestia del Circulo, literally "Ring Beast."
- In Italian it's renamed to Belva Ancestrale, "Ancestral Beast", to fit with the Italian name of the Elden Ring, "Anello Ancestrale".
Evil Versus Evil: In the Age of Despair ending, the Ambiguously Evil elden beast is defeated by the Tarnished, who seeks to inflict an eternal curse on all the inhabitants of The Lands Between.
Evil Versus Oblivion: The Elden Beast may be 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.
The Faceless: A large star sits within its elongated neck, at the end where its head and face should be.
Fighting a Shadow: Possibly. It's not clear if the Beast is, like the Two Fingers, a separate entity that communes with and is empowered by the Greater Will or a non-sentient avatar the Outer God itself acts through.
Final Boss: The last foe the Tarnished must vanquish before they can decide the fate of the Lands Between.
Final Boss, New Dimension: When the Beast emerges out of Radagon, it saturates the Elden Throne with purple nebulae, twisting reality into a new realm with endless water extending to the horizon for a "ground" and a pitch black sky filled with stars, with a gigantic forest of Erdtrees spread a great distance from one another. Only after that does it battle with the Tarnished.
Fragile Speedster: While not exactly squishy, the Elden Beast’s health pool is quite low compared to most other endgame bosses and especially bosses of its size. It more than makes up for this by being extremely fast and spending a good chunk of the fight fleeing while pelting you with magic.
Gameplay and Story Integration: Like with Radagon, the Beast is incredibly resistant to holy damage, more so than any other enemy in the entire game. This makes perfect sense given it is essentially the force empowering both the Erdtree and the Golden Order, the most prominent sources of holy magic.
Gameplay and Story Segregation: Hewg was ordered by Marika to craft "a god-slaying weapon" to kill the Elden Beast specifically, and the Ancient Dragon Smithing Stone's description notes that it "lightly twists time, allowing the creation of a weapon capable of slaying a god", pointing to the obvious conclusion that you'd need a +10/+25 weapon (the stone's upgrade tier) to face the Elden Beast. This ties into other lore, like Miquella's unalloyed gold needles holding back Outer God influence but only purging it completely when used in Farum Azula, a land "outside of time". But in-game you can kill the Elden Beast with anything, like any other enemy. This becomes very noticeable if you follow Ranni's quest line, as a considerable portion of it is dedicated to finding a weapon capable of harming the otherwise invulnerable Two Fingers, their abnormal durability stated to be stemming from their position as chosen representatives of the Greater Will. As essentially the Will's direct avatar, the Elden Beast should at least match that. This discrepancy can potentially be explained as an effect of Destined Death and the Flame of Ruin having ravaged the Erdtree by the time the fight begins; as it is connected to the Erdtree, the Beast is implied to have weakened with its burning.
"Get Back Here!" Boss: A large amount of the Elden Beast's attacks have it swim to the other side of the absolutely massive arena before taking pot shots at you with projectile attacks. If you're particularly unlucky you'll be waiting a long time to get into striking distance of it, let alone damage it.
God of Order: Heralded by Its Remembrance as "the living incarnation of the concept of Order".
It Can Think: The Beast's intelligence is clear during its final duel with the Tarnished. Its swordplay is slow and deliberate, and it will often throw some of its many projectiles at you while moving closer so you'll be too distracted to dodge when it swings.
Lawful Stupid: One way to interpret it sealing the Erdtree and reacting violently to anyone that enters might be that, due to the Elden Beast's very nature as an incarnation of order, it's desperately trying to preserve the status quo and is compelled to punish those who trespass the laws of the Greater Will - even if in so doing they condemn the Elden Ring, and by extension the world, to remain shattered.
Living Weapon: The Elden Beast is beautiful and awe inspiring. Its sword? Not so much. It transforms Radagon's corpse into a blade, with his arms as the cross-guard and his ribcage between them.
Light Is Not Good: Maybe. A beautiful, ethereal creature, but whether it falls into this this trope is unclear. On the one hand, reading into the behavior of its servants (such as the Golden Order's general Fantastic Racism and utter refusal to let anyone claim the throne of Elden Lord) imply it's a Jerkass God willing to let the Lands Between rot in a hellish Forever War rather than relinquish control of the domain. On the other hand, there's no concrete evidence that it's behind any of their policies, and as stated under Ambiguously Evil, its motives for barring the Tarnished remain unknown.
Long Range Combatant: It does have a few close-quarter attacks with its sword, but the majority of the Beast's moveset consists of spamming projectiles while flying away if the Tarnished stays close for too long. Its ranged move set ties in with its celestial visual motif, launching Beam Spam and Energy Balls vaguely resembling miniature galaxies and supernovas.
Mix-and-Match Critter: To the utmost degree: the Elden Beast looks like if you got a dragon, an amoeba, some sort of cetacean animal and fused them all together with a supercluster of stars, and gave the result firefly wings and eerily human arms and legs for the hell of it.
Mother of a Thousand Young: As the true form of the Elden Ring, and by extension the Erdtree, the Elden Beast is the progenitor of all life in the Lands Between, save for the Star Spawn, which originate from the Dark Moon.
Multiple-Tailed Beast: It’s hard to spot in normal gameplay, but the end of the Beast’s tail is covered in numerous glowing golden branches.
No Kill like Overkill: Its grab attack has it crucify the Tarnished onto a Rune Arc like Marika, before stabbing them with dozens of light spears in what can only be described as an act of divine wrath, which then proceed to explode for good measure.
One-Winged Angel: The first part of his fight has it possessing Radagon's body and fighting in a similar manner to him, albeit seemingly powered-up. After Radagon is killed it exits the puppet and materializes into its true form.
Our Angels Are Different: Like the Two Fingers, the Elden Beast is described as a vassal of the Greater Will and is its most powerful servant and manifestation of its power, sent to the Lands Between to act as the Cosmic Keystone of an entire world. Comparing it to Christianity, the Two Fingers would be lowly messenger angels, while the Elden Beast would be akin to a Seraph, the highest rank. ^note
Phantom Zone: It teleports the Tarnished and itself to what appears to be a Pocket Dimension for the final battle.
Placid Plane of Ankle-Deep Water: It's fought in one, with a starry sky overhead and many Erdtree-like columns dotted about.
Physical God: As the prime servant of the Greater Will, the Elden Beast is a god through and through. Just to drive it home, the message that appears when the Tarnished defeats it is the unique "GOD SLAIN".
Scars Are Forever: There's a small scar shaped like a Black Knife on its underbelly. It's presumably either a wound inflicted by the Rune of Death the Tarnished unleashes on the Erdtree right before entering or a mark left by the backlash of the Elden Ring's shattering.
Small Role, Big Impact: The Elden Beast’s existence isn’t so much as hinted at prior to beating Radagon and it only shows up for a single boss fight but it is quite possibly one of the most important figures in the lore being how it is heavily implied to have been the one ruling the Lands Between through Marika, Marika’s grand plan involved weakening it and preparing someone (whether it be a Tarnished, one of her children, or Godfrey) to be strong enough to finish it off, and it is the being most likely responsible for the Erdtree refusing a new Elden Lord (thus keeping the Lands Between in a perpetually broken state).
The Speechless: It doesn't speak a word during its boss battle, though the hints given that most of Marika's decisions as Queen were actually dictated by the Beast imply it can communicate in some fashion.
Sealed Evil in a Can: For all its incredible power, the Beast seems unable or unwilling to leave the Erdtree, requiring Marika to act as its extension in the outside world. This is presumably because the Beast's nature as the tree's consciousness binds it there; it'd probably be much weaker outside of its home (for starters, it definitely couldn't bomb you with the Elden Ring or seamlessly dive through the floor as if it was water).
Shout-Out: To the Great Forest Spirit: The Beast's glowing nervous system, translucent body, and galaxy motif strongly resemble its Nightwalker form, and it occupies a similar position as a deity who rules over and enforces the natural laws of the world.
Squishy Wizard: Relatively. In melee damage output and resistance the Elden Beast actually compares unfavorably to the rest of the end-game bosses, which is especially noticeable considering it's a huge target that can't exactly dodge. Its sword is gigantic but not only are its slashes easily dodged, but they're actually quite weak even if they do connect. It makes up for it with the ability to rapidly spam a lot of extremely damaging golden light projectiles while quickly putting distance between itself and its opponent.
Top God: The true Top God of the Lands Between, clearly above Marika and heavily implied to be responsible for their mutilation and imprisonment.
Uncanny Valley: It has way-too-human-looking arms and legs that mismatch greatly with its vaguely ameoba-like body shape, adding to the feel that the creature you're seeing is very off.
Walking Spoiler: Simply knowing its existence is itself an endgame spoiler, much less understanding its nature and role in the Lands Between’s cosmology.
When Trees Attack: Not literally, but (as the Beast is implied to serve as its soul) its boss-fight can be considered the Erdtree itself's last ditch effort to stop the Tarnished from becoming Elden Lord.
Worf Had the Flu: Twofold. By the time the Tarnished can enter the Elden Throne, the Erdtree is already set ablaze using the Flame in the Forge of the Giants, and ravaged with the Rune of Death. As the Beast is connected to the Erdtree, its power and influence are almost certainly affected. And because it is revealed to be the Elden Ring itself, Marika shattering it and her children claiming its shards long ago logically must have weakened the Beast to a certain degree, and it has a noticeable wound on its chest as a visual indication of this. The fact it's still arguably the most powerful entity in the game (especially if Radagon is considered its first phase rather than a separate fight) despite these factors speak more than enough about its power as a god.

Characters / Elden Ring: Enemies and Bosses

Limgrave

Stormveil Castle

Caelid

Siofra River

Ainsel River

Nokron and Nokstella, The Twin Eternal Cities

Lake of Rot

Astel, Naturalborn of the Void

Deeproot Depths

Volcano Manor

Altus Plateau

Leyndell, Royal Capital

Mountaintops of the Giants

The Fire Giant

Consecrated Snowfield

Mohgwyn Palace

Miquella's Haligtree

Crumbling Farum Azula

Maliketh, the Black Blade

The Elden Throne

The Elden Beast

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Characters / Elden Ring: Enemies and Bosses

Edit Locked

Limgrave

Stormveil Castle

Caelid

Siofra River

Ainsel River

Nokron and Nokstella, The Twin Eternal Cities

Lake of Rot

Astel, Naturalborn of the Void

Deeproot Depths

Volcano Manor

Altus Plateau

Leyndell, Royal Capital

Mountaintops of the Giants

The Fire Giant

Consecrated Snowfield

Mohgwyn Palace

Miquella's Haligtree

Crumbling Farum Azula

Maliketh, the Black Blade

The Elden Throne

The Elden Beast

Previous

Index

Next