Elden Ring Shadow of the Erdtree Image Challenges Fan Theory

Highlights

• Elden Ring shared a new Shadow of the Erdtree screenshot.
• The promotional image depicts an entrance to a large city in the Land of Shadow, with a Site of Grace being visible in front of it.
• Some fans have previously speculated that the upcoming DLC will replace Sites of Grace with Miquella’s Runes.

Bandai Namco has shared a new Elden Ring: Shadow of the Erdtree screenshot. The image, depicting an imposing city, challenges one popular fan theory about the upcoming Elden Ring expansion.

Ever since Elden Ring: Shadow of the Erdtree was treated to its first trailer in February 2024, some fans have been speculating that Sites of Grace will be nowhere to be found in the Land of Shadow, and that they may instead be replaced with Miquella’s Runes. The theory gained even more traction come late May, when Bandai Namco shared the DLC’s story trailer, which featured multiple crescent-shaped Runes associated with Miquella, although never explicitly confirmed to be his.

Elden Ring: Shadow of the Erdtree Will Seemingly Feature Sites of Grace After All

But a new promotional screenshot that the publisher shared a day later appears to challenge that belief. The May 22 promo depicts an entrance to a massive city in the Land of Shadow, with a closer inspection of the image revealing that there’s a Site of Grace sitting at the bottom of its stairway. The fandom’s speculation that Elden Ring: Shadow of the Erdtree will be completely bereft of Sites of Grace hence appears to have been wrong. But whether this means that the expansion’s checkpoints will be completely unchanged is unclear.

The existence of Sites of Grace in the Land of Shadow does not in any way invalidate the theory that Miquella’s Runes will have a role to play in the DLC. The demigod cursed with eternal childhood will be a central character in Elden Ring: Shadow of the Erdtree, with FromSoftware President and Creative Director Hidetaka Miyazaki already confirming as much. Specifically, Miyazaki recently said that the Tarnished will be following in Miquella’s footsteps over the course of the DLC’s story, which he said will be similar to how they were guided by Grace in the base game. That statement is what previously convinced some fans that Miquella’s Runes would be replacing Sites of Grace in the expansion.

It should be noted that FromSoftware has yet to confirm that the mysterious beams of light seen in the Shadow of the Erdtree promotional materials are actually Miquella’s Runes. But between the fact that a lot of the base game’s symbolism associated with Miquella features crescent shapes and the confirmation that the expansion will revolve around the eternally young demigod, that appears to be likely. Doubly so given how Miquella is the only demigod who doesn’t yet have a Great Rune in Elden Ring. Shadow of the Erdtree launches June 21.