Elden Ring’s Red-Haired Character Is A Boss, Apparently

After two years, fans were finally given another look at Elden Ring, the next project coming out of FromSoftware, the developer known for their last decade of entries to the Souls sub-genre of action-RPGs. Elden Ring was first announced at E3 2019 before FromSoftware went radio silent. Hype continued to grow until more footage was at least released during the Summer Game Fest Kickoff Live show. The footage wasn’t altogether surprising, since fans know what to expect with FromSoftware games, but the trailer did offer a lot of new and exciting glimpses into the world of Elden Ring.

Information from 2019 essentially billed Elden Ring as Dark Souls but bigger, with a freely explorable open world. Game director Hidetaka Miyazaki revealed that the lore was written by George R.R. Martin, famed creator of A Song of Ice and Fire, and it’s now been confirmed that Martin named Elden Ring‘s world as well. In typical FromSoftware fashion, the trailer only provided bits of Elden Ring‘s narrative to be pieced together, including another look at a certain red-haired character heavily featured in the initial reveal trailer from 2019.

The initial reveal trailer for Elden Ring had even fewer details than the new one, but one of the more striking images was of a red-haired person with an apparently detachable arm. They didn’t do much aside from horizon-looking and arm-attaching, but their appearance denoted them as potentially one of the more important characters in the game. Now, that same character has reappeared in the latest Elden Ring trailer, which seems to position them as one of the game’s bosses.

Elden Ring’s Red-Haired Boss May Be A Major Antagonist

Similar to the clip involving them in the reveal, the gameplay trailer shows a close-up of the red-haired character in profile. This time, however, its immediately followed by a brief clip of them throwing an armor-clad person in the air for the purpose of a very impressive impalement. Though it’s not entirely clear, the best guess that can be made is that the red-haired character is facing off against the Tarnished, Elden Ring‘s potential protagonist. The design of this character is too unique, and too heavily featured in the trailers, to be an average enemy type, so a boss battle seems to be the most likely encounter.

This clip comes during a sequence in which the trailer’s narrator is discussing the fate of the tarnished: “They will fight. And they will die. In an unending curse. For how else is a champion, or a lord, to be born?” This line is very poignantly positioned to conclude right at the aforementioned impalement scene. Although details on Elden Ring‘s story are scarce, this timely discussion of lords might be implying that the red-haired character is a member of the Golden Order, an organization situated at odds with the Tarnished. It’s definitely no coincidence that this particular character is prominently featured in the only two promotional trailers for Elden Ring thus far, but players will most likely have to wait until the game is out to learn what this boss’ particular significance to the story is.

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