There's a blog called "31 days of Elden Ring" by Jonathan Wojcik and Rev Storm. I tried to link it here but it deleted my comment. Day 12 they do Cemetery shade and show a bunch of their own and some of Zullie's screenshots. They show a side by side with a spider crab and the cemetery crab. Spider crab has 8 legs and two very long multi-joint claws, cemetery crab has 8 legs and two short stubby single-joint forelimbs that suggest it molted it's blade/claws to be wielded by the body. You should check out the blog for the cool creature insights
You know, people saying that the developer said that Elden Ring has nothing to do with the other games is the Mandela effect. He said the mimics had nothing to do with Dark Souls. So this could actually be a bloodborne connection
Man... i never did the dungeon with him as a boss so i didn't knew anything about this guy and then i run down the Gelmir Hero's grave and found out the hard way when i hid from the chariot in the little nook.
I stumbled into the little alcove in the Gelmir Hero's Grave that hid one of these things. At that point, I hadn't done any of the catacombs that featured them as bosses, so it was my first time seeing one. It scared the living shit out of me as it deleted my health bar in 5 seconds.
@@falx94 right lol. That catacomb is a pain too with all those chariots. But I found a way to make it easier to travel. Raptors of the Mist ash of war lol
I love how despite being such a massive open world game so many people have similar moments. Saw that with the carbot shorts too, one-off brief, accidental moments depicted from a 200+ hour game that tons of people experienced vividly.
Zio you should look at the Winged Scythe lore. Really weird stuff, it talks about winged maidens being death's gentle envoys. The weapon art emits light and feathers like angel miracles in DS3 and that same type of light is emitted by Miranda blossom notorius attack and related Miranda cut content.
The lore guy who does architectural analysis talks of a religion that existed before Marika became the God of the Golden Order, potentially even before the Erdtree. Marika seemed to have "grown up" in this time period, as her religion of immortality directly contrasts this older religion (and also, literally, buried it into the dirt). It focused heavily on death and burial rites and women, and are suggested to be where the Deathbirds came from
I always assumed they were the shades of those spirit ashes from the summons they drop upon defeat. Lhuthel the headless, twinsage sorcerer ashes, and kindred of rot ashes. This category was not accepted by the erdtree to be absorbed into the tree upon death since they were outside the guidance of grace. So now they linger in death.
I got one to be a boss in Elphael during a randomizer run. It was the most infuriating part of the whole experience. I am really glad we don't meet them past Mt Gelmir. Trust me, that health has no business going up.
They'll teleport to you once, attack, teleport, teleport again and attack again, then they do a turn around animation and teleport back. And that point you can literally walk up behind them for a backstab (don't run, that typically scares them into attacking again). Hopefully you had a good weapon. You can also parry the mantis blades, I just wouldn't recommend trying to parry the flurry attack. If you miss, you'll get destroyed in a microsecond
@@nameinvalidLOL69 in malenia's huge arena, the shade would teleport too far away all the time, then disappear just as I caught up. I had to resort to trading hits, in order to eventually kill it.
Could these be mausoleum knights that got infected by a deathblight creature? They are grave keepers, and it would explain why the shades can teleport. And one of them drops the Luthel the Headless ash as well. Maybe that shade is what happened to Luthel?
@@michasokoowski6651If I recall correctly, the mausoleum knights are headless because of a "ritual" they did in life to be able to protect their lords even after death
4:55 "Also begs the question: Where did the crab come from" Someone gotta call Limit Breakers, looks like the Catacombs Small Crab from DS3 is back for round 2
My impression ( or call it head cannon ) was that cemetery shades are normal (super)natural animals/monsters/phenomenon in Lands Between not directly connected or involved to events of the shattering or Gods or Erdtree or anything else. But just existing in the world, although in very rare numbers, whatever is happening with the world, more like a cryptid or a rare animal or rare phenomena. Like if shattering never happened and everything is as normal there still would be stories and legends ( because rarely anybody has seen one ) of creepy insect crabs in dark places of the dead that take control of the body...
These enemies instantly reminded me of Bloodbornes "Mad One" enemies and also a bit of the "Madman" enemies when it comes to the aggressive moveset. When I first encountered them I thought they were a copy from Bloodborne but they do look a bit different. The design is VERY similar though.
Yeah they seem a mix of Madmen, Snake heads (the snake parasite controled axe dudes in forbiden forest) and Witch Aparitions (those things witched of hemwick summon)
When you mentioned that the shade has wounds indicating it was once part of the tree, an idea struck me. What if the shades are a form a church grim? A church grim is the spirit of the first being to be buried in a graveyard, tasked with guiding other occupants to the afterlife and warding off evil spirits that would intercept them. Maybe that spider-crab-moth thing is how the shade/church grim is selected? Edit: nvm I got further into the video there's like 50 other guys that do the same things, it would be redundant
I haven't seen the Luigi video but I like what you said about his point. The servants of rot don't have rot powers themselves but no one disputes their association. It could be the same thing with the Shades. They don't have deathblight but are still connected to the deathroot. That actually makes perfect sense.
My best friend is one of the main developers and artists for Elden ring. I asked him the other day about all the little things no one knows or understands about these games, he says that’s the fun bit. Leave it up to the audience. But also that he enjoys commenting on random posts and videos giving direct answers to these questions about who they are and what and whatever. On a burner account. And people will argue with him 😂 in other words, the answers are out there somewhere. We just won’t ever know 💀
I’ll tell you this, I played through the entirety of Elden Ring at release with my fiancée, we went into the crypt which had a cemetary shade and adds (imps or skeletons, can’t remember) and it was a tense and exciting fight that took us several attempts at low level.
The weapons the cemetery shade uses are similar to the pests staff. It’s extremely odd and they seem to share aspects with all kinds of different things in the game
Maybe creatures like the spidercrabs have a little bit of Godwyn and his will in them and now Godwyn is no longer a person, he's a swarm. And Miquella wanted to prevent all of this with his attempt to revive Godwyn. Because Godwyn in this form is the only thing that can stop Miquella from claming the throne.
I remember freaking out the first time I saw this thing. A shadowy phantom teleporting right up to you the second you come through the fog. The way it stares at you, Shudders and then approaches is totally nightmarish
Love your content big fan, just wish your videos didn't cap at 10min every time. Would love to see a full length video eventually. Thanks for keeping us crazy souls boys up to date with everything.
Wouldn't it be cool to be exploring a hero grave in Elden ring when suddenly from up ahead you begin to faintly hear a winter Lantern getting closer and closer that was super tough mini boss fight
They are like the crystallians, they are inspired by a RolePlayGame Book. In the book "L'île du Roi Lézard", The Lezard King have a parasitic Insect/crabs in the heads. Its a french book, I let you search, and I hear nobody talking of that
I am thinking that these are actually regular enemies that we will see in the DLC and FromSoftware put them in as a little nod/suggestion on what is to come.
There’s a lot of correlation in the original dark souls where the bug was able to attach itself to Solair and control him. The bugs themselves were pretty easy to kill, but when they attach themselves to a host, they became much more difficult. Just a bit strange that there’s no lore on them in Elden ring. But if I had to guess maybe they were just pretty much extinct. The omen were hunted down and slaughtered. there’s a lot of information about that. But there’s nothing on the shades. So, if they were slaughtered too, you would assume that there would be more stuff written about them in the world. Which would mean that this is a relatively new creature. Without more information, it’s going to be very difficult to get a good understanding on exactly why they need a host and what their purposes in the world. And I have to kind of disagree about there being a link to Godwin. Because anything related to him applies death. And they also don’t seem to have any correlation between the insects born from Scarlet rot. Other than the fact that it’s an insect. But there are also dragonflies which is an insect and they have nothing to do with any of the two also. Everything in the game is there for a reason but maybe we just don’t have the information needed to put the piece together as of yet. Maybe we will get some new information in the future with DLC. But I don’t think it’s gonna have anything to do with the upcoming DLC.
Moths are also associated by rot, for instance malenia, which is alsoa vommon theme used in from soft games such as sekiro with stagnation. As in asian culture moths are symbols of death and decay, because moth species there lay eggs in corpses reulting in massive swarms of moths surrounding a corpse
The Pests were born from the Scarlet Rot by the Rot Goddess. You could make the same assumption that the Cemetary Shade crabs were born from Deathblight that was created from Godwyn.
Deathblight predates Godwyn. Godwyn has become the primary vessel for the Death God, like how Malenia is the vessel for the Rot God. The Rot was around before Malenia, but she is how that God is spreading influence.
I think it could be a helmet instead of a transformation, as it probably wouldn't make sense we transform into a random monster we know nothing about. If we get a transformation in dlc, I bet it'll be of a Omen, as they are actually a "race" in the game, and I also think we will somehow find or actually fight the primordial crucible, that's a way we could transform into a Omen.
Hmmmm I remember fightibg against them with a faith build, and the litanh of proper death incantation dealt binus damage against them, so if my memory seeves correctly, they are part of Those who live in Death
I like a lot of the connections you made, but how they connect I came up with some of my own ideas: What if the tree roots are corrupted, and down in these roots these strange crabs exist. By eating part of the root the crab becomes corrupted and starts doing the bidding for the tree. The Crab then goes out and takes control of grave watchers to bring them back to the tree as food (the bodies consumed by the roots). These "grave watcher" bosses are weak because the crab is already draining it energy to prepare it to be consumed by the tree roots and the weapons they wield are simply corrupted versions of the weapon the grave watcher was already wielding watching over.. well the grave. Another idea I had, everything I said as before is the same however in this scenario the corrupted grave watchers are not being brought back for food instead just serve as a defense mechanism to guard the root.
I’d argue the most obscure enemy in elden ring are the lightning whisp things found in the Siofra river as I believe all information we know about them had to be datamined and they are just overall forgettable enemies. Though when it comes to being obscure and interesting lore wise then cemetery shades definitely take the cake.
I never knew that the shades were two different beings, always thought it was a dude with a creepy head. It does appear that there is a strong connection to Deathroot so maybe it could be something like a corrupted kindred of rot. Could be something like what happens if a kindred of rot touches Deathroot though these are more crab-like then insect-like. I don't think they have connections to the mausoleum knights since the body does have a head though it could be ones that broke their code. I could see that as punishment for knights. You'd have that crab take over the body to defile it while it is protects the catacombs. Now that I said that it could be connected to the Seedbed Curse and Dungeater, crabs are scavengers. Maybe a variant of the Seedbed Curse where its not corrupted or accelerated by Dungeater. Maybe the shade is what happens when Seedbed Curse happens naturally. I don't know just some thoughts.
Fun fact: Certain insect larvae breathe through their butts. This allows them to put their heads under water while still breathing. I bring this up because this is the exact pose the Kindred of Rot adopt when they are not active. If you give it a google you'll see what I mean. They are very much the same.
if insects are associated with death, and more specifically decay, perhaps they are the OG keepers of the graves. death has always existed and was considered destined before being defiled in the night of black knives. the grave keepers would function to make sure that corpses continue to rot and feed into the erdtree. and then deathblight is a perversion of this concept.
My theory is that the Cemetery Shade is a product of a parasitic bug taking advantage of one of the bodies in the catacombs and, unlike the statues and the gladiators who were appointed as grave keepers, the Shade became a keeper of their own will (maybe to protect their food supply). Their weapon I believe is made from their own body, as another user pointed out, which isn't that much of a stretch since the Kindred of Rot did a similar thing with their glaives
The way that the creature is standing and how it acts kind of reminds me a little bit of Dark Souls 1 with solar and the Sunlight Maggot & the Chaos Bug. One of the main differences is in Eldon ring they're using Corpses, and in Dark Souls 1 it was a living person. And like you said in Eldon ring they use depictions of aquatic life and death roots, and in Dark Souls 1 the main concept was using a false light kind of like an angler fish, that resembled the Sun in solar's case. Just my thoughts
upon seeing the crab in the model editor, i thought it bore a striking resemblance to Astel, and the falling star beast, notably in which some insectoid creature is inhabiting the remains of the deceased. Astel also able to warp in and out of the physical, and both bosses have grabbing attacks of a similar ilk
In the inheritance series (Eragon) a shade is a sorcerer that tried to take multiple souls into themselves to use their power but the souls take over because he wasn’t strong enough to control them. Probably has nothing to do with these but that’s the only other time I’ve heard of shades
The position of the light on the spider crab almost reminds me of that one barnacle which acts as a parasite for crabs. It would be kind of funny if the barnacle was controlling the crab controlling the humanoid.
DUDE the amount of content in this game is insane like, i have beat the game 4 times and have 200 hours in it, and yet have never even HEARD of these guys
8:07 I had an idea about the rot kindred. They’re born of the Scarlet Rot, yet they don’t actually inflict rot when they hit you. Who’s to say the Shades aren’t born of Deathblight, but don’t inflict death, when you look at things like the rot kindred?
Less expressed in this video is how each one of these is in a catacomb adjacent to things relative of Godwyn or his legacy minus the not boss one. One found in the Black Knife Catacomb which is guarded by a Headless Knight, and also has the Black Knife Print inside with a Black Knife Assassin. One at the Tombsward Catacomb just north of the Walking Mausoleum in Wheeping Peninsula. One is at the Caelid Catacomb below the Dragon Cathedral which is the most prominent of them in the Lands Between itself. The one on the way to the boss room being the only exception, but a certain flower nearby and the abundance in lava, could suggest its lack of further placement, but still doesn't clarify why that Hero's Grave. However, that Hero's Grave DOES provide some curious detailed attention to dogs. The Bloodhound Knight/armor, the Red Wolf of the Champion, and at the end a spirit ashes of a Bloodhound Knight who never found his true king. One could wonder who this intended true king would have been at the time rather than in the present. In other parts of the Grave were nobles and pages, suggesting it wasn't Volcano Manor property as even his knights would turn their backs to him once seeing what has become of him. And treasuring the severed finger of him as a trophy down a path that might discourage most travelers.
its possible the cenemtary shades are a more "natural" extension of of the power of death, possibly linked to the likes of the deathbirds and ghostflame, as opposed to godwynn and those who live in deaths more corrupted form of death with deathblight, which would also explain their roles as guardians of graves when the various creatures associated with the prince of death defile them instead
While I can absolutely see the inspiration, I think the function of the antennae is different. The irl moth puts out its mating pheromones with its appendage, but I think the 'crab' we're looking at here is looking to receive some sort of signal with its serrate antennae. These sorts of antennae are associated with moths, so its surprising to see it on this crabbo
I assumed they're dead heroes corrupted by death blight. The headless ash describes the hero as killing themselves to serve a soulless demigod (godwin obviously) and another is found in the black knife catacomb where a solid chunk of death blight lore resides. Ots a bit of a reach but the death blight symbol also is a strange almost star fish shape that could resemble the thing on its head but again thays a reach. I dont think anything has really explained this moth/crab, but i really lean on them being warriors corrupted by the blight similar to our favorite dragon, and godwins homie fortisaxx
I came across one by mistake out of no where in one of the heroes cave. I'm on journey six, and I ha forgotten this enemy. One thing tho I noticed is, it fade kind of like Radagon and the beast. Some of Radagon , I believe left arm is shadow like. And if you look at the Elden beast, he is too. Ain't he like a wear parasite too?
This enemy exists AND is virtually the exact same in bloodborne, in fact I ran into that supposed hard to find Cemetery Shade, and I immediately thought about how weird it was to see a BB 1 to 1 rip in Elden Ring of all games...
Wasn't there a whole underground area in SOTF/DS2 where there were spiders with skull patterned bodies using the bodies of hosts like marionettes in Brightstone Cove?
i found once not unique enemy but a giant vampire bat in the mountains of giants with a different motif/ patterns under his wings maybe a bug or an error forgot by a dev maybe
The holes in the body, the missing stomach and the death blight around godwyn taking on an insect appearance. What if instead the insect crab thing isnt removing bodies from the erdtree but instead its a previous victim of death blight in its final state and thats why theres so few of them? The insect appearance of whats happening to Godwyn. Death by death blight looks like a tree sprouting out of you but what if its not? What if its a parasite the death scene we see is its incubation phase and the insect is the final form after hatching from the stomach piloting it nest like a puppet.
Godwyn isn't the only entity aligned with death in the lore. "In the time when there was no Erdtree, death was burned in ghostflame. Deathbirds were the keepers of that fire." (Explosive Ghostflame) "The twinbird is said to be the envoy of an outer god, and mother of the Deathbirds." (Twinbird Kite Shield) It seems unlikely that there's any connection between cemetery shades and deathbirds or ghostflame, but the shade does have an ashy appearance. Might be worth exploring.
The only thing that made any sense to me when I found the botb of them was Castle Sol. Didn't Miquella try to cause an eclipse? I wonder if he was trying to do that as a way to help those who live in death?
I always thought the Mantis blade were the actual claws of the crab that it took off to give them as a weapon to their host.
Oh wow I didn’t think about that, that makes a lot of sense
Also the official art book shows that the swords are glued to the hands with the sticky secretion they use to hold you in place
0 insight? Isn't that a bloodborne thing?
@@KaedNinescarredlooks like corpse wax to me
There's a blog called "31 days of Elden Ring" by Jonathan Wojcik and Rev Storm. I tried to link it here but it deleted my comment.
Day 12 they do Cemetery shade and show a bunch of their own and some of Zullie's screenshots.
They show a side by side with a spider crab and the cemetery crab. Spider crab has 8 legs and two very long multi-joint claws, cemetery crab has 8 legs and two short stubby single-joint forelimbs that suggest it molted it's blade/claws to be wielded by the body.
You should check out the blog for the cool creature insights
After finding out about the bug on their heads, I couldn't help but think back to Dark Souls 1 Sunlight Maggot and Solaire
My thoughts went to those spider enemies from Brightstone Cove Tseldora.
If you go into the fight with 0 insight, these enemies won't spawn.
true
Based
Tbh they dont make much of a diffrence anyway so easy to avoid them
They also drop something close to a trick weapon.
You know, people saying that the developer said that Elden Ring has nothing to do with the other games is the Mandela effect. He said the mimics had nothing to do with Dark Souls. So this could actually be a bloodborne connection
The cemetery shade lowkey freaked me out when i first found him
Lol IMO they look like joke like elden beast
Man... i never did the dungeon with him as a boss so i didn't knew anything about this guy and then i run down the Gelmir Hero's grave and found out the hard way when i hid from the chariot in the little nook.
@@yslmtl8702that’s where i found it too😭
I stumbled into the little alcove in the Gelmir Hero's Grave that hid one of these things. At that point, I hadn't done any of the catacombs that featured them as bosses, so it was my first time seeing one. It scared the living shit out of me as it deleted my health bar in 5 seconds.
Man I ran into that alcove after running from the chariot and I got destroyed myself while yelling WTF IS THAT!!!????😂😂😂
@@michaelbarnes2126 You know they put it there on purpose knowing everyone was going to be panic running from that damn chariot. Fromdickware
@@falx94 right lol. That catacomb is a pain too with all those chariots. But I found a way to make it easier to travel. Raptors of the Mist ash of war lol
I love how despite being such a massive open world game so many people have similar moments. Saw that with the carbot shorts too, one-off brief, accidental moments depicted from a 200+ hour game that tons of people experienced vividly.
Looks like a man with a goat's head, dark, teleports, attacks very quickly and aggressively. This thing is scary
I got so numb to jumpscare horror over the years that I was genuinely surprised at the fear these things gave me from appearance alone
The mob one was the first I ran into iirc and not only did he scare me but he shredded me or hit me into the chariot a few times. Hate that bastard.
Zio you should look at the Winged Scythe lore. Really weird stuff, it talks about winged maidens being death's gentle envoys. The weapon art emits light and feathers like angel miracles in DS3 and that same type of light is emitted by Miranda blossom notorius attack and related Miranda cut content.
I’ll check that out
That seems like it would be a reference to Valkyries, as Malenia is associated with them.
The lore guy who does architectural analysis talks of a religion that existed before Marika became the God of the Golden Order, potentially even before the Erdtree. Marika seemed to have "grown up" in this time period, as her religion of immortality directly contrasts this older religion (and also, literally, buried it into the dirt). It focused heavily on death and burial rites and women, and are suggested to be where the Deathbirds came from
@@GeneGearwhat’s this lore guys channel please?
@@Huss898I believe he’s referring to “Tarnished Archeologist”
I always assumed they were the shades of those spirit ashes from the summons they drop upon defeat. Lhuthel the headless, twinsage sorcerer ashes, and kindred of rot ashes. This category was not accepted by the erdtree to be absorbed into the tree upon death since they were outside the guidance of grace. So now they linger in death.
Then what about the Gelmirs hero grave one? I don't think it drops a spirit
I got one to be a boss in Elphael during a randomizer run. It was the most infuriating part of the whole experience. I am really glad we don't meet them past Mt Gelmir. Trust me, that health has no business going up.
😳😳😳
Yeah those things made tanky are a nightmare as a fellow randomizer player
They'll teleport to you once, attack, teleport, teleport again and attack again, then they do a turn around animation and teleport back. And that point you can literally walk up behind them for a backstab (don't run, that typically scares them into attacking again). Hopefully you had a good weapon.
You can also parry the mantis blades, I just wouldn't recommend trying to parry the flurry attack. If you miss, you'll get destroyed in a microsecond
@@nameinvalidLOL69 in malenia's huge arena, the shade would teleport too far away all the time, then disappear just as I caught up. I had to resort to trading hits, in order to eventually kill it.
@@glorytoukraine5524What about a great shield?
Could these be mausoleum knights that got infected by a deathblight creature? They are grave keepers, and it would explain why the shades can teleport. And one of them drops the Luthel the Headless ash as well. Maybe that shade is what happened to Luthel?
Maybe they are older than deathblight, it could explain why so many wardens are headless, to avoid being infected by them.
@@michasokoowski6651If I recall correctly, the mausoleum knights are headless because of a "ritual" they did in life to be able to protect their lords even after death
Interesting but personally doesn't really fit as to what @luxiam9148 said
4:55 "Also begs the question: Where did the crab come from"
Someone gotta call Limit Breakers, looks like the Catacombs Small Crab from DS3 is back for round 2
2:00 I found this one because I used that alcove to avoid the chariot. It felt fairly mean.
Because I was running the black knife armor, I had the great fortune of accidentally backstabbing this shade when I popped into this alcove.
@@Unlicensedpro-pr8is That's hilarious!
Love this type of content as someone that is still grinding The Lands Between, I say thank you Zio!
Same!😂
My impression ( or call it head cannon ) was that cemetery shades are normal (super)natural animals/monsters/phenomenon in Lands Between not directly connected or involved to events of the shattering or Gods or Erdtree or anything else.
But just existing in the world, although in very rare numbers, whatever is happening with the world, more like a cryptid or a rare animal or rare phenomena.
Like if shattering never happened and everything is as normal there still would be stories and legends ( because rarely anybody has seen one ) of creepy insect crabs in dark places of the dead that take control of the body...
These enemies instantly reminded me of Bloodbornes "Mad One" enemies and also a bit of the "Madman" enemies when it comes to the aggressive moveset. When I first encountered them I thought they were a copy from Bloodborne but they do look a bit different. The design is VERY similar though.
Yeah they seem a mix of Madmen, Snake heads (the snake parasite controled axe dudes in forbiden forest) and Witch Aparitions (those things witched of hemwick summon)
I didn’t know the Australian horror moth exsisted, and now I’m itchy
There are a lot of things in Australia that are dangerous or want to look dangerous.
2:00 My first time seeing one was a few seconds of terror spent realizing I wasn't alone in that alcove.
When you mentioned that the shade has wounds indicating it was once part of the tree, an idea struck me. What if the shades are a form a church grim? A church grim is the spirit of the first being to be buried in a graveyard, tasked with guiding other occupants to the afterlife and warding off evil spirits that would intercept them. Maybe that spider-crab-moth thing is how the shade/church grim is selected?
Edit: nvm I got further into the video there's like 50 other guys that do the same things, it would be redundant
I haven't seen the Luigi video but I like what you said about his point. The servants of rot don't have rot powers themselves but no one disputes their association.
It could be the same thing with the Shades. They don't have deathblight but are still connected to the deathroot. That actually makes perfect sense.
My best friend is one of the main developers and artists for Elden ring. I asked him the other day about all the little things no one knows or understands about these games, he says that’s the fun bit. Leave it up to the audience. But also that he enjoys commenting on random posts and videos giving direct answers to these questions about who they are and what and whatever. On a burner account. And people will argue with him 😂 in other words, the answers are out there somewhere. We just won’t ever know 💀
I’ll tell you this, I played through the entirety of Elden Ring at release with my fiancée, we went into the crypt which had a cemetary shade and adds (imps or skeletons, can’t remember) and it was a tense and exciting fight that took us several attempts at low level.
The weapons the cemetery shade uses are similar to the pests staff. It’s extremely odd and they seem to share aspects with all kinds of different things in the game
The Cemetery Shades are such a cool design, the remind me a lot of the Mad Ones from Bloodborne. I wish there were more Shades in the game!
Look closely at the arms of the spider crabs on the head, they share the same color as the Gem inbedded into the helphen!
I’m loving these bite-sized lore videos about obscure enemies.
Loving the Metroid Prime soundtrack at the end .. as soon as I heard it, I recognised it .. I played that game so much on my GC .. hard to forget .. 🤟
I ran into the non boss version whilst avoiding the chariot-thingy in that dungeon. I started randomly taking damage when I saw it’s silver eyes.
Maybe creatures like the spidercrabs have a little bit of Godwyn and his will in them and now Godwyn is no longer a person, he's a swarm. And Miquella wanted to prevent all of this with his attempt to revive Godwyn. Because Godwyn in this form is the only thing that can stop Miquella from claming the throne.
I just barely found your channel but I love it, the metroid ambience fits so well somehow
Never realized how scary these things are now im terrified,cheers 👍
I remember freaking out the first time I saw this thing. A shadowy phantom teleporting right up to you the second you come through the fog. The way it stares at you, Shudders and then approaches is totally nightmarish
The headcrab thing remonds me of the Eggsack on the head in DS1 and the spider infected people from DS2
Reminds me of the parasite shoved in ppls heads that turn into brainsuckers In bloodborne tbh
Love your content big fan, just wish your videos didn't cap at 10min every time. Would love to see a full length video eventually. Thanks for keeping us crazy souls boys up to date with everything.
Wouldn't it be cool to be exploring a hero grave in Elden ring when suddenly from up ahead you begin to faintly hear a winter Lantern getting closer and closer that was super tough mini boss fight
They are like the crystallians, they are inspired by a RolePlayGame Book. In the book "L'île du Roi Lézard", The Lezard King have a parasitic Insect/crabs in the heads. Its a french book, I let you search, and I hear nobody talking of that
probably because this monster looks nothing like that. its very cool though
I am thinking that these are actually regular enemies that we will see in the DLC and FromSoftware put them in as a little nod/suggestion on what is to come.
I appreciate the Super Metroid Merida music being used on an Elden Ring video
Only the way these guys move freaks me out but they're pretty easy to kill.
"You wouldn't notice it if someone didnt tell you"
You mean the one that jumps you in the middle of a dungeon?
Yeah I noticed it 😢
Probably one of the most metal af enemy designs in the game.
I honestly don't mind their short hp. Since their are capable of deleting a large chunk of your health quickly it becomes a high-paced battle of sorts
Would be cool if the dlc took place IN the spirit world.
6:37 eyyyyy thats a sick nameless king cosplay build
There’s a lot of correlation in the original dark souls where the bug was able to attach itself to Solair and control him. The bugs themselves were pretty easy to kill, but when they attach themselves to a host, they became much more difficult. Just a bit strange that there’s no lore on them in Elden ring. But if I had to guess maybe they were just pretty much extinct. The omen were hunted down and slaughtered. there’s a lot of information about that. But there’s nothing on the shades. So, if they were slaughtered too, you would assume that there would be more stuff written about them in the world. Which would mean that this is a relatively new creature. Without more information, it’s going to be very difficult to get a good understanding on exactly why they need a host and what their purposes in the world. And I have to kind of disagree about there being a link to Godwin. Because anything related to him applies death. And they also don’t seem to have any correlation between the insects born from Scarlet rot. Other than the fact that it’s an insect. But there are also dragonflies which is an insect and they have nothing to do with any of the two also. Everything in the game is there for a reason but maybe we just don’t have the information needed to put the piece together as of yet. Maybe we will get some new information in the future with DLC. But I don’t think it’s gonna have anything to do with the upcoming DLC.
Moths are also associated by rot, for instance malenia, which is alsoa vommon theme used in from soft games such as sekiro with stagnation. As in asian culture moths are symbols of death and decay, because moth species there lay eggs in corpses reulting in massive swarms of moths surrounding a corpse
The Pests were born from the Scarlet Rot by the Rot Goddess. You could make the same assumption that the Cemetary Shade crabs were born from Deathblight that was created from Godwyn.
Deathblight predates Godwyn. Godwyn has become the primary vessel for the Death God, like how Malenia is the vessel for the Rot God. The Rot was around before Malenia, but she is how that God is spreading influence.
The obscure Vagrant enemy in Dark Souls is a type of phantom capable of travelling between worlds. It is also a crab creature.
Interesting. They were generated by leaving items behind, right?
@@k1xnt Humanity specifically
Oh shit I've never even SEEN these enemies before
Imagine if this could be a transformation form in the DLC. Wouldn't that be nuts?
I think it could be a helmet instead of a transformation, as it probably wouldn't make sense we transform into a random monster we know nothing about. If we get a transformation in dlc, I bet it'll be of a Omen, as they are actually a "race" in the game, and I also think we will somehow find or actually fight the primordial crucible, that's a way we could transform into a Omen.
@@andregregory1663 I'll take anything man. I just want some cool transformation-related stuff.
That’s stupid and random. It would nuts cause that’s dumb not cause it’s cool
Be nice if the dragon torso /head in DS3 makes some sort of appearance in the ER DLC. Or similar items would be awesome
@@jaioncebollero1168 Ok.
Ah, "Torvus bog" my guiding Explanatory Dialogue Song you were with me all along.
I wish we could get a non combative follower, like a little crab you can name or so something
They remind me of an enemy from bloodborne when you fight the witches of hemwick.
Hmmmm I remember fightibg against them with a faith build, and the litanh of proper death incantation dealt binus damage against them, so if my memory seeves correctly, they are part of Those who live in Death
They’re like a fusion of the Graveyard Wraiths in Hemwick Charnel Lane and the Little Blue Alien guys in the Forest from Bloodborne.
I like a lot of the connections you made, but how they connect I came up with some of my own ideas: What if the tree roots are corrupted, and down in these roots these strange crabs exist. By eating part of the root the crab becomes corrupted and starts doing the bidding for the tree. The Crab then goes out and takes control of grave watchers to bring them back to the tree as food (the bodies consumed by the roots). These "grave watcher" bosses are weak because the crab is already draining it energy to prepare it to be consumed by the tree roots and the weapons they wield are simply corrupted versions of the weapon the grave watcher was already wielding watching over.. well the grave. Another idea I had, everything I said as before is the same however in this scenario the corrupted grave watchers are not being brought back for food instead just serve as a defense mechanism to guard the root.
they REALLY cool and i love the blade they drop
I’d argue the most obscure enemy in elden ring are the lightning whisp things found in the Siofra river as I believe all information we know about them had to be datamined and they are just overall forgettable enemies. Though when it comes to being obscure and interesting lore wise then cemetery shades definitely take the cake.
I never knew that the shades were two different beings, always thought it was a dude with a creepy head. It does appear that there is a strong connection to Deathroot so maybe it could be something like a corrupted kindred of rot. Could be something like what happens if a kindred of rot touches Deathroot though these are more crab-like then insect-like. I don't think they have connections to the mausoleum knights since the body does have a head though it could be ones that broke their code. I could see that as punishment for knights. You'd have that crab take over the body to defile it while it is protects the catacombs. Now that I said that it could be connected to the Seedbed Curse and Dungeater, crabs are scavengers. Maybe a variant of the Seedbed Curse where its not corrupted or accelerated by Dungeater. Maybe the shade is what happens when Seedbed Curse happens naturally. I don't know just some thoughts.
Fun fact: Certain insect larvae breathe through their butts. This allows them to put their heads under water while still breathing. I bring this up because this is the exact pose the Kindred of Rot adopt when they are not active. If you give it a google you'll see what I mean. They are very much the same.
The tentacles of the crab look like the antennae of moths than the specific moth inflated thing
they do appear more than once
I saw some gladiator guy in a snow field with a snake wrapped around him. Never saw that until yesterday
if insects are associated with death, and more specifically decay, perhaps they are the OG keepers of the graves. death has always existed and was considered destined before being defiled in the night of black knives. the grave keepers would function to make sure that corpses continue to rot and feed into the erdtree. and then deathblight is a perversion of this concept.
My theory is that the Cemetery Shade is a product of a parasitic bug taking advantage of one of the bodies in the catacombs and, unlike the statues and the gladiators who were appointed as grave keepers, the Shade became a keeper of their own will (maybe to protect their food supply).
Their weapon I believe is made from their own body, as another user pointed out, which isn't that much of a stretch since the Kindred of Rot did a similar thing with their glaives
I see a connection between their weapons and the wing blade you get near Astel just in the shape.
i came across one of these guys in a dungeon the other day and i was like woah he’s got glowing eyes, never seen him before
The way that the creature is standing and how it acts kind of reminds me a little bit of Dark Souls 1 with solar and the Sunlight Maggot & the Chaos Bug. One of the main differences is in Eldon ring they're using Corpses, and in Dark Souls 1 it was a living person. And like you said in Eldon ring they use depictions of aquatic life and death roots, and in Dark Souls 1 the main concept was using a false light kind of like an angler fish, that resembled the Sun in solar's case. Just my thoughts
upon seeing the crab in the model editor, i thought it bore a striking resemblance to Astel, and the falling star beast, notably in which some insectoid creature is inhabiting the remains of the deceased. Astel also able to warp in and out of the physical, and both bosses have grabbing attacks of a similar ilk
In the inheritance series (Eragon) a shade is a sorcerer that tried to take multiple souls into themselves to use their power but the souls take over because he wasn’t strong enough to control them. Probably has nothing to do with these but that’s the only other time I’ve heard of shades
there is /one/ cemetary shade down in Fringefolk Hero's Grave, just along the main chariot path
The catacombs may be the same underwolrd dimensions as the chalice dungeons, were u can gain insight and see these higher dimension terrors
The position of the light on the spider crab almost reminds me of that one barnacle which acts as a parasite for crabs. It would be kind of funny if the barnacle was controlling the crab controlling the humanoid.
DUDE the amount of content in this game is insane like, i have beat the game 4 times and have 200 hours in it, and yet have never even HEARD of these guys
The crab thing feels like a DS2 throwback in a way, except this time its not a spider. I have to find them for myself. They're neat.
8:07 I had an idea about the rot kindred. They’re born of the Scarlet Rot, yet they don’t actually inflict rot when they hit you. Who’s to say the Shades aren’t born of Deathblight, but don’t inflict death, when you look at things like the rot kindred?
Less expressed in this video is how each one of these is in a catacomb adjacent to things relative of Godwyn or his legacy minus the not boss one. One found in the Black Knife Catacomb which is guarded by a Headless Knight, and also has the Black Knife Print inside with a Black Knife Assassin. One at the Tombsward Catacomb just north of the Walking Mausoleum in Wheeping Peninsula. One is at the Caelid Catacomb below the Dragon Cathedral which is the most prominent of them in the Lands Between itself. The one on the way to the boss room being the only exception, but a certain flower nearby and the abundance in lava, could suggest its lack of further placement, but still doesn't clarify why that Hero's Grave. However, that Hero's Grave DOES provide some curious detailed attention to dogs. The Bloodhound Knight/armor, the Red Wolf of the Champion, and at the end a spirit ashes of a Bloodhound Knight who never found his true king. One could wonder who this intended true king would have been at the time rather than in the present. In other parts of the Grave were nobles and pages, suggesting it wasn't Volcano Manor property as even his knights would turn their backs to him once seeing what has become of him. And treasuring the severed finger of him as a trophy down a path that might discourage most travelers.
That shit is fucking scary. I will never forget that first time
its possible the cenemtary shades are a more "natural" extension of of the power of death, possibly linked to the likes of the deathbirds and ghostflame, as opposed to godwynn and those who live in deaths more corrupted form of death with deathblight, which would also explain their roles as guardians of graves when the various creatures associated with the prince of death defile them instead
The hairy antenna resemble the mausoleum guard's wing adornments. And the twinbird resembles the Two Fingers...
As for the insect, I'm sure it's modeled after Progonyleptoidellus, which is a type of Harvestman.
Never knew about the crab, great video!
The cemetery shade with the light on it’s head looks like what everyone thinks are birds in the dlc trailer
The first shade I ran into was actually the one hiding in the corner of that wall section. Killed me instantly lol
I love this enemy, it reminds me of The Beast from Over the Garden Wall.
While I can absolutely see the inspiration, I think the function of the antennae is different. The irl moth puts out its mating pheromones with its appendage, but I think the 'crab' we're looking at here is looking to receive some sort of signal with its serrate antennae. These sorts of antennae are associated with moths, so its surprising to see it on this crabbo
Death birds are weak to holy also and I find it curious the shades are (all but one) found in the catacombs. Obv related to death also.
I assumed they're dead heroes corrupted by death blight. The headless ash describes the hero as killing themselves to serve a soulless demigod (godwin obviously) and another is found in the black knife catacomb where a solid chunk of death blight lore resides. Ots a bit of a reach but the death blight symbol also is a strange almost star fish shape that could resemble the thing on its head but again thays a reach. I dont think anything has really explained this moth/crab, but i really lean on them being warriors corrupted by the blight similar to our favorite dragon, and godwins homie fortisaxx
Imagine after solitaire gets infected by the sun maggot you find a really bright cemetary shade
Those eyes remind me of that boomerang throwing horse rider from the DLC trailer.
I came across one by mistake out of no where in one of the heroes cave. I'm on journey six, and I ha forgotten this enemy. One thing tho I noticed is, it fade kind of like Radagon and the beast. Some of Radagon , I believe left arm is shadow like. And if you look at the Elden beast, he is too. Ain't he like a wear parasite too?
This enemy exists AND is virtually the exact same in bloodborne, in fact I ran into that supposed hard to find Cemetery Shade, and I immediately thought about how weird it was to see a BB 1 to 1 rip in Elden Ring of all games...
Wasn't there a whole underground area in SOTF/DS2 where there were spiders with skull patterned bodies using the bodies of hosts like marionettes in Brightstone Cove?
I always prepared the encounter with as much DPS as possible to avoid any shenanigans with them. Like the design but still terrified by them
i found once not unique enemy but a giant vampire bat in the mountains of giants with a different motif/ patterns under his wings maybe a bug or an error forgot by a dev maybe
The holes in the body, the missing stomach and the death blight around godwyn taking on an insect appearance. What if instead the insect crab thing isnt removing bodies from the erdtree but instead its a previous victim of death blight in its final state and thats why theres so few of them? The insect appearance of whats happening to Godwyn. Death by death blight looks like a tree sprouting out of you but what if its not? What if its a parasite the death scene we see is its incubation phase and the insect is the final form after hatching from the stomach piloting it nest like a puppet.
Godwyn isn't the only entity aligned with death in the lore.
"In the time when there was no Erdtree, death was burned in ghostflame. Deathbirds were the keepers of that fire." (Explosive Ghostflame)
"The twinbird is said to be the envoy of an outer god, and mother of the Deathbirds." (Twinbird Kite Shield)
It seems unlikely that there's any connection between cemetery shades and deathbirds or ghostflame, but the shade does have an ashy appearance. Might be worth exploring.
The missing innards could indicate enslavement, like with the giants. However, that doesn’t explain the spider.
This creature is so creepy and cool I wish we saw them around more often or see more of them in the DLC
Also, I always thought the Pumpkinheads description referenced them as the reason for the helmet.
The only thing that made any sense to me when I found the botb of them was Castle Sol. Didn't Miquella try to cause an eclipse? I wonder if he was trying to do that as a way to help those who live in death?