A year and a half after its release, "Eldenring" still retains some mystery, some secrets, some aspects that even the most dedicated of players cannot fully unravel. This is intentional, of course, and since "Demon's Souls" From Software has always aimed to leave room for player interpretation.

But one player's tool is dividing people. While it is fascinating to see what is left in the process of creating such an epic world, too often data-mined elements are presented under the banner of "cut content" and treated as "withheld" rather than "what didn't fit."

A trivial example of this is a large sword with an icon that is seemingly not in the game but appears in three different variations. The sword is first seen housed in an ancient weathered sheath, then without the sheath, as a beautifully preserved blade, a typical greatsword, and finally, charred and twisted, as if it had been forged anew with demonic fire.

While there are always upgrade paths for weapons in FromSoft games, these upgrade paths rarely completely change the appearance and perhaps the attributes of a weapon, and the presence of a scabbard on the first version of this weapon at some point in its quest to be taken from it suggests that it was associated with.

As can be seen in the following video and several others, the greatsword has led to speculation as to its place in the "land of chasms" and why it did not appear in the final game. However, ...... it turns out that it was in fact there, just not in the way people thought it would be.

After all, while some speculated about what the sword was once intended to be, everyone simply passed it by as part of the landscape. in "The Lands Between," there are many repurposed elements scattered throughout the vast landscape, one of which is the "tombstone known as "The Sword of the Grave.

Pinopinissimo saw a recent cut content video by Ziostorm (above) that mentioned this sword and was stunned to see it right before his eyes while playing the game (thanks, GamesRadar+). Pinopinissimo told X's Ziostorm, "That sword has been stuck in my head for weeks since I saw your video." "So you can imagine that when I realized it, I jumped out of my chair."

He said.

The intact sword of the Elden Ring, now part of the background, was at one time destined to become something much larger, as there are three icons of this weapon, sharing the exact same handle." Says Ziostorm, "There was likely a quest to mold this sword into the other two versions. This is a correct assumption, but it is also worth pointing out that this idea never went beyond the three models, given that there are no remaining quests associated with this sword.

Such a weapon and hints of a larger story behind it are fairly typical of From Software's "Souls" games. However, as this shows, sometimes secrets can be hidden.

Finally, another FromSoftware tradition worth mentioning is the uniformly excellent DLC for the studio's various titles. The wait has even left some dedicated fans in a limbo, beating the pathetic boss of "Dark Souls 3" repeatedly every day until it is released. They should probably put on their funny Eldenring fine streetwear (yes, really) and sit back and relax.