Shadow of the Erdtree, an expansion for Elden Ring, will be released in June, and according to the developer, it will be the biggest expansion ever, and a trailer for it was recently released, and From Software CEO and Creative Director Hidetaka Miyazaki Miyazaki, CEO and Creative Director of From Software, gave an interview. What he found most intriguing (at least to me) was that even though players have looked through every inch of Lands Between since its release, there are still "little elements that I feel have yet to be discovered."

Putting it in front of the prying eyes of the Internet is like waving a red rag at a bull, and sure enough, the Elden Ring players seem to have delivered. Miyazaki will never confirm that this is what he was talking about, but it is certainly an extraordinary candidate for something I didn't understand until recently.

A seemingly innocuous wooden shield, first discovered by Redditor Cudakid210, is where this particular secret is hidden. The item is hidden behind a phantom wall in the Cave of the Wise Men, and its description reads:

"A tall, medium-sized wooden shield. Light for its size and easy to handle.

"The design of a wooden candle on fire was forbidden, as it was thought to represent a secret prophecy of a deadly sin." [because the trailer for "Shadow of the Eldest Tree" depicts this "candle tree design" as a symbol of Mesmer's faction. Mesmer is the ruler of the Shadow Lands and is set up as a sort of Lucifer in the game world, and the trailer shows his army wearing weapons and armor with candle trees on them.

We'll have to wait for the DLC to find out what the "secret prophecy of the deadly sins" is, but given the combination of fire and wood, it would not be a stretch to assume that Mesmer is committed to burning the Eldestree. The "covert" aspect in particular suggests that Mesmer and his gang were erased from history in the world of the original game.

In other words, the Elden Ring had a small inkling from the beginning to the main antagonists of Shadow of the Eldest Trees. Since the trailer revealed the details, fans have been excited about Speculatron (and so have we), and June 21 can't come soon enough: Director Miyazaki has done it again.