New Elden Ring Leak Reveals Important Lore Moment

Even four years after release, Elden Ring is full of surprises. In the aftermath of the excellent Shadow of the Erdtree DLC, fans are still speculating about the game’s lore and even piecing together cut quest lines, and now, a new datamine has uncovered a major cutscene that was removed from Elden Ring before launch.

An incomplete cutscene and its accompanying voice lines have been cobbled together by Lance McDonald, whom you may be familiar with for developing the unofficial 60 FPS patch for Bloodborne. The restored content shows a remarkable moment in the history of The Lands Between: Miquella planting the Haligtree. This version likely isn’t exactly how FromSoftware intended it to look, because it was never finished, but this is an impressive facsimile created with the leftover files.

Cut Elden Ring Cutscene Shows Miquella Planting The Haligtree

Miquella’s Haligtree is a major landmark in The Lands Between, but is more important to Elden Ring‘s lore than it is in actual gameplay. The Haligtree was meant to rival the Erdtree, and came to be seen as a safe haven for those persecuted under Marika’s Golden Order. It’s best known for hosting Elden Ring‘s de facto mascot, Malenia, Miquella’s twin sister, but is an entirely optional area – you don’t need to even visit Miquella’s Haligtree to beat the game.

According to McDonald, the cutscene was intended to be shown after receiving the Dectus Medallion (Left) and resting at a Site of Grace. The Grand Lift of Dectus is what takes you from Liurnia of the Lakes to the Altus Plateau, but to get to the Haligtree (via the Consecrated Snowfield), you take another lift, the Grand Lift of Rold. This may be an indication that the Haligtree was originally meant to be a required area, or more closely connected to the Altus Plateau, but the cutscene itself doesn’t offer any explanation of how Elden Ring‘s world was rearranged mid-development.

The cutscene takes place inside an alternate version of Malenia’s boss room, which is at the base of the Haligtree, where Miquella once spent his eternal slumber before being removed from the tree’s roots by Mohg. McDonald explores the room in the video, showing that a Haligtree sapling asset exists in the game files, and the cutscene shows Miquella planting it before the tree sprouts and drips what appears to be blood.

This Scene Would Have Been Perfect For Shadow Of The Erdtree

Voice line data that accompanies the cutscene file seems to be of Miquella speaking, and would have been a more straightforward explanation of what can already be gleaned from item descriptions in-game. Miquella talks about the Haligtree becoming a haven “where all things flourish, whether graceful or malign” under Malenia’s stewardship. In Elden Ring‘s greater context, this is an incredibly important lore moment, but it was understandably cut considering the Haligtree’s ultimate significance (or lack thereof) to the game.

A perfect time to finish this cutscene and reconfigure it into Elden Ring would have been alongside Shadow of the Erdtree, which expands on Miquella’s character, turning the once-mysterious Empyrean into a central figure. That said, visiting the Haligtree is not required to even access SOTE – the main route to Mohgwyn Palace, where you’re transported to the Land of Shadow, is through the Consecrated Snowfield. The axed Miquella scene could have been put somewhere near the beginning of the DLC, but still would have felt out of place without needing to explore the Haligtree.

While the Haligtree’s gnarled branches in the final version of Elden Ring are sufficiently interesting and mysterious, it’s somewhat of a shame that this key moment of Miquella’s life and the Lands Between’s history was cut. It gives the impression that the Haligtree, one of the more interesting institutions to rise in opposition to the Golden Order, was originally going to be a major part of the Elden Ring story. The cutscene is quite striking even in its unfinished state, but it will likely forever remain a deleted scene.