If you haven’t beaten Malenia yet, now is a good time to start trying, as new Elden Ring downloadable content has just been announced— ominously titled Shadow of the Erdtree.

Rise, Tarnished, and let us walk a new path together.
An upcoming expansion for #ELDENRING Shadow of the Erdtree, is currently in development.
We hope you look forward to new adventures in the Lands Between. pic.twitter.com/cjJYijM7Mw

— ELDEN RING (@ELDENRING) February 28, 2023

It’s not just new hairstyles this time, we’re getting what looks to be a fully fledged expansion. The reveal, dropped on 28 February 2023, shows a shiny new image promoting the upcoming DLC, but lacks any clear insight into a release date for the DLC or what sort of content we’ll be getting. That’s fine though, as in true FromSoftware fashion, fans are left reading between the lines and are eating up every sliver of information that can be found in the poster promoting the upcoming release.

Gamers online were quick to speculate and meme the news, especially American players who were  left baffled by the reveal which dropped at 3am EST, which would have made it 5pm in Tokyo—much more reasonable.

me on my way to bed passing the from software developer casually announcing the elden ring dlc at 3 am https://t.co/E2aEIZp4Ns pic.twitter.com/t2HzZKz0bx

— Indecks 🐉 (@Indecks) February 28, 2023

Elden Ring lore is famously dense and difficult to get into but that hasn’t stopped fans from doing their best to digest the little information we have. Keen eyed soulslike fans on Reddit are already deciding that the figure on the poster for the new expansion is Miquella, brother of the games infamously hard boss, Malenia.

This would be a likely explanation as to who is riding the spirit steed in the promotional image, given the similarities in appearance. Fans have long speculated that future content would revolve around these characters thanks to previously data minded content and unanswered questions in the game about the Empyrean siblings. Diving into the character of Miquella and how he met his fate at the hands of the obsessive Mohg is an exciting prospect for the new DLC to explore.

Of course, this prompted fans to remember that with this iconic character back on the scene, we may very well encounter another ridiculously hard fight with Malenia again.

I can’t get over this next meme that pokes fun at the lengths Elden Ring Youtubers are going to have to go to make videos on the new information we have. There’s not a lot that can be said about a poster is there? Youtube will find a way.

Elden Ring made 2022 a brutal but exhilarating year for gaming. Hopefully it can save 2023, which was off to a bad start thanks to Justin Roiland allegations staining the release of High on Life, as well as the highly problematic release of J.K Rowling’s Harry Potter game, Hogwarts Legacy.