Elden Ring is known for its intense combat scenarios. From boss and mini-boss fights to being invaded by other humans and NPCs, combat lies at the core of the game’s mechanics.
Malenia and Godrick are two of the most hated bosses in the game, primarily because they are adamant about being beaten. But another could put even the Blade of Miquella and the Grafted to shame in terms of difficulty as an invader, despite not even being a demigod or a boss but a mere serial killer NPC in the game.
The Dung Eater in Elden Ring and His Grotesque Background
As mentioned, The Dung Eater is a serial killer NPC in the title that serves as an invader in the game. It appears mainly in Leyndell, the Royal Capital. It is introduced very early on in the game during the intro cinematic. FromSoftware fans will know that there is something special about the character because he was named so informally, which is striking and very unlikely of FromSoftware, as the studio is usually very prim and proper with boss and NPC names.
Elden Ring is home to many lore elements, some of which can be gruesome and disturbing. The game’s prosperous world resulted from the studio collaborating with the star fantasy fiction writer, George R.R. Martin.
Again, while one may feel that FromSoftware only named him so for comic relief, like everything in Elden Ring, there is a deep meaning to why Dung Eater is one of the most unsettling invaders in the game. The player finds him in an idle, non-violent position, but he is a serial killer known to mutilate the bodies of his victims. Due to his actions, he was captured and executed publicly, but his MO is the reason he got his name.
The Dung Eater’s Name and the Lore Reason Behind It in Elden Ring
Each of his victims is found with clear signs of trauma, as indicated by the blood-stained cloth resting near their lap. As per Japanese folklore, a human’s soul is found below one’s lap in a spherical organ called the Shirokadama.
The bloodstained cloth implies a clear motive behind the Dung Eater’s actions. It implies that the Dung Eater physically rips out one’s Shirokadama from each of his victims’ corpses to cultivate a Seedbed Curse on them, preventing their souls from going to the Erdtree and forever remaining cursed. This is how the loathful Dung Eater earned its particularly repulsive appellation.
This is also given away by Roderika, an NPC in Elden Ring, who describes the gruesome lore of the monster using the following lines:
The howling and wailing of spirits in fear of a curse. I can ever hear the repulsive, twisted malison itself…A plethora of spirits in an unceasing cacophony…I can’t even imagine. How much suffering, inflicted to who knows how many souls
If these souls are ever reborn, they are born as cursed beings. This lore regarding the NPC is precisely why he might be one of the most appalling NPCs in Elden Ring and any other games the studio has put out in a while.
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