Datamined Elden Ring cutscene gives more clues about DLC villain Miquella's original story

Longtime FromSoftware dataminer Lance McDonald has unveiled his latest discovery from deep in the bowels of Elden Ring, a WIP base game cutscene featuring DLC antagonist Miquella the Kind, who remains one of the most enigmatic characters in any FromSoft game.

The cut scene (cut cutscene?) shows Miquella planting a sapling Haligtree⁠—the endgame dungeon where you fight Malenia⁠—then watering it with his own blood. It takes place in a modified version of Malenia's boss room, further solidifying its connection with the origins of the Haligtree. Miquella's character model appears to be the same as the one from his final scene in the Shadow of the Erdtree expansion.

I can't tell if this is Miquella's same voice actor as in Shadow of the Erdtree, Naomi McDonald (no relation). His voice sounds more childlike and feminine, but that could be a matter of delivery. McDonald, for what it's worth, has an impressive range: You may remember her as Stone Trader Chloanne in Dark Souls 2 or Johnny the Godling from The Witcher 3.

While the exact order of the voice lines is not certain due to a missing intermediary file, McDonald played them in the order that they are listed in Elden Ring's files:

"Young seedling, young seedling, grow larger, stronger. My dear twin, accept this gift, a gift of abundance. My last drop of dew. Let all things flourish, whether graceful or malign. If thou coveteth the throne, impress my vision upon thine heart. In the new world of thine making, all things will flourish, whether graceful or malign."

Yep, that's FromSoft dialogue alright. According to McDonald, this cutscene would have played when you received part of the Dectus Medallion from Gideon Ofnir at Roundtable Hold, almost like a teaser for the Haligtree subplot. Here are a few of my takeaways, as a freak for the lore:

• This scene presages the SotE denouement in a number of ways: The empty throne, Miquella's kneeling position and obscured face, his addressing a demigod sibling, and the scene's nature as a relative non-sequitur.
• Miquella is speaking to Malenia in the second sentence, but from "if thou" onward, seems to be speaking to the player instead.
• That, coupled with the odd repetition of "graceful and malign" so close together, has me wondering if the first half pertains to this scene, and the second to something else.
• Miquella waters the tree with his blood, then is later absorbed by it before getting kidnapped by Mohg.
• It's okay, Miquella brainwashed Mohg. It wasn't Mohg's fault. Mohg: Cleared of all charges.
• You can see the outline of an earlier, more benevolent characterization of Miquella from before the DLC, one with a greater emphasis on his utopian, egalitarian vision, rather than the ruthless things he would do to secure it.
• Miquella's reference to "abundance" caught my attention. A cut "Abundance and Decay Twinblade" was datamined years ago, shortly after Elden Ring's launch and long before Shadow of the Erdtree was announced. Its item description directly connected it to Miquella's cut content. Its model was later reworked into Euporia in Shadow of the Erdtree, further legitimizing the earlier datamined version.