Elden Ring's DLC Shadow of the Erdtree introduces a new boss character called Messmer the Impaler. But who is this new guy dressed in a red cloak with snakes wrapped around his body?
Elden Ring is one of the best games to ever be developed (at least that's my humble opinion) and of course players were eagerly waiting for more content in the Lands Between. Thankfully, we will get a huge DLC called Shadow of the Erdtree, which was recently announced with a first trailer and will launch on June 21, 2024.
While the trailer didn't spoil much, we could already see some new weapons, sorceries and areas to explore. Most importantly, however, we got introduced to a new character dressed in a red cloak, who is called Messmer the Impaler. And he doesn't seem to be just a random boss, since he is on the cover art of Shadow of the Erdtree, and he also is available as a figurine in the Collector's Edition.
So who exactly is Messmer the Impaler?
Elden Ring: Who Is Messmer the Impaler?
To be perfectly clear: We don't know for sure who Messmer the Impaler is! The new character was never mentioned in the base game and everything we know so far, is purely based on the trailer and educated guesses by us and the community.
But before we dive into the theories, take a look at the trailer for yourself:
Obviously, the name Messmer the Impaler was inspired by Vlad III, also called Vlad the Impaler, who was Voivode of Wallachia during the 15th century and who Bram Stoker based his fictional character Count Dracula on. Since FromSoft specifically chose that name, we arte inclined to think there could be some kind of connection.
Maybe Messmer has vampiric powers, like life-drain (similar to Malenia) or uses blood incantations, or maybe they only chose the name because he has a huge spear which he can use to impale his opponents...
All we know from the trailer is that Messmer seems to be the main adversary and end boss of the Shadow of the Erdtree expansion . He also seems to have some kind of connection to Miquella, since the whole DLC will be entered through Miquella's cocoon and we as a player will follow Miquella to the Land of Shadow, which is "set ablaze by Messmer" according to the Bandai Namco website. But how does Messmer fit into the Elden Ring lore?
Messmer As Third Child Of Marika & Radagon
There are a couple of theories about who Messmer the Impaler could be and one of the most believable is, that he is the third cursed child of Radagon and Marika.
This would make him the brother of Miquella and Malenia, which wouldn't only make sense because his name also starts with an M, but also because of his looks. While we don't know how Miquella looks, Messmer has quite a lot of similarities to Malenia.
The long red hair and just his whole body type kind of resemble that of Malenia. Also, the trailer shows a big statue of Marika in the back of Messmers boss arena.
If this should be true, then Messmer might have even been hinted at in the base game already through butterflies. There are three types of butterflies in the base game, Nascent butterflies representing Miquella, Aeonian butterflies representing Malenia and Smoldering butterflies that could represent Messmer.
While we do actually like that theory, it is almost too obvious for a FromSoft game though...
Messmer Related To Rykard
The trailer shows a lot of snakes and Messmer the Impaler also has red snakes wound around his body, which leads us to believe there could be a connection to Rykard, the Lord of Blasphemy and God-Devouring Serpent. If you beat Rykard in Elden Ring, he will also say the phrase "We will meet again", which could be another hint that Messmer might be his offspring or at least tied to him in some way.
However, this theory has some flaws, one of them being that all children of Radagon and Renalla have names starting with an R (Radahn, Ranni, Rykard) and we are sure, they would have kept that tradition.
In our opinion, Messmer most likely will be tied to Miquella and Malenia, just based off his looks and name, but who knows, what Miyazaki came up with this time...
What we do know however, is that Messmer is incedibly powerful, since Miyazaki confirmed that on the cover and in the trailer, he is sitting on one of the thrones ate the base of the Erdtree, which symbolizes that Messmer stands on equal footing with the other demigods and children of Marika who also used to sit on those thrones.
So whatever the lore of Messmer the Impaler will be, one thing is for sure: He will deliver a heck of a boss fight. Probably a new Malenia to drive players mad? Let us know what your theory is.