i forgot to be upfront with something here: i am not a 3d artist, a coder, a programmer, or experienced in any other field that would be useful in 3d modeling. i am barely a 2d artist. i can fumble my way through putting preexisting textures on finished models in blender, i can kind of scry my way through looking at code and maybe make an educated guess as to what i think it might do. but that’s just about the limit of my abilities. therefore: if i say something wrong or clumsy, i would appreciate learning the appropriate words/terms/concepts for what im doing and also what im doing wrong. please feel free to let me know! this is pressing, as the next file on our list is not a traditional model at all.

c0100- dummy file?

this doesn’t seem like the right term for what i’m talking about: there are some files that exist purely as animation files. they have no models and appear to be supplemental animations for cameras, spells, tests, etc. this is one such file. its just a few uninteresting camera movements and not much else. these can usually be identified by their very small file size.

c0110/0120/0130/1000- dummy files?

same deal here. look, they can’t all be interesting.

c2010 – blaidd the wolf

here we go, finally a real model. we’ll use this to go over some things common to every model in addition to any lore/artistic peculiarities i can find. i will also include the discussed images at the end of each section for visual clarity’s sake.

as previously discussed, blaidd has a very unusual eye color in the elden ring world: purple, with black sclera¹. he also has very large teeth on his lower jaw (almost resembling tusks). his left eye is stuck in a permanent squint, adding him to a long list of characters in elden ring with unusual left eyes. there are probably important lore reasons for this or whatever, but being real: the main reason this comes up so often is because it makes characters look more like guts from berserk.

his sword is described as being “decorated in the royal carian style”², which i must assume means “ornate”. maybe we’ll see more examples to compare it to in the future so we can get a handle on what that actually means or if it really means anything.

i will say, the one thing that seems to unite several narratively important beasts is flippy acrobatic attacks³. blaidd’s attacks range from human knight behaviors to rushing you on all fours. besides attack animations, nearly every file will include falling animations, animations for getting hit, death animations, animations for getting stunned, being on fire, and other universal experiences in the lands between. here’s one of blaidd eating complete shit⁴.

there’s also rigging tests? impact tests? each one is accompanied by an impact sound so i assume they were testing how things break when hit. this results in some very strange animations we can laugh at⁵.

1. blaidd’s unusual eyes	2. detail shot of blaidd’s royal greatsword	3. blaidd does a cool flip. whoa!
4. blaidd getting dribbled like a basketball	5. blaidd’s model flipping out a little as it responds to unknown stimuli

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c2030 – rennala, queen of the full moon (phase 1)

this is the first model with a display problem: rennala’s eyes are straight up fucked. this is a common problem for some of the more important models that get rendered in cutscenes and i assume that this is specifically because they require being rendered in engine to display properly. i have done my best to make them not super distracting, but it’s a limited success. i will not be focusing on things already addressed by storied community member zullie the witch in her videos about rennala’s egg so i highly recommend giving her vids a watch if you like looking at properly restored content.

i was under the impression that rennala’s hair was dark, but it’s actually a very light brunette or blonde¹. which means either the hair gifted by rennala to her sister didn’t come off of her head (?!) or it’s another lighting issue lol (although, it is awfully light in screenshots from the game). the idea of getting someone else’s hair as a gift extremely funny, but i really have to cut the knot here and assume you’re intended to see her in specific lighting that gives her hair the color its intended to have. or she steals hair. i don’t know!

her crown also offers another potential look at the previously mentioned carian royal style².

despite spending a significant amount of time trying to get her eyes to work, rennala does not have much to offer in terms of points of interest.

1. rennala’s hair

2. detail of rennala’s crown

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c2031 – rennala, queen of the full moon (phase 2)

different boss phases can have separate models, especially if you (the player character) are loaded into a new area for the fight. within the fiction, this version of rennala is an illusion or a puppet or some combination of the two. i also lightly edited this model to give the carian regal scepter the approximately correct coloring.

this model is not the same as the other; unlike the real rennala, this recreation of her has a (wedding?) ring on her pinky. ¹⁺². this model also offers a clearer look at her unique pearlescent skin tone.

1. rennala’s  ring. unlike her daughter’s, it uses a white stone (presumably to represent her full moon).

2. no ring on the egg-bearing rennala’s hands.

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c2040 – juvenile scholars

there are two types of juvenile scholars: those in the red with the short hat and round face, and those in white with a big hat and a sallow cheeks. for some reason the blinking animation is broken and makes their eyes wider instead of closing them lol. i doubt its like that in game, but it’s kind of hard to ignore here.

the scholar’s eyes are generously graced with gold¹ and they do not appear to have any legs at all below the knee². i then found a bunch of completely insane looking animations that only made sense when i realized the scholars and another enemy share the same skeleton.

1. the grace of gold in the eyes of the juvenile scholars.

2. the suspiciously short legs of the scholar.

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c2041 – rot larva

the rot larva is actually just a skin of the scholars. not much to say about these guys except they have a layer labeled “meat”¹⁺².

1. without meat

2. with meat

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c2050 – ranni the witch

because it doesn’t render correctly, i turned off ranni’s ghost face and hair for visual clarity. despite being such a consequential character, she has basically three animations: steepling her fingers, unsteepling her fingers, and handing you an item. riveting stuff. there’s also not much to glean from her model that can’t be seen in game.

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c2060 – the two fingers

the fingers actually have a bunch of unused animations where they writhe and wiggle more. and die¹!

1. the two fingers dying (zullie the witch video documenting this)

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c2070 – the three fingers

no animations for this one, presumably because you only see it in a cutscene and those are stored differently. tried my best to get it to look as close to in game as possible. freaky little thing.

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c2100 – black knife assassin

i wonder if this model is supposed to read as someone with a shrouded face or someone with no head. its just not there; you can see straight through her¹. the armor is pretty bizarre, with the silver leaf motifs and the teal tufts². the white bits are simply referred to as “chestscale”. here is a sample of their distinctive fighting style³.

1. no head!

2. a very strange style of armor

3. flying spinning leap attack

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c2110 – gurranq, beast clergyman/maliketh, the black blade

these are, surprisingly, the same model. without any of his armor on, maliketh actually looks quite silly¹. he doesn’t seem to have any eyes², just dark sockets. here is a better look at where he keeps destined death³ which is labeled “medal” in the files. the center of it is labeled “medalcrystal”, elucidating nothing.

this sounds rather conspiratorial, but maliketh has a lot of similar looking moves compared to the black knife assassins. i would go as far as to say the fighting style is the same⁴.

here’s a cute animation (with his bulky robes removed, so you can see what’s happening) where he puts his sword in his mouth to free up his hands⁵. this also demonstrates how extremely strange his proportions are. he also has a few unusual animations where he’s acting quite casual⁶; he’s eating, sleeping, and sitting around looking at his sword.

1. a naked maliketh	2. maliketh’s empty sockets	3. location of destined death
4. an example of a similar looking flying spinning leap attack	5. maliketh using his many abs to lift rocks out of the ground to smash you	6. maliketh waking up and shaking the sleep from his eyes

that’s enough for this update. enemy and character models have a tendency to be grouped together based on developer intent, suggesting that there was least one point in development where all of these models were connected in a more concrete and meaningful way. this is not a hard and fast rule, but a generalized observation. the next models are less connected to the carians or the night of the black knives, so we can pick up from there next time under the assumption we are looking at a new set of ideas and intentions.

hello, i have a huge trove of elden ring models i would like to dig into in order to restore life to the desiccated wasteland that is my blog (i got married in oct and it took a lot out of me for a long time!). the trove is big enough that i struggle to remember which model is which scrolling through the files. to sort this out, i will slowly dig through the data and put names we recognize to the nondescript file names while musing on the details, secrets, and little flourishes present in each model.

however, the tools i have struggle to render certain things (particle effects, some hair) as they require being rendered in the game engine in order to be displayed correctly. for a creator who does this kind of thing better, check out bonfirevn’s videos showcasing various models using what i assume is a jailbroken playstation (resulting in working hair and particle effects, as well as atmospheric lighting). if you want to try to do this yourself, check out meowmaritus’ modding tools via their patreon or their github.

if you’re willing to accept functional, but ugly, models then read on. this post assumes that you have already played elden ring and recognize the characters and concepts it revolves around. however, because i am long-winded and love to talk, i will explain things in some depth for people who like to read about the game, but not play it.

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c0000- it’s you

c0000 is the player/npc character model. its VERY customizable, allowing me to futz with the armors, weapons, and presets. we could spend all day here looking at armors that i otherwise only see from a distance while playing the game on my couch. in fact, this entire first update will be about the armor/weapon details. we might as well dive in.

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headwear

first discovery: rogier’s hat has a feather in the cap that strongly resembles the feathers of the gravebirds from the land of shadow. given his skepticism of the golden order’s treatment toward Those Who Live in Death (TWLID for short, from here on out), this is a neat little hint toward his shift in alignment.

spellblade’s pointed hat

gravebird plumage (source)

the black wolf mask was worn by an assassin pretending to be ranni’s beloved brother/dog (long story), blaidd. however, the real blaidd has purple eyes, while the fake has silver eyes graced with gold.

the eyes of the black wolf mask

blaidd’s eye

here’s a comparison between banished knight helm (altered) and the malformed dragon helm. curiously, the dragon on the banished knight has kirin-type horns and the malformed dragon looks strangely mammalian with a fish-y tail.

banished knight’s helm (altered)

malformed dragon helm “After the great ancient dragon Gransax attacked, the sentinels had an epiphany. The only way to truly protect the Erdtree was to become dragons themselves”

well, well. loretta’s helmet has some interesting features that distinguish it as a sort of odd piece of story-telling. loretta was once a knight under the service of the carian royal family who defected (or was given, through his father) to miquella to serve the haligtree. as a result, her helmet features both silver (for the carian royalty) and gold elements (for miquella) that present a rather on the nose narrative: the silver helm is a rooted seed that sprouts a golden tree.

royal knight helm

this is not the only time a sprouting seed is featured in loretta’s design; her shield is also a silver seed sprouting miquella’s yellow amber. i believe it is generally agreed by the fandom that the gold bits in loretta’s design were added after house caria embraced the erdtree and not before, as they were mortal enemies prior the wedding of rennala and radagon. what a ridiculous, silly helmet. it must hurt her neck like crazy.

this detail is inconsequential, but i had never noticed it before: the horned headbands come with earrings.

shining horn headband

great horned headband

there’s a third, really big eye on the fire prelate’s helm.

fire prelate helm

the aristocrat headband is only worth noting because a variation of it is worn by a character of consequence: godrick the grafted. this can be dropped by the weakest enemies in the game, the wandering nobles found throughout the lands between. i recently saw godrick described as a “wandering noble boss fight” and i thought that was a very interesting and true way to think about him lol. the strongest, weakest enemy.

aristocrat headband
“Abandoning their birthplace after the Shattering, these undead wanderers are the pitiful product of unending life.“

the vulgar militia helm is just bizarre. i don’t even know what to make of this. i guess you could have lunch on the very top?

vulgar militia helm

i hadn’t noticed it before, but the royal remains helm has several jewels embedded in it. ensha’s gold-covered, skeletal armor of a historical figure is intended to evoke the imagery/idea of a catacomb saint.

royal remains helm, note the gem in the forehead, the gems lining the jaw, and the flaking gold.

one of my favorite stupid looking helmets, the beast champion helm features three wolves fighting and grasping for a sliver of gold.

beast champion helm

im not sure ive ever seen anyone discuss this: there are two versions of sellen’s glintstone crown. the one she wears on her…not-body and her real body is broken and missing the tallest crystal. the puppet body you put her soul into is wearing the full version that you obtain. this isn’t worth screencapping because it’s easily seen in game, but i didn’t notice it until just this second.

there’s a strange, spiral marking on the divine beast head’s (not helm’s) nose. it shows up in game as well. while i understand the thematic importance of the spiral, the colors are absolutely bizarre.

divine beast head

that’s everything of interest in helmets. on to the chest pieces.

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armor

here’s something intriguing: the drake armor set (altered) has some unusual writing on it. it resembles the writing of the two fingers, but with a more sinister nature. the item description makes no mention of this. i’ve included the coded sword, which we know to be the “handwriting” of the two fingers, as a comparison point.

coded sword sample

drake knight armor

how odd. the scaled armor (not to be confused with the mundane “scale armor”) is described as being “reinforced” with scales for protection, but it certainly looks more like the scales are erupting from the damaged parts spontaneously.

scaled armor

the perfumer is carrying a kiseru, a type of japanese pipe. not important at all, but interesting.

perfumer robe

the symbol on the fire prelate’s armor is not used often at all in game and may be a symbol to represent the fire monks themselves. perhaps its two hands gripping a staff tipped with a fireball?

fire prelate armor

there’s like….a little shelf with a melted candle on the royal remains armor. it looks very silly. never noticed it at all before.

royal remains armor

there’s a scary face on the back of the bloodhound knight armor lmfao. surprising! the scary biter.

bloodhound knight armor (back)

this is a fairly well known piece of trivia i think: the festival dancers wear two different colored and patterned capes. the yellow cape bears what looks like the erdtree sigil. the blue cape pattern resembles the decoration on the godskin noble’s armor.

festive garb (back)	erdtree sigil
blue festive garb (back)	godskin noble robe

the blue festive garb and the godskin noble robe are rather yonic lol.

the confessor armor is unique in that it has a symbol i do not think appears literally anywhere else in the game, save for the black key crossbow. both the confessors and the users of the crossbow were assassins ordained by the two fingers.

confessor armor

it’s up for interpretation as to what the dagger is plunging into. dual snakes? a wound? the concept of a spiral? all three? we will never know.

another mystery i will never solve is why the master sorcerers lusat and azur have cloaks that bear an uncanny likeness to the raptor’s black feathers armor.

lusat’s robe (back) “Since the grand masters Azur and Lusat were driven from the academy, no one has achieved their formerly-held rank.“

raptor’s black feathers (back) “Worn by the assassins of Ravenmount. A ritual implement for transforming into a Deathbird, if only by imitation.”

this observation is made all the stranger by the appearance of a ravenmount assassin in raya lucaria. perhaps a lot of bird related things originate from raya lucaria, home of the knights of the cuckoo.

“raptor’s black feathers” appears to the name of the coat, the rest of the outfit is just the standard bandit set.

raptor’s black feathers

bandit set

the chest armor section also includes full body transformations, such as the dragon transformation and the lamenter body from the dlc. the thing about the lamenter is that when you turn into him, you grow a face on your back.

the lamenter (back)

while this isn’t the first face we’ve seen grow on a torso, it usually happens on the front. what a weird, weird thing the lamenter is. that’s all for armor! i didn’t have a single thing to say about gauntlets, so let’s skip them.

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legs

alberich, the mad tongue wizard, has a snake belt buckle with a red gemstone eye. very thematic. i wonder if he picked it out before or after getting into red glintstone and blasphemy.

alberich’s trousers

for whatever reason, the crotch/ass of the fire monk’s greaves are worn away and now there’s a hole. deepest lore…i went out of my way to check every other pants; its only this pair.

fire monk greaves

huh! the twinned greaves actually answered a question that started forming as i was looking at the twinned armor: it depicts someone silver phasing through, melding, or sublimating into someone who is gold.

twinned greaves

lionel has spurs! the first i’ve seen in the collection so far. he must have a horse or just a desire to look cool as hell.

lionel’s greaves

there are several very generic armors in the game. for example, every kingdom has its own foot soldiers and knights and the differences in appearance largely boil down to armor color. but cuckoo knight greaves are the only greaves in all of the generic knight greaves that comes pre-covered in white, albinauric blood.

cuckoo knight greaves (not cum)

leyndell greaves

that’s all for pants! time for weapons and shields!

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weapons/shields

my first surprise was something i should have noticed or at least thought about before now. some weapons have equally ornate or interesting sheaths/scabbards.

glintstone kris

melina wields the blade of calling, which as it turns out has a purple sheath.

blade of calling

the golden epitaph features a very familiar pose at its tip.

golden epitaph

sacred relic sword

the wolf’s head on the pommel of the scorpion’s stinger has been the subject of great debate in the elden lore world. wolves are important, you know.

scorpion’s stinger

i have no idea what the hell is going on here. the scabbard for rogier’s rapier summons an entire guy with the scabbard’s textures. who is he. what does he want.

rogier’s rapier, probably

oh! the antspur rapier hilt is an ant! that’s cute.

antspur rapier

the scavenger’s curved sword, found on mt gelmir, has an unusual pommel/hilt: a figure of a woman holding a baby. this is a common thematic icon found in other things associated with gelmir, such as the abductor virgin enemies.

scavenger’s curved sword

the pommel of the dragonscale blade is a dragonkin soldier head.

dragonscale blade

the scepter of the all knowing contains an entire galaxy.

scepter of the all knowing

the dragon halberd looks….strange. like a dog, almost. note the ears and generally unconvincingly faux-draconian appearance.

dragon halberd

the tip of the staff of the guilty features an ambiguous little dead fetal thing brimming with glintstone. sad. oh well, there’s other guys.

staff of the guilty

the beast claw is a real withered hand you slip your own hand into. this is not the only example of this kind of yucky hand weapon from the dlc, but certainly the most subtle.

beast claw

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and that’s everything i could find worth mentioning in the weapons and armor files! hope you enjoyed, learned something, or, at the very least, didn’t cry. here’s one for the road for everyone who made it to the end: the dragon priestess without her mask on lol