The Lands of Shadow are enormous.
Now, to be fair, unfamiliarity makes a game's area feel bigger. While the Lands Between of Elden Ring's base game are unquestionably huge, playing through the game an eighth time will make it seem small simply because you know where things are - yeah, I know about those two Pumpkinheads in that one ruin early on in Caelid, or where to find Goldmask up in the Mountaintops of the Giants.
Spoilers Ahead
But in the Lands of Shadow, I'm well and truly lost. Feeling I had done a decent job of exploring, I decided to finally make my way into the Shadow Keep, where I think Messmer can be found (and I'm given to understand that, as expected, despite his being the headliner for the expansion, he's one of the middle bosses, not the final boss).
However, going on what I thought was the only path I could take through the Shadowtree (or rather, after exhausting the detours I could find, such as one area that had me light up a Furnace Golem and then have to run like crazy to collect an Incantation and a sword - that I think I just upgraded elsewhere - before it could one-shot me) I wound up in the green, elevated lands of Rauh, which are very pretty but also have some nasty enemies. I've been wandering around there, unsure of what I should be doing or even if I should be there yet.
Seriously, these Furnace Golems are nightmares. I haven't even tried to fight any of them, though at this point with 10 Scadutree blessings I might take on the first one).
I think that the Lands of Shadow are also less clearly broken up into "zones" like the Lands Between. I have a whole route for a new game at this point where I go through the little plateau with the Church of Elleh first, then around Agheel Lake, cleaning up central Limgrave, moving on to the Weeping Penninsula (sometimes saving the Impaler's Catacombs because that final boss is so hard) and then checking out the Mistwood, possibly going down and handling Siofra River and the Ancestral Spirit, then going up to Stormhill before taking on Stormveil Castle.
Here... boy, I've been all over the place. I had found a mini-dungeon that turned out to lead to a path to the Jagged Peak, which I climbed almost all the way, skipping two dragon-bosses (one of which was a named Ancient Dragon) and I'm guessing at the top, where I found a site of grace, probably Bayle, the dragon that that one dude Igon is screaming about (he's disappeared, so I wonder if I should find him before this fight).
I went in on my Strength/Faith character, but while I've come across a few weapons that fit that, none of them have really thrilled me the way that my jumping Blasphemous Blade dual-wield build does. I did just get a colossal weapon from a Crucible Knight named Lavonia (I think that's how it's spelled) that could be cool, but as heavy as it is, I don't know that it can do better than two Greatswords.
I will say that I'm getting enough runes to level up with relative ease - which is crazy given that it's now taking over 200k runes to do so. With my Strength at 60 and my Faith at, I believe, 50, I've decided to start packing on Endurance to let me wear heavier armor.
I have been thinking about the other characters I bring in here. One of the things I've realized is that I don't think any of my characters (other than one I never beat the game on and had sort of recycled a build with) is pure physical - they all use Faith or Intelligence, or in the case of my Death-mage, both.
I think it will be a while before I can synthesize all the lore I've come upon, but here's my best shot:
First off, Messmer was sent here with an army to purge a culture that rivaled Marika's. It appears that he and his army were abandoned here, so Messmer's army have really fallen into a deep despair, while also being known as the darkest, most irredeemable force for all the atrocities they committed.
The crew assembled by Needle Knight Leda come from all backgrounds, but a very interesting thing happens the moment you come to the Shadow Keep (before you even walk inside) - Miquella apparently shatters his own Great Rune, and in so doing, the enchantment that compelled the loyalty of all of these people is broken. In a couple cases, the characters say that it's all good - they are still loyal to Miquella even if not being magically compelled. But Leda becomes a little more terrifying, talking about purging those who are not sufficiently loyal to him, and asks your advice on who to go after.
I do find this actually pretty fascinating: the main source of Miquella's potential to be a villain was the notion that he would be forcing people to love him. As Ansbach says once the rune is broken, he considers Miquella a monster (his quote is in one of the trailers that came out not too long ago) for his capacity to use love to control people. Indeed, it seems Ansbach at least believes that Mohg himself was under such a compulsion, which really, really changes the context of everything that was happening with Miquella's kidnapping.
Still, if Miquella is divesting himself of this capacity, is the reason because he knows it is wrong? I am, as ever, skeptical, but I wonder if FromSoft is playing with how to actually portray a truly benevolent deity.
But then, there are some other weird things: when I found Ansbach in the Shadow Keep's "Specimen Storage" area, he claims that someone absconded with Mohg's body after we killed him, and he wonders and fears what Miquella might be doing with the remains.
I've been a bit spoiled on some of the bosses, and I know that Radahn has a posthumous (but maybe more "rehumous?" role to play here.
Another interesting note is that, when speaking to Thiollier after the rune breaks, he confesses that he is devoted to St. Trina, despite her being an aspect that Miquella has divested from himself. This seems to confirm that Trina really was Miquella, but also that such a divine being is capable of separating out an entire person from himself (I haven't found her, but I do know that you can meet St. Trina as part of Thiollier's questline).
There is an interesting question in all of this: with all of the things that Miquella is giving up (including his very body,) what exactly is going to be left of him?
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