Elden Ring's stone gargoyles are actually made of people
Gargoyles are pretty much a staple in FromSoftware games, but Elden Ring had to make them more grotesque.
The Valiant Gargoyles are a sight Elden Ring players should be quite familiar with. They're often some of the most challenging non-boss enemies in the game, and they can be found in many parts of the world.
While the idea of gargoyles left behind as watchers over certain areas, or standing guard around monuments and crucial entry points isn't itself new, the way the design of gargoyles has changed is intriguing.
For one, the Elden Ring gargoyles are seemingly the product of fusing together two living beings. While certain elements, such as their wings and some of their armour continue to be made of stone, they are decidedly different from the gargoyles FromSoftware fans know.
By clipping their wings, and digging deeper into their anatomy, modder and YouTuber Zullie the Witch discovered the unfortunate nature of their being. Removing the helmet, for instance, reveals two faces melded together to form the creature inside the armour.
The seams where the two bodies got merged together can also be seen, and they're certainly one step removed from the process of grafting, another thing in Elden Ring whereby disparate body parts are attached together to create a new being.
Like their weapons, the bodies of Elden Ring gargoyles are also held together with corpse wax, which is actually based on a real substance known as Adipocere, which forms by the decomposition of soft tissue and fat in dead bodies when they're exposed to moisture.
As the video shows, however, not all of the gargoyles in the game's world are left standing. Many are decaying, particularly in the capital of Leyndell, where a few still carry out their duties despite being seriously compromised.
Zullie the Witch recently made another curious discovery about the origins of the Night's Cavalry, not in a lore sense, mind you, but rather how this particular gameplay role is one FromSoftware has been trying to make happen since Demon's Souls.
Now that we're done with all this talk of grotesque body horror, we should probably end it on a lighter note with this plea to FromSoftware not to make the hoarding problem worse in Elden Ring 2.