Elden Ring actually had a whole quest tying merchant Kale and his nomadic people to the Three Fingers
The connection Kale has to the Three Fingers in Elden Ring is no longer just implied.
One of the less explored, darker parts of Elden Ring's lore has to do with the Three Fingers. This entity is opposed to the ruling Two Fingers, and its teachings are considered blasphemous by the Golden Order and its followers.
Alinging with the Three Fingers and embracing the Flame of Frenzy is one of the game's possible endings, but that choice is not fleshed out as well as some of the other endings. In fact, it's not a path that's even easy to find.
Deep below Leyndell lies the Subterranean Shunning Grounds, a place where Omens and other unwanted misshapen creatures are kept, away from the golden expanses of the capital - and it's there that the Three Fingers can be reached. Those who managed to reach the Three Fingers and pick their side, could also see a strong connection between them and the nomadic merchants of Elden Ring's world.
That connection has, so far, only been implied. For one, angering the nomadic merchants forces them to use Frenzied Flame attacks. Despite their peaceful nature, the merchants always appeared to hide a darker secret.
Thanks to a new discovery by dataminer Sekiro Dubi, however, we can now be sure that this was all part of an entire questline that was cut during development. The quest would have been lead by Kale, the first merchant you meet at the Church of Elleh near the very start of the game.
Kale never moves, and his role in the game's story is very minimal. Outside of selling you some useful items early on, he also has a few lines about where to find the half-wolf Blaidd, but that's about it.
Sekiro Dubi, however, managed to restore an entire quest that would have had players converse with Kale on multiple occasions. The NPC merchant was previously set to move to Liurnia, and later to the Shunning Grounds below Leyndell.
Kale's quest revolves around finding the Grand Caravan (not to be confused with the caravans pulled by Trolls), which is linked to the nomadic peoples' origins. We won't spoil it here, but the quest culminates with Kale - thanks to your help - discovering the fate of the Grand Caravan, and vowing revenge.
If you did reach that part in the final game, you might have noticed the piled corpses of Kale's people. Indeed, this quest would have offered much needed context, not to mention add a new layer to the story of the Three Fingers and the Frenzied Flame ending.
As with other cut content in Elden Ring (and other games), there's no telling why FromSoftware removed it from the final game. The easy answer is to always point to development time, but the developer could have also changed its mind about the lore implications and decided to keep the Three Fingers a more mythic entity.
Thanks, PC Gamer.