Fairly early on in one's Elden Ring playthrough, they will be invited to visit the Roundtable Hold. An interesting assortment of characters resides there, with some helpful NPCs like the blacksmith, and other NPCs that usher players through quest lines. The Elden Ring NPCs located at the Roundtable Hold all have their own backstories and motivations, though the creepiest is likely the character known as Dung Eater.
Dung Eater is an NPC that players can chat with in the Roundtable Hold, who has a quest all about the Subterranean Shunning-Ground, which are essentially the sewers beneath Leyndell. Elden Ring players have the option of assisting Dung Eater in his quest, and they can also summon him for help in the boss fights against Mohg, The Omen and Morgott, The Omen King. Morgott is a required boss for anyone wanting to beat Elden Ring, whereas Mohg is an optional boss found in the Subterranean Shunning-Ground.
Like other Elden Ring characters, the lore surrounding Dung Eater is fairly vague, with players needing to read between the lines and have some outside-the-game knowledge if they want to learn more about him. Elden Ring dataminer Zullie the Witch recently uploaded a video discussing Dung Eater, dissecting the character's name and explaining how it could suggest he is even more disturbing than he appears on the surface.
The video talks about Shirikodama, which in Japanese folklore is a ball found in the anus that houses one's soul. It points to FromSoftware's previous work, Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice, which contained direct references to Shirikodama as evidence that Dung Eater's name could be a reference to the myth. When one understands where the Shirikodama is located and what Dung Eater's name is, they can connect the dots to come to a rather gruesome conclusion about what exactly he does to his victims.
For further evidence, Zullie the Witch points to the Seedbed Curse that Dung Eater's victims experience after he has "defiled" their bodies. As explained in-game, the Seedbed Curse makes it so one's soul can't return to the Erdtree. Zullie the Witch suggests that this is because Dung Eater has eaten his victims' Shirikodama, consuming their souls in the process.
There are many other Elden Ring characters that have disturbing backstories, but Dung Eater's may very well be the creepiest in the entire game. If FromSoftware ever moves forward with the rumored Elden Ring DLC, it will be interesting to see if it comes up with any characters that give Dung Eater a run for his money.
Elden Ring is out now for PC, PS4, PS5, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X.
