Hidetaka Miyazaki says Shadow of the Erdtree focusing on Miquella is about "completing Elden Ring's circle" and honoring George R.R. Martin's contributions to the open-world RPG

Elden Ring: Shadow of the Erdtree's focus on Miquella was born of the desire to "honor George R.R. Martin's contributions" to FromSoftware's game.

That's according to Elden Ring director and FromSoftware president Hidetaka Miyazaki, speaking to The Verge in a new interview. Miyazaki tells the outlet that the focus on Miqeulla, brother of Malenia, in the expansion was "born of the desire to honor George R.R. Martin's contributions to the game."

Miquella is one of Elden Ring's all-powerful demigods, but was curiously absent from the base game back in 2022. To say Miquella is the main character of Shadow of the Erdtree is an understatement - the entire expansion focuses on the character's ascension to godhood.

"[He] gave us all this great mythology to work with," Miyazaki told The Verge, adding that bundling Miquella's entire storyline into Shadow of the Erdtree was "closing the loop" on Martin's involvement in the game. "It's really about completing Elden Ring's circle," Miyazaki added.

Much was made of Martin's involvement with Elden Ring before it launched in 2022, but nothing has ever really been expanded on to discuss which elements of the game he explicitly designed. We've never really been told which characters Martin himself came up with, for example, although now it sounds like Miquella might well have been the Game of Thrones author's creation.

For future FromSoftware games though, Miyazaki has said that they'll build on the "combination between freedom and difficulty," so perhaps we can expect another adventure in the scope of Elden Ring. 

Twitch streamer Kai Cenat nears Elden Ring: Shadow of the Erdtree's final boss after 51 hours and 536 deaths, challenging his legendary run of the base game.