The Secret I Found in Rennala's Code: Blaidd Was Once Her Summon

I still remember my first battle against Rennala, Queen of the Full Moon. The Academy of Raya Lucaria was hauntingly silent, and then that second phase began—a vast moonlit arena, the sky shimmering with stars. It was one of the most beautiful moments I've ever experienced in a video game. But a few years after Elden Ring launched, long after I had platinumed the game and thought I knew all its secrets, a data miner named Zullie the Witch unearthed something that made my jaw drop: Blaidd, the loyal half-wolf, was originally a summon in that fight.

I had always been fascinated by the Carian lore. Rennala, broken and clutching her amber egg, summoning spectral allies—a giant, a dragon, a pack of wolves—always felt like a desperate echo of her former glory. The fight itself is a masterpiece, blending sorrow with spectacle. But when I learned that Blaidd was cut from it, I couldn't help but feel a pang of loss. Imagine facing that noble wolf, greatsword in hand, emerging from a sigil to defend the queen. It would have added layers of heartache to an already tragic encounter.

My obsession with Blaidd began the moment I met him in the Mistwood Ruins. His howl echoing through the trees, his ambiguous loyalty—he reminded me of Guts from Berserk, but with a softer, more tragic core. As I followed Ranni's questline, I grew to adore him. His dedication was absolute, yet tinged with a fatal curse placed upon him by the Two Fingers. Finding out that Rennala once called him with the words, "Come, Blaidd, my child!" felt like a missing puzzle piece clicking into place. It meant he wasn't just Ranni's shadow; he was considered family. The Carian royal household, in its prime, must have cherished him.

What strikes me most is how this cut content reshapes our understanding of the Carians. The family was never just Rennala, Radagon, and their children. Blaidd, a shadow bound by duty, was offered a place at the hearth. In the second phase, Rennala uses spirit ashes much like a Tarnished would, and her roster was clearly meant to represent her loved ones. The fact that she could summon her daughter's protector suggests a warmth that the final game only hints at. It makes her madness even more poignant: even in her broken state, she instinctively reaches out to those who once gave her strength.

Data miners have been the silent scholars of the Lands Between. FromSoftware's storytelling style—obtuse, fragmented, hidden in item descriptions and cryptic NPC lines—invites this kind of detective work. I've spent hours watching Zullie's videos, marveling at how much of Elden Ring exists just beneath the surface. This discovery about Blaidd isn't just trivia; it's a window into the developers' narrative experiments. They likely removed him to avoid conflicting with his questline, since players can encounter him before or after Rennala. His presence as a boss summon would have shattered the illusion of his singular loyalty to Ranni. Still, it's bittersweet to think that so much care went into a moment we'll never officially experience.

Here’s a breakdown of the cut summon and dialogue compared to what we got:

Aspect	Final Version (Phase 2)	Cut Content
Summon Types	Giant, Dragon, Wolves, Sanguine Noble	Included Blaidd the Half-Wolf
Rennala's Line	None (silent summoning)	"Come, Blaidd, my child!"
Lore Implication	Rennala summons mindless spirits	Blaidd is considered a Carian family member
Encounter Conflict	No direct tie to Ranni's questline	Would have contradicted Blaidd's living status or timeline

I often imagine how that fight would have changed my experience. Perhaps seeing Blaidd's specter would have made me question his true nature sooner. Would I have hesitated to strike him down, even if he was just a phantom? The game excels at making you feel morally ambiguous, and this would have amplified that tenfold.

Since 2022, Elden Ring has given us so much—colosseum updates, the Shadow of the Erdtree expansion, and countless community theories. Yet it's these hidden, half-finished ideas that keep me theorizing late into the night. The fact that we're still dissecting its code in 2026 proves how dense this world is. Zullie and other miners have revealed cut NPCs, unused maps, and even early versions of iconic bosses. Each video feels like opening a time capsule from the development era. Blaidd as a summon is a testament to the love the team poured into the Carian narrative, and it makes me hope that one day, modders might restore him to that starlit arena.

Until then, I'll keep returning to the Academy, standing beside Rennala after the battle, and pondering what could have been. Maybe that's the true magic of Elden Ring: even the content that was cut becomes part of its legend, whispered about by fans like me who can't get enough of the Lands Between.