Elden Ring’s latest patch tried sneaking a big chair into a boss area, hoping we wouldn't notice. We immediately thought about the lore implications.

Elden Ring: Shadow of the Erdtree’s latest patch has seriously shaken up the weapon meta, and modified some of my favorites toys: Mr. Market's bullish on the Backhand Blades and Rakshasa’s Great Katana. If you still have Swift Slash in your stock, it's time to sell. The patch notes did not mention a curious addition to Rellana’s boss room: the Ensis Moongazing Grounds. A fine wooden chair was added. What does it mean?

My theory is that the chair was supposed to be there, but a bug or oversight caused it to be absent for the first few months after Shadow of the Erdtree launched.

The Ensis Moongazing Grounds are very similar to the Royal Moongazing Grounds of Caria Manor in the base game, where you battle the ghost version Royal Knight Loretta. The model of the new Ensis Chair is the same as the ring chairs in Caria. I thought the new Ensis Chair would correspond to a gap, but it didn't work out that way. Some of the chairs in the ring are displaced or knocked down, but none are missing.

As far as lore-pondering, I don’t think the Ensis Chair is all that interesting. It's just a surface-level demonstration to Rellana’s homesickness and isolation (one chair against many). The motif of empty or lone thrones appears in Elden Ring a few times: the ones in Morgott’s throne rooms come to mind. But there's also a clear parallel between Malenia's boss room and her dreaming chair, where she is waiting for Miquella to return.

Elden Ring is still a stronghold on my mind. A single bugfix post-launch has me thinking about the fine hardwood furniture in the Lands Between. Still, I'm sure we can all agree that it's a bit strange that they snuck the bugfix back in without saying anything.