Elden Ring datamine explores merchant Kalé’s unused content that takes him to the very depths of Leyndell

Unused Elden Ring content is being revealed every day through datamines, and the most recent set of discoveries center around Kalé and reveal that the NPC was not a stationary merchant during the game's early development stage.

In the final version of the game, he is one of the first NPCs that players discover as soon as they land in Limgrave. Kalé is present in the Church of Elleh and never moves from the spot no matter how far players make it in the game.

However, according to a recent reveal by a dataminer who goes by the handle of Sekiro Dubi, the only named member of the nomadic merchants was once able to relocate himself anywhere in the Lands Between. He was able to set up shop in various areas, ultimately reaching the Subterranean Shunning Grounds below Leyndell.

Sekiro Dubi suggests that according to his discovery, after the Tarnished defeat Godrick at Stormveil Castle, Kalé would then start to move, taking off from the Church of Elleh. He would begin a search for the Grand Caravan’s resting place, and the Tarnished were eventually supposed to meet him every now and then as they explored Liurnia, eventually making their way to Altus and then Leyndell.

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Just like the Tarnished, Kalé was also supposed to go on a journey in Elden Ring

After moving from Limgrave, Kalé would then be found in Elden Ring's Liurnia of the Lakes and later in Leyndell, the Royal Capital. His location shift would correspond with the discovery of missives from the Grand Caravan, carried by birds, which would allow the merchant to follow them around all throughout the Lands Between and set up shop in various places.

The final version of the game does not provide much context regarding the area of the Subterranean Shunning Grounds, which can only be accessed after the player beats the boss of the area and attacks the illusory altar to reveal a path that goes down even further.

This hidden location is a vast pit ringed with galleries and filled with the dissected corpses of the Nomadic Merchants. While not all are dead, the few who do live will either attack the player or just keep to themselves, playing a haunting melody with their stringed instruments that fills up the entire tomb.

At the bottom of the pit (which can be accessed after a series of careful drop-downs), the Elden Ring Tarnished will discover the door to the Three Fingers. Here, in the previous versions of the game, Kalé would have explicitly explained that the Grand Caravan was actually buried underneath Leyndell, along with the Three Fingers, upon suspicion that they were worshiping the sinister force.

The pit of corpses is what remains of the merchant and his people, and Kalé was then supposed to go on to curse the Golden Order for the atrocious act, while at the same time embracing the Flame of Frenzy, although unsuccessfully.

This has been quite a substantial discovery by Sekiro Dubi. There has been a lot of community speculation about the origins of the Nomadic Merchants, their ties to the Grand Caravan, and why they were able to use the Flame of Frenzy when they were antagonized by players.

The datamine sheds a great deal of light on their plight and the abominable treatment that their entire race had to face at the hands of Elden Ring’s Golden Order.