What's the deal with THE LOATHSOME DUNG EATER?

This is an Elden Ring video about the loathsome Dung Eater, an NPC from the game. He has his own questline. This video serves as a guide to his character, it walks through his questline and details some of the Dung Eater lore in Elden Ring.

0:00 What's the deal with THE LOATHSOME DUNG EATER?
0:26 Finding the Dung Eater
1:12 The Seedbed Curse
2:37 Finding Dung Eater in the Subterranean Shunning Grounds
8:01 Betrayal
8:55 Ok just go forward and to the left mate
9:24 Dung Eater's depression
12:06 Dung Eater Armour
12:33 Dung Eater Questline
14:10 Dung Eater's Elden Lord Ending
14:43 Dung Eater Lore
15:46 Fextralife and Wikidot Lore
16:34 Outro

[m.a.dmatt]

A lot of ppl laughed at the name "Dung Eater" only to realize this guy is one of the most foul, evil beings in the game.

[realkingofantarctica]

When I saw the opening cinematic, I assumed the LOATHSOME DUNG EATER was just some misunderstood guy who probably had an endearing questline. Then he turned out to be one of the most deranged and seriously evil characters in the whole series.

[paulroche]

Bruh the moment when you realize there’s a well leading to a sewer….Leyndell is a mess, massive dragon fossil in the middle of town, tree spirit next to town hall, a damn erdtree avatar in the middle of Main Street, what the hell was Morgott doing this whole
Time? Worst mayor of all time

[stripedmilo]

So, according to Zullie the Witch, he's a dung eater because there's Japanese folklore about monsters that steal human souls by ripping them out of their anus. The Headless in Sekiro have a grab attack that does this. It's awful.

So the cut-to-black with the Dung Eater screaming is where the Tarnished rips the Dung Eater's soul out of his anus. It's the mythical bang dung eater cutscene. In the worst way.

[ivorymantis]

_"Oh Dung Eater probably had a tragic story."_
He does, *but not for him.*

It's like they took Bundy, Gacy, and Dahmer and rolled it all into a dungball.

[PrimoSchnevi]

I hope in the DLC there's a character called The Wholesome Dungeater and he's just nice and supportive

[Just_Liqourice]

You know, it's kinda unfair this guy gets the title "loathsome dung eater" while Seluvis still gets to keep his title of preceptor. He really should be called "The disgusting piss wizard" or "The fearsome sweat sipper" or something.

[josephcola]

Dung Eater's endgoal is so fxcked up that becoming the Lord of Frenzy is a genuine *mercy kill* by comparison.

[digtaltoaster]

Finally a cinematic masterpiece befitting The Loathsome Dung Eater

[Maseiken]

Gotta love that Omen Mohg guards literally the most horrific lore drop in the game and most people, including myself, react with "ok thats sad but WHERE DUNG EATER?!"

[dootdootdodoot]

Vaatividya makes the lore so mysterious and meaningful and you’re out here like “he’s an omen because it’s says Mogh. The Omen.” 💀💀💀

[ReijiTsugikuni]

I first discovered Dung Eater through Roderika’s dialogue when she describes him. Her words sent nothing less than chills down my spine.

[SnugglesConquererofWorlds]

I believe the name Dung Eater is meant to be more metaphorical than literal. The curse he places prevents souls from returning to the Urd tree, and curses their lineage to the same fate. The defilement is likely something he does that severs the corpses connection to grace, maybe even removing their grace somehow. This is seen as an act against god, so as we see in the opening scene he is hanged. His corpse was then thrown into the subterranean shunning grounds, where he regained grace as someone of renown. It was for a terrible reason, but he was well known. He is trying to realize his goal, but the entire time he faces opposition. His fellow man resents him, the gods refuse him, even in his rebirth as a tarnished the player has to do all the work for him because he is stuck in place. All he ever does is deal with shit. But he eats all that shit so that he can liberate the souls of the world from the Urd tree.

[rongusta]

I thought the loathsome dung eater would be a weird quirky character like the dung beetle knight from hollow knight but oh how I was soo wrong, him being dark morbid and disturbing lol

[camerontipton]

The Loathsome Dung Eater is a great example of why we don’t give serial killers silly names.

[sadovuato]

I was pretty sad when blackguard died. He shows up a few times and in order to queue the fight you talk to him at the puddle. He’s like “hey. Watch out. I’ve seen the dung eater around here. I used to be in the same gaol as him. He’s horrible.”

You leave come back and he’s slumped over in his chair and he goes “please…help me. I don’t want to die to the curse. Please. Please help me” and then he dies

[luca]

If you give him Seluvis' Potion you can eventually get him as a permanent Ash summon. (The Lore being that Seluvis uses these potions to gain "puppets")

[ShoujoKairi]

Miyazaki really said “Let’s combine Blighttown and The Depths then throw in mini death-flame spitting Asylum Demons that can climb ladders, and have everyone enjoy tf out of it.”

[ailaxl]

This is a great story. You went through the entire shunning grounds only to then realize he might be right around the corner of the entrance lol.

[gabrielarana]

The Dung Eater kind of feels like a character that George RR Martin gave a quick little description and left the rest of his backstory to be fleshed out by FromSoft. However FromSoft just threw the little backstory they were given in, and refused to flesh him out more