He sits in a room filled with corpses. He doesn't care. The Loathsome Dung Eater is, without a single doubt, the most reviled NPC in the history of FromSoftware’s catalog. Most players see the name during the opening cinematic of Elden Ring and chuckle. It sounds like a joke. A playground insult. But once you meet him in the Roundtable Hold, the laughter stops. It turns into genuine, skin-crawling unease.
The Loathsome Dung Eater represents a specific kind of horror that the Lands Between usually keeps at arm's length. While other villains seek power, godhood, or the restoration of an age, this man wants to defile the very concept of existence. He doesn't just want to kill you. He wants to ensure that you, your children, and your children’s children are cursed for all eternity. It’s a level of malice that feels personal.
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The Omen Curse and the Seedbed Curse
To understand why this guy is so obsessed with filth, you have to understand the Omen. In the world created by Hidetaka Miyazaki and George R.R. Martin, being an Omen is a death sentence or a life of misery. They are born with chaotic, tangled horns. They are viewed as impure, disconnected from the Grace of the Erdtree. Most Omen babies have their horns excised, which usually kills them. The survivors are shoved into the sewers of Leyndell.
The Loathsome Dung Eater isn't an Omen. He's a human. But he desperately wants to be one.
He views the Omen curse not as a tragedy, but as a blessing of defilement. His entire questline revolves around the Seedbed Curse. You find these items on corpses he has "prepared." They are covered in a fungal, brownish growth. When you look at the item description for the Seedbed Curse, it explains that he prevents the soul from returning to the Erdtree. In Elden Ring, "Death" is supposed to lead back to the tree for rebirth. The Dung Eater breaks that cycle. He keeps the soul trapped in a cycle of eternal, pained stagnation.
Honestly, it’s a terrifying thought. Imagine a world where your soul is literally denied rest because some guy in heavy brass armor decided to use you as a canvas for his "art."
Finding the Man Behind the Scourge
Getting his quest started is a chore, and frankly, some players regret ever doing it. You first meet his projection in the Roundtable Hold, past the Twin Maiden Husks. He’s a red phantom, squatting in a room full of books and candles. He tells you to stay away. He says he will kill you and defile you. He’s not subtle.
To progress, you have to find a Seedbed Curse in the "real" world. Most players stumble upon the one in Leyndell, the Royal Capital. Once you show it to him, he gives you the Sewer-Gaol Key. This is where things get messy. He is physically imprisoned in the Subterranean Shunning-Grounds, deep beneath the capital city.
The walk down there is a nightmare. It’s dark, full of giant rats, and those terrifying "Omens" that hit like a freight train. When you find his cell, you have a choice. You can kill him right then and there. Most people do. His armor, the Omen Armor, is actually top-tier for damage negation, though it looks like it’s made of hardened excrement and clipped horns.
If you let him out? He leaves a message in the Roundtable Hold telling you to meet him at the outer moat of Leyndell.
The Moat Ambush and Blackguard Big Boggart
This is the part of the game that makes people truly hate the Loathsome Dung Eater. If you’ve been following the quest of Blackguard Big Boggart—the guy who sells you boiled prawns and crab—you’ll find him at the moat. Boggart is a fan favorite. He’s a simple guy. He likes seafood. He’s one of the few NPCs who feels like a regular person just trying to survive.
The Dung Eater kills him.
He ties Boggart to a chair and defiles him. When you arrive, Boggart is dying in agony, terrified that he’s been cursed forever. It is one of the most heartbreaking moments in the game because it’s so senseless. The Dung Eater then invades your world. He fights with the Sword of Milos, a jagged blade made from the backbone of a giant. It’s a brutal fight, but the emotional weight of Boggart’s death usually gives players the motivation to end him quickly.
The Blessing of Despair Ending
If you decide to go full villain, you can actually finish his quest. You have to find five Seedbed Curses scattered across the world. They are hidden in the most dangerous places: the Haligtree, the Volcano Manor, and the depths of Leyndell.
Once you feed him these curses in his prison cell, he dies. From his body, you loot the Mending Rune of the Fell Curse.
This rune allows you to achieve the "Blessing of Despair" ending. It is widely considered the "evil" ending of Elden Ring. By using this rune when you become Elden Lord, you apply the Dung Eater’s curse to the entire world. Every person born from that point on will be an Omen. Everyone will be reviled. Everyone will be "defiled."
The narrator’s voice during this ending sounds almost sickened. He describes a world shrouded in a "stinking mist." It’s a total subversion of the heroic fantasy trope. You didn't save the world; you made it a living hell because a crazy man in a sewer told you to.
Why He Matters to the Lore
The Loathsome Dung Eater serves a very specific narrative purpose. He is the mirror image of Sir Gideon Ofnir. While Gideon seeks knowledge and the status quo, the Dung Eater seeks the total destruction of the social order.
He represents the "untouchables" of the Lands Between. The Omen, the Misbegotten, the lepers of this society—he wants to force the world to look at them by making everyone one of them. There is a twisted sense of equality in his madness. If everyone is cursed, no one is.
But it’s not an equality of liberation. It’s an equality of suffering.
Some lore hunters, like VaatiVidya, have pointed out the connection between the Dung Eater and the "Sun" motif on his chest. The sun is often a symbol of divinity and light, but for him, it’s a symbol of a "cruel sun" that watches the suffering without intervention. He has completely rejected the Greater Will and the Erdtree. He is a fundamentalist of the profane.
Dealing with the Dung Eater: Practical Steps
If you are currently playing Elden Ring and trying to decide what to do with this guy, here is the breakdown of your options. No fluff, just what happens:
- The "Best" Outcome: Kill him in his cell immediately after getting the key. You get his armor set and his sword. You also save Blackguard Big Boggart from a horrific death. You miss out on the ending, but let's be real, you don't want that ending.
- The Puppet Option: If you are doing Seluvis’s questline, you can give the Dung Eater the Seluvis's Potion while he is tied up in his cell. This turns him into a Spirit Summon. As a puppet, he is actually one of the strongest summons in the game. He has huge HP, draws aggro, and his screams debuff enemies. It’s a poetic justice—the man who wanted to curse everyone is turned into a mindless slave for the player.
- The Completionist Route: Collect the 5 Seedbed Curses. Feed them to him. Get the rune. This is only if you are going for the achievement or want to see the darkest ending possible.
The locations for the Seedbed Curses you'll need are:
- One in Leyndell, Royal Capital, in the alternate version of the Roundtable Hold.
- One in Leyndell, near the rampart West Capital Rampart.
- One in the Volcano Manor, behind a Stonesword Key door.
- Two in Elphael, Brace of the Haligtree (the hardest area in the game).
Most players miss the ones in the Haligtree because that area is a vertical maze of death. If you miss Boggart's quest, you'll need those Haligtree curses to finish the Dung Eater's path.
Ultimately, the Loathsome Dung Eater is a reminder that Elden Ring isn't just a game about knights and dragons. It’s a game about the decay of a civilization and the monsters that crawl out of the cracks when the light of the gods starts to fade. He is gross, he is cruel, and he is perfectly written to be hated.
If you’re heading into the sewers of Leyndell today, bring a torch and a high-damage weapon. You’re going to need both.
To handle the Dung Eater effectively, you should decide early on if you want his Spirit Ash puppet or his Mending Rune. If you want the puppet, do not kill him or finish his quest the normal way; make sure you have Seluvis's potion ready before you interact with him in the chair. If you just want his gear, end his life the moment he's vulnerable in the jail cell. There is no moral penalty for killing him—in fact, the game practically begs you to.