Since its release, Elden Ring players have been digging into the game to find out whatever they can, pertaining to its story, builds, worldbuilding, characters, and more. Of course, there are also quite a few rune farming locations in Elden Ring and other gameplay-specific tricks that have circulated online too. The best way to learn anything in Elden Ring, however, is to not just go wandering aimlessly and looking at things, but to read various item descriptions.
This adds new lore and context to nearly every single character and location in the game. It’s a particularly potent storytelling method when players learn something endearing or heartbreaking about the Elden Ring boss they’ve just defeated. Radahn, thus far, has proven to be an incredibly popular boss battle, not just due to the attempt to beat the Starscourge, but the idea that this colossal behemoth of a character is riding around on a little horse.
Elden Ring: Radahn and Leonard, The Rider and Its Horse
One player discovered that Radahn’s horse is named Leonard through game files, which is an endearing fact, but those that look at the item description for Radahn’s Great Rune will learn even more. It turns out that Radahn learned Gravity Magic in Elden Ring for the sole purpose of never being separated from his horse, thus alleviating his weight off the shoulders of the horse. Indeed, it shows that Radahn truly cares about Leonard, which is a nice character touch for someone hailed as one of Elden Ring’s strongest warriors.
It goes even a little deeper than that. As it turns out, when Radahn and Malenia battled each other (which fans see in an old Elden Ring trailer), Malenia infected him with Scarlet Rot. Because of the constant contact, it seems safe to assume that Leonard also has Scarlet Rot.
The Radahn players face in Elden Ring is technically weakened by it (and considering how fast Scarlet Rot kills players, that’s terrifying), it’s essentially that the two are zombified eternals who remain at each other’s sides at all times—a heartwarming, if twisted, humanization of Radahn. The Starscourge has a heart.
It's also an interesting parallel to the player and Torrent, Elden Ring’s summonable horse. While players do not have to engage in mounted combat, Torrent fights alongside the Tarnished hero and Malenia will even thank him, too, alongside the player. In Radahn and Leonard, the player character and Torrent, it’s clear that Elden Ring puts a lot of thought into the character/mount relationship, and the game is all the richer for it.
Elden Ring is available now on PC, PS4, PS5, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X.