Elden Ring is full of mysteries, from character-related ones like Melina's identity to lore-related ones like who was the god of dragons. There are even more mysteries when it comes to the Lands Between and its various locations. For example, the two moons at the Moonlight Altar, Godwyn's corpse under Stormveil Castle, and the pattern of the game's six towers. Then, of course, there is the mystery of Elden Ring's colosseums.
There are three colosseums that fans have found in the Lands Between. They are in Limgrave, Leyndell, and Caelid. There is no natural way to enter these massive buildings, and a lot of theories have spread around as to why they exist. Some believe that the colosseums are leftovers from cut content while others believe there is something more going on.
The Limgrave Colosseum
The colosseum in Limgrave is north of the Warmaster's Shack. There is an NPC leaning against the building, a frustrated spirit that says, "All I wanted was to fight. To fight as a warrior, to the last. So, why? Why, guidance of grace will this door not open?" Much like the spirit, the Tarnished themselves cannot enter the building. Nothing changes the dialogue of the spirit, either.
Through dataming, some players have managed to explore the inside of this particular colosseum. For a place that is inaccessible, Elden Ring has details inside the Limgrave colosseum from rows of places for people to watch a center for battle. At the same time, it is not as detailed as the outside, so it is unfinished. On the outside of this colosseum, players get invaded by an NPC named Recusant Renricus. It is also at this colosseum that players are tasked to kill Old Knight Istvan for the Volcano Manor questline.
The Leyndell Colosseum
The Leyndell colosseum is the largest of the three, which makes some sense since it is located by the capital city and near the Erdtree. Dataminers got inside to see another detailed but unused area, complete with lighted torches, rooms of weapons, and halls that lead out to the arena. Upon entering, dataminers found there is an actual Site of Grace inside. The arena part is a half circle that looks out to a view of the Lands Between. The arena has weapons scattered about and there are two hostile enemies that fight the Tarnished and each other. In the games' files, the names of these enemies are "Gladiator Large" and "Old Lion of Arena."
Near this colosseum is where players can find the Ritual Shield Talisman, which has an item description that seems to connect to the colosseum itself. It says the talisman is "patterned after shields used in ritual combat to honor the Erdtree" and that the practice died out in the age of King Consort Radagon. This means the colosseums have not been used in a long time, not since Radagon became Marika's consort.
The Caelid Colosseum
Lastly, there is the Caelid Colosseum, which is special for the giant Great-Jar that stands at the entrance. The Great-Jar says nothing, but does offer a challenge to the Tarnished. If they beat the three Knights of the Great Jar without dying, then they are awarded the Great-Jar's Arsenal Talisman. When dataminers entered this arena, it is also a half circle shape, this time with a big view of the Erdtree.
After completing the quest, the Great-Jar does not move and still remains silent as though he is determined to guard the colosseum entrance. What's special about his challenge is the summoned NPCs scale with the player's level and are randomly generated based on other players' real character builds that have already completed the quest. They also all must be killed consecutively.
What The Colosseum's Have Shown
Between the NPCs, invaders, and item descriptions, all the colosseums point towards either cut content or a future DLC or patch. Lore-wise, it seems these colosseums may have been abandoned long before the shattering of the Elden Ring, as they have not been used in ritual combat since Radagon's time as consort. It does beg the question as to why Radagon's position with Marika ended this tradition.
Between the invaders, Volcano Manor questline, and the Great-Jar's challenge, a lot of the evidence points to these colosseums possibly having to do with PvP. There are a couple of theories though, a major one being that all three colosseums may have different content ideas behind them, with the Limgrave one being basic PvP, the Caelid one pitting a player against NPCs summoned by the builds of other players, and then Leyndell could even be a place for the player to practice battling bosses again and again. After all, the game would not have three colosseums to serve just one single purpose. The three are more likely to be for different ideas.
Fans are certain the colosseums are upcoming DLC or a patch. It is possible the content already existed, evidenced by all the details inside the buildings, but the developers ran out of time to see it come to fruition. Hopefully, a patch or DLC will open the arena doors for everyone to explore.
Elden Ring is available on PC, PS4, PS5, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X/S.