Caelid

About

Caelid is a location in the video game Elden Ring, released on February 25th, 2022, that grew notorious among players for its bleak architecture, poisonous swamps and monstrous creatures. After the release of the game, it became the subject of numerous photoshop parodies and memes, similar to other poison swamps in previous Dark Souls titles such as the zone Blighttown in DS1.

Origin

Caelid lies to the east of the starting location in Elden Ring.^[1] The area is a red, arid wasteland characterized by swamps of "Scarlet Rot" and monstrously sized crows and dogs. Though accessible from the start of the game, it is generally the third major area players will explore after Limgrave and Linuria. Its main boss is General Radahn, who's also infamous among the player base.

Spread

After the game's release on February 25th, 2022, players were quick to joke about the area's generally unpleasant atmosphere in numerous Photoshop memes. For example, on February 28th, Redditor sirlancer ^[2]posted a picture of Patrick Star walking around a red area with the caption, "Walking around Caelid at level 20 like." The post gained over 7,500 points in two weeks (shown below, left). On March 9th, Redditor HaruTachibana^[3] posted a joke that labeled Caelid "Gary, Indiana," gaining over 11,000 points in roughly 24 hours (shown below, right).

Similar memes about Caelid also spread on Twitter. On March 9th, Twitter user @MayoTheFirst^[4] tweeted an I Shoulda Never Smoke That Shit edit featuring Caelid, gaining over 840 retweets and 6,500 likes in roughly 24 hours (shown below, left). On March 10th, user @AlhinRow^[5] posted an edit of the Doom cover referencing Caelid, gaining over 1,500 retweets and 6,700 likes in a similar timeframe (shown below, right).

Various Examples

Search Interest

External References