‘John Nightreign doesn’t have a face’: YouTuber manages to uncover all but one of Elden Ring Nightreign’s hidden Nightfarer faces, ‘leaving his appearance a mystery’
The most mysterious part of Elden Ring Nightreign isn’t its errant matchmaking system or how Morgott keeps tracking me down, it’s actually much simpler than that: The identity of some of the Nightfarers.
Unlike Elden Ring with its character creator, Nightreign simply gives players the choice of eight Nightfarers all with pre-built looks and skins. So it’s fair to say that most players could go about their expeditions without ever knowing what some of these characters look like. That is until soulsborne YouTuber Zullie the Witch uncovered the truth.
As Zullie the Witch explains in a YouTube video: “Rather than customizable characters, Nightreign chose to focus on a handful of unique champions, trading flexibility for deeper specialization. While they don’t use the character creation face data, there is still something if we peel back their helmets.”
Some of the character’s faces are relatively easy to see. “As a Witch of the Deep Woods, the Recluse wears a traditional pointed hat, obscuring her face in the shadow of its wide brim. Between her skins, one does remove the hat entirely though, giving a clearer look at her features without its obstruction,” Zullie the Witch says.
Like the Recluse, the Raider’s face can also be seen below the dragonlike skull that he wears as a helm, and he also loses his headgear in one of his skins, revealing his whole face. Then there’s the Revenant whose face is clearly shown, although you can see this spirit’s true identity when he uses her ult, peeling away part of her face to show the vengeful phantom beneath.
“For [the] Duchess, her face is largely visible already, obscured only by a blindfold crown reminiscent of Dark Souls 3’s Firekeeper,” Zullie the Witch continues. “And removing the crown for each of them, both do have the rest of their face fully modelled beneath it, revealing their eyes.”
At a glance, you may think that the Guardian is just wearing a fancy helmet, but that’s actually his head. This Nightfarer is of a new avian race, the Pinionfolk, who live among the clouds of the winged realm. But after seeing some player conspiracies, Zullie the Witch confirms that there’s not a human face hidden behind the eagle.
Then there are the characters who have more obscured visages. “As a hooded assassin, normally only a thin stretch of Ironeye’s face can be seen, but the rest is modelled, at least from the front,” Zullie the Witch says. “Similar to Ironeye, Executor’s face is mostly concealed by his helmet, though glimpses can be seen through the visor’s slits. Originally a Reedlander, he seemingly embraced the Crucible in the Lands Between, which may have tinged his copper eyes.”
The eye colour of most Nightfarers will change depending on which skin you’re wearing. Light skins will have golden eyes and dark skins will have purple. But the Executor’s copper-tinged eyes may have just given us the first clue as to what the Crucible Knights would look like.
The only character that has no modelled face beneath their armour is Wylder: “In each skin, his armour obscures his features, and removing it just shows a black silhouette, leaving his appearance a mystery.”
A part of me is slightly frustrated that Wylder’s face will remain hidden, and I’m not the only one, “Of course, John Nightreign doesn’t have a face” one viewer says in the video’s comments. But it doesn’t make his character any less cool, and seeing as we’ve got answers for everyone else I’ll try and not be too ungrateful.
