A fictional Demon's Soul ring forged in the fires of memes was seemingly recreated in the game's PS5 port.
Reputable PlayStation and Souls modder Lance McDonald has recently shared some newly surfaced assets for the "Chieftain's Ring," which were found in the Demon's Souls remake by Garden of Eyes, another Souls sleuth.
Years ago, Demon’s Souls fans made up a fictional item called “Chieftain’s Ring”, which inspired the community to go on a wild goose chase search for it. For the remake, BluePoint Games actually created it! However, no one knows how to find it. Thanks @EyesGarden for the render! https://t.co/1A2YaZnJCk pic.twitter.com/g91rhNgPDCOctober 11, 2022
The Chieftain's Ring looks like a reference to the Ring of the Chieftain, an enduring remnant of the Demon's Souls community's trolling and general tin foil hattery. Before FromSoftware fans debated the allegories of Elden Ring and the best NPCs of Dark Souls, they theory-crafted themselves silly over the eccentricities of Demon's Souls, and some people were flat-out making stuff up. I know; you wouldn't expect that from online communities.
A useful 2014 post from Illusorywall delves into the origins of the Ring of the Chieftain, referencing an infamous and somehow still-preserved screenshot from Twitter user Peeve which tied the non-existent ring to Yurt the Silent Chief.
You ALLLL doubted me. Yurt selling Ring of the Chieftain (THANK YOU Rocker2021 for the screenshot): pic.twitter.com/i8GeISpfyIOctober 27, 2014
The running gag was that keeping Yurt alive through the entire game would allow you to purchase this incredibly powerful ring, but in fact this would only lead to Yurt killing the (often very important) NPCs who reside in the game's Nexus hub area. And so, the Ring of the Chieftain took on a tone of new-player hazing – basically a more elaborate version of all those messages advising you to take a leap of faith off a lethal cliff.
As McDonald explains, the Chieftain's Ring was found in the Demon's Souls remake thanks to new possibilities unlocked by the recent PS5 jailbreak. However, while modders and data miners now have the means to dig up models like this, Garden of Eyes was quick to point out that there's no attached text file for this ring, which implies it doesn't actually exist anywhere in the game.
McDonald and Peeve have discussed the possibility of such an Easter egg hiding among the few items that remain unaccounted for, but even with the PS5 now jailbroken, the truth of the Chieftain's Ring still eludes us. This is a little disappointing, but whether it's cut content or an unfinished Easter egg, it's oddly fitting for the Chieftain's Ring to remain nothing more than smoke and mirrors – and incomplete renders.
Demon's Souls PS5 also has a mystery door that leads to a new set of armor, and it's very much real.
