As I wander the Lands Between in the year 2026, my journey through the decaying grandeur of this world remains punctuated by moments of inexplicable violence, none more jarring than the sudden, silent invasions within the supposed sanctuary of the Roundtable Hold. These attacks, devoid of dialogue or immediate reason, are like ghostly echoes of a past conflict, haunting the present. Two figures in particular, Mad Tongue Alberich and Ensha of the Royal Remains, have ambushed countless Tarnished, myself included, leaving behind only cryptic clues and a lingering sense of paranoia. Their motives are not spelled out in quest logs or exposition; they are buried in the world itself, waiting to be pieced together by those willing to look beyond the blade.

Who Is Alberich? The Heretic in the Hold

The first time I encountered Mad Tongue Alberich, it felt less like a battle and more like stumbling upon a secret the world wanted to keep. He materializes on the lower level of the Roundtable Hold, a place one only finds by making a literal leap of faith off the balcony where the sorcerer Rogier rests. There is no fanfare, no challenge issued—just the immediate, chilling application of frost and blood magic. Fighting him at a low level was like trying to hold back a glacier with bare hands; his combined Bleed and Frostbite effects are a brutal lesson in the game's systemic cruelty. The key, I learned, was distance. Luring him into charging, his movements as predictable and relentless as a metronome counting down to my demise, allowed me to survive long enough to land my own blows.

Victory, however, was its own mystery. He dropped no grand revelation, only practical, multiplayer-focused tools:

• 1,562 Runes

• A Furlcalling Finger Remedy (to reveal summoning signs)

• The Taunter's Tongue (a device that invites more frequent and difficult invasions)

For the longest time, Alberich was just a bizarre, violent non-sequitur in the hub world. The truth of his identity is a secret the game guards jealously, revealed not through NPCs, but through an artifact found much later. Deep in the ruined, original Roundtable Hold beneath Leyndell, the Royal Capital, I found Alberich's Set resting on a corpse. The armor's description was the first and only whisper of his story:

"Alberich was an aloof yet disturbed heretical sorcerer said to have been driven mad by jeering tongues during his service to the Roundtable Hold long ago."

This discovery reframes the entire encounter. The original Roundtable Hold was a gathering place for the champions of the Golden Order under Queen Marika, long before the Shattering. Finding his armor there suggests Alberich is a relic, a guardian spirit driven insane by mockery and time, eternally defending a throne room that has been dust for ages. His madness is not random; it is the madness of unwavering duty in a world that has moved on, a sentinel forever patrolling the ruins of his own mind. The Taunter's Tongue he drops is no longer just a game mechanic; it is the very instrument of his torment, now passed to the player. His invasion is a ghostly reenactment, a memory of loyalty so intense it has curdled into violence.

The King's Silent Shadow: Ensha of the Royal Remains

Where Alberich's violence feels like a historical echo, Ensha's attack is a cold, calculated piece of political sabotage. He first appears as a silent, armored sentinel outside the chamber of Gideon Ofnir, the so-called "All-Knowing" and my primary guide. His only interaction is granting a gesture—"What Do You Want?"—a pose of detached inquiry that perfectly masks his purpose. He is a sphinx without a riddle, until you find the first half of the Haligtree Medallion.

Upon returning to the Hold with this key item, Ensha attacks. His invasion is direct and brutal, a clear mission to stop my progress. Once defeated, his Royal Remains armor set can be picked up from his now-empty post. More importantly, Gideon Ofnir breaks his silence on the matter with a masterclass in passive-aggressive apology:

"Oh, my apologies for that nasty business. Ensha got rather ahead of himself, it seems. As his master, I'd like to express my regret."

This is where the pieces snap together. By 2026, the community has long since unraveled Gideon's true role: he is not an ally, but a rival who fears the Tarnished's potential to usurp the existing order. Ensha was never a silent knight; he was a sleeper agent, a scalpel held to my throat by the very man who pointed me toward my destiny. The Haligtree Medallion is a ticket to Miquella's hidden realm and a major step toward the Elden Throne. Ensha's invasion was Gideon's attempt to confiscate that ticket, to keep the path to godhood locked. His silence was necessary because any word might have revealed his master's duplicity. Ensha's aggression was not a rogue action; it was a policy enacted by a man who wants knowledge hoarded, not power claimed.

Shadows and Whispers: The FromSoftware Legacy

Reflecting on these two invaders, I see them as perfect examples of FromSoftware's storytelling ethos. They are narrative icebergs, with 90% of their substance hidden beneath the surface. Alberich is a tragedy etched in armor descriptions and architectural placement. His fight is a connection to a lost era, making the Roundtable Hold feel less like a safe house and more like a palimpsest, with the angry ghost of the old order scratching through the veneer of the new.

Ensha, in contrast, is a conspiracy theory made flesh. His story is told through the negative space around Gideon's words and the precise timing of his betrayal. He forces you to question every interaction, to see alliances in the Lands Between as temporary and conditional. Defeating him doesn't feel like conquering a monster, but like uncovering a secret—one that permanently stains your relationship with a major character.

Invader	Location	Trigger	Implied Motivation	Master/Loyalty
Mad Tongue Alberich	Lower Floor, Roundtable Hold	Discovering the area	Defending the original Roundtable Hold / Maddened duty	The defunct Golden Order / Queen Marika
Ensha of the Royal Remains	Main Hub, Roundtable Hold	Obtaining half of the Haligtree Medallion	Assassination/Theft to halt Tarnished's progress	Gideon Ofnir, the All-Knowing

In the end, neither Alberich nor Ensha are mere combat encounters. They are environmental storytelling at its most potent. Alberich is a monument to forgotten loyalty, his presence as jarring and anachronistic as a pocket watch still ticking in a sunken ship. Ensha is the embodiment of hidden agendas, his silent vigil a mask for a knife in the dark. They teach the player that in the Lands Between, history is a weapon, and every ally is a potential invader waiting for the right key to turn. Their mysteries, slowly solved over years of community effort, are what transform Elden Ring from a simple challenge into a world that feels genuinely, hauntingly alive with secrets.