Elden Ring's first expansion announced, looks like it takes place before the events of the game

Bandai Namco and Fromoftware have announced Elden Ring's first expansion is in development. Named Shadow of the Erdtree, the announcement comes with a piece of concept art which I'm going to rampantly speculate on, and not much else.

The official blurb:

Rise, Tarnished, and let us walk a new path together.

An upcoming expansion for #ELDENRING Shadow of the Erdtree, is currently in development.

We hope you look forward to new adventures in the Lands Between.

The art shows a character that may possibly be Miquella riding Torrent, your in-game steed, through a field filled with illusions of gravestones. In the distance can be seen the Erdtree with a substance that has the right colour for deathblight leaking from it like sap.

Specul-a-tron time. This looks like a prequel to the main story of Elden Ring, which would fit with the title, and with this character being Miquella. Miquella is the brother of Malenia and one of the Empyreans, who's cursed to be forever young and created the Haligtree to purge the rot from Malenia. Radagon's Rings of Light description says:

One of the incantations of the Golden Order fundamentalists. A gift of gratitude to the young Miquella from his father, Radagon... And yet the young Miquella abandoned fundamentalism, for it could do nothing to treat Malenia's accursed rot. This was the beginning of the unalloyed gold.

By the time of the events of Elden Ring, Miquella's imprisoned by Mohg, Lord of Blood, and can be seen in a kind of cocoon form in the boss room. Mohg apparently wants to make Miquella a god but Miquella's not interested. One final tidbit is that Sir Gideon Ofnir confirms Miquella is still alive. So an expansion exploring Malenia's origins and the doomed quest to save her before the events of the game?

To re-emphasise: All of the above is speculation and may be completely wrong. But this is what happens when FromSoft announce an expansion to the biggest game in its history with one piece of art.

Either way, at least the players who vowed to kill bosses until an expansion appeared can have a rest now. This remarkable game is now a year old and, thanks to some clever post-launch support, has never been in ruder health. Yeah: It's time to replay Elden Ring.