The Dung Eater (formally known as the Loathsome Dung Eater) is one of the most notoriously depraved non-playable characters (NPCs) in FromSoftware's 2022 action role-playing game Elden Ring. He is a reviled Tarnished serial killer whose singular goal is to infect the entire Lands Between with a permanent, hereditary curse. His heinous reputation stems from his method of murder. He brutally kills his victims and "defiles" their corpses, an act heavily inspired by Japanese folklore regarding the extraction of the shirikodama (a mythical ball inside the anus containing the soul). This ritualistic defilement creates a Seedbed Curse, which permanently tears the victim's soul away from the Erdtree's cycle of rebirth, ensuring that they—and all of their descendants—are reborn as cursed Omens. Before the events of the game, he was captured, publicly hanged, and locked away deep within the Subterranean Shunning-Grounds beneath Leyndell