Elden Ring: Shadow of the Erdtree introduces a new area called the Bonny Village, a rural settlement where the Hornsent carried out their ritual of putting Shamans into Living Jars. There's a lot to unpack here about Queen Marika's history given that she was a Shaman, but one detail that slipped by many is the shed snake skin we find nearby.
There are two important blasphemous snakes in the game to mention before we delve any deeper—Rykard fed himself to the God-Devouring Serpent and Messmer was born with the Abyssal Snake consuming him from within. He is Marika's son, and so the question is, why was he cursed with the Abyssal Snake? The shed skin might shed some light on that mystery.
As @breebunn suggests, Rykard's shed skin would look a lot like the one outside of the Bonny Village, there are even openings for humanoid limbs. But they don't believe that the skin belongs to Rykard as we know that he fed himself to the God-Devouring Serpent at the Volcano Manor, not the realm of shadow. Instead, they suggest that it's from someone else who took part in the "profane ritual".
In the Shadow of the Erdtree...
