How Elden Ring’s Shadow of the Erdtree DLC Brings its Dragon Lore Full Circle

Highlights

• Dragon Communion in Elden Ring grants power but curses players to become wyrm dragons and leaves the game’s lore incomplete.
• Shadow of the Erdtree DLC finally reveals the consequences of Dragon Communion and completes Elden Ring’s dragon lore.
• New dragon transformations in DLC enhance magic builds and bring back iconic features from previous Souls games.

This article contains spoilers for the base game of Elden Ring and the Shadow of the Erdtree DLC!

In the base game of Elden Ring, players are warned that partaking in Dragon Communion by consuming a Dragon Heart will grant them the powers of dragons, though it will have grave consequences. However, players won’t get to experience these consequences before reaching any of the main endings in Elden Ring, leaving Elden Ring’s dragon lore feeling somewhat incomplete.

While the base game for Elden Ring doesn’t explicitly reveal the consequences of partaking in Dragon Communion, certain item descriptions help to paint a more complete picture. Specifically, the description of the Magma Wyrm’s Scalesword reveals that those who partake in Dragon Communion are cursed to transform into a wyrm – a flightless dragon. Even with this insight on the consequences of Dragon Communion though, there is still plenty of Elden Ring’s dragon lore that the base game leaves unclear. However, now that the Shadow of the Erdtree DLC is released, players can finally experience a more complete story of Elden Ring’s ancient dragons, alongside finally experiencing the consequences of Dragon Communion firsthand.

Elden RIng’s Shadow of the Erdtree DLC Tells the Full Story of Elden Ring’s Dragon Lore

The ancient dragons are believed to be one of the first inhabitants in the Lands Between, and during the age of dragons, Dragonlord Placidusax was once the Elden Lord. Originally, the events that led to the fall of the age of dragons were uncertain, although Elden Ring’s new Shadow of the Erdtree DLC finally sheds light on some of these missing details.

According to the Dragon Communion Priestess, the beginning of the end of the age of dragons was brought about when Dragonlord Placidusax was challenged by a drake known as Bayle the Dread, and while they both survived the battle, Placidusax and Bayle were both severely wounded. Soon after, Dragonlord Placidusax commanded any willing fighters to become drake warriors to slay the drakes and consume their Dragon Hearts as a sacrifice.

In
Elden Ring
, drakes are lesser, modern dragons. Unlike the ancient dragons, drakes don’t have arms separate from their wings and typically can’t wield powers associated with Dragon Cult Incantations.

Ultimately, the strength that humans were granted by consuming Dragon Hearts evolved into an insatiable hunger for power, despite the consequences. Presumably, this hunger is what led humans to turn against Dragonlord Placidusax and the other ancient dragons in Elden Ring to hunt them the same as they did the drakes, with the ambition to consume their hearts to gain their power. However, this last part is unclear considering that drake warriors were not the only humans who hunted the ancient dragons.

Elden Ring Shadow of the Edtree’s New Dragon Transformations are Game-Changers for Dragon Builds

On top of delivering some of the missing pieces for Elden Ring’s dragon lore, the Shadow of the Erdtree DLC finally reintroduces some of the best parts of dragon builds from the Dark Souls games that came before Elden Ring, which are the dragon transformations. Despite Dragon Cult and Dragon Communion Incantations already being extremely powerful, the new build-crafting tools like the dragon transformations in Elden Ring truly take dragon builds to the next level.

Considering that the game warns players that there will be consequences for partaking in Dragon Communion, in hindsight, Elden Ring not featuring dragon transformations in the base game was a missed opportunity. Not to mention, dragon transformations were an iconic part of the Dark Souls games that have been a highly requested feature to be added to Elden Ring. So, with the Shadow of the Erdtree DLC introducing dragon transformations, alongside a deeper dive into the mysteries surrounding dragons, Elden Ring’s dragon lore and dragon builds have finally come full circle.