Monsters, demons, knights, dragons, demigods, and supernatural forces want to kill us in Elden Ring. But stop! As many hidden clues show, the dragons are not the monsters we think. So it’s only fair if we pay back this malice in the same coin and completely clean up the intermediate land.
They are, in truth, pathetic creatures, valuable allies, miserable family creatures, and figures that could bring the great war for the Elden Throne to a new conclusion.
Didn’t you notice that while playing? Don’t worry. We went to the dragons together with Lore-Tuber Stefan Fuchs and brought you hidden knowledge that could turn your entire worldview in Elden Ring upside down.
The Fall of the Dragons
The dragons are considered extremely dangerous opponents in Elden Ring. They crush you with their massive bodies, attack from the air, and spew various Dangerous substances such as fire, ice, and rot. Clearly, we can understand any player who enjoys seeing those beasts finally go down. However, those who deal with their backstory might look at things differently.
Stefan Fuchs goes into their brutal fate for you:
The dragons are as good as extinct in Elden Ring. In the game, we only encounter the remnants of their civilization. It is said that the dragons lived in tribes and had religions of their own long before the game events. They also lived in peace with the people. Even Godwyn, the first Elden Lord, is said to have befriended one of the mightiest dragons after a battle.
It is not entirely clear who started the war. The attack of the dragon Gransax on the city of Lyndell is mentioned as the sparking event, even if the exact prehistory remains unknown. According to Stefan, the experts assume that the possible influence of goddess Marika or one of her children was swept under the carpet.
Either way, after the humans killed almost all the dragons, only a few of them live in the Between Lands. Some seek death and devastation, others are in hiding, and a few lurk in interstices outside of space and time. And eager players can even discover their leader, explains the lore tuber.
Dragon Hunters vs Dragon Protectors
The existence of two opposing factions in the Elden Ring shows how ambiguous the relationship between humans and dragons is. One is the Dragon Communion, which hunts dragons to absorb their power. And on the other hand, there is the dragon cult, which lives in peace with the dragons to learn from them. While players cannot align with either faction, we can benefit from their philosophies and methods to gain new skills.
In the case of dragon communion, it is about slaying dragons and acquiring their hearts. In the Church or Cathedral of Dragon Communion, these hearts can then be used to absorb the dragon’s power. Stefan Fuchs describes the process:
As the players review the abilities in the menu, they miss a terrifying spectacle unfolding in the background: there, the character happily bites and smacks your heart while blood spurts around you. Even though humans have long made weapons from dragon bodies, this ritual takes the cruelty to a new level.
Finger Hunter Yura also explains that most of the Knights of Communion have developed an addiction to Dragon Hearts and have become insane. We are spared and receive cosmetic dragon eyes at the pinnacle of power.
The dragon-exploiting Communion as opposed to the dragon cult, founded by humans and dragons that could take human form themselves. Pairings between these produced mighty warriors.
This cult, dedicated to protecting dragons, lives in secret, and its followers rarely show themselves. Whoever defeats one of these golden knights often finds a prayer book with them. YouTuber Fuchs on this:
Most of them reside in Farum Azula, an island beyond all worlds and home of the dragons, where the knights live in peaceful harmony with the dragons. Here we can learn dozens of spells and talents. But even our predecessor, the Tainted Vyke, was considered the dragons’ greatest ally. I repeat we cannot join either side. The whole thing triggers something in you.
Your greed makes you an actual monster.
While the war between the dragon factions plays out in the background and may not affect you, one situation in Elden Ring will test your morale, as Stefan Fuchs explains.
We can find Dragonmother Greyoll in Camelid. She’s ancient, lying on the ground, and doesn’t fight back when we attack her. Killing them takes an extremely long time, but it’s worth it as the player can get 50,000 runes. However, many players amaze her that she drops five dragon hearts instead of one heart. How come? Well, there are five baby dragons near her. And this simple loot tells a very tragic story.
First of all, Greyoll’s heart itself seems to be so old that it is not usable as an item. Second, the baby dragons die when their mother dies and cannot care for them. But the tragic thing that crowns the whole thing comes now: Greyoll loses a fifth of her energy for every baby dragon killed. If everyone dies, she dies too. Developer FromSoftware tells with a tiny detail the fate of a mother who gradually loses her purpose in life with every death of one of her children and dies of depression.
Most players farm Greyoll, keep killing them, and probably miss this background. Ever since I’ve known him, I’ve consistently avoided this rune boost. I’ll leave Greyoll and her kids alone. I can’t bring myself to do it anymore, it feels wrong, and it’s incredible that in Elden Ring, where it’s so brutal, something can get to my moral and emotional side so severely. That showed me what monsters we players can be.
Will the dragons free us from the gods?
Finally, we present you a point from which many experts and we have not yet become smart. There are many indications that an upcoming DLC could fill in this missing puzzle piece.
It’s about the dragon leader we mentioned earlier: Placidusax was the supreme dragon lord. The emphasis is on was because he died long before the events of the Elden Ring. However … It’s possible to find the dragon lord alive, Stefan Fuchs informs us. ‘For this, we must tread a daring secret path in Farum Azula to travel to the heart of the storm beyond the times where we can challenge Placidusax. According to one item, he was an Elden Lord for the dragons, waiting here for his god to return.
Defeating Placidusax yields plenty of runes but no hearts. But that doesn’t seem to be the main purpose of this fight. This is the only place you can use Miquella’s Needle, one of the most mysterious items in the Elden Ring. Players who have pledged allegiance to the Raging Flame, one of the many religions in Elden Ring, can use the Needle to free themselves from chaos and choose a different ending.
This leads to a simple question that probably doesn’t have a simple answer: why? According to Stefan Fuchs, the dragons in Elden Ring are not only the actual victims but also crucial characters whose importance has not yet been fully revealed.
Acquiring Miquella’s Needle is one of the most challenging quests in the entire game – it takes you past Melania, a player’s nightmare – and Stefan finds it extremely unlikely that all this effort is just for a Break Out of Chaos card. He senses an upcoming DLC and an additional ending in which Melina survives – and swears no revenge on us!
Were the dragons the original pretenders to the Elden Throne? Why does the player have to go to Placidusax to free himself from all religions? What is the relationship between Goddess Marika and Placidusax, striving for perfection over duality, she over man and woman in one body, he over two heads?