Elden Ring: Shadow Of The Erdtree Story Trailer Breakdown - Lore Connections & Dialog Explained

Summary A story trailer for Elden Ring: Shadow of the Erdtree has provided plenty of hints about the DLC's lore connections and what subjects will be explored.

The DLC will likely provide insight into how Marika ascended to godhood, and the result that the Golden Order's founding had on the Land of Shadow, now ruled by Messmer.

There are also clues to Miquella's role in the story, suggesting he may be searching for a Haligtree replacement, hoping to save the realm abandoned by his mother.

Exactly a month ahead of the launch of Elden Ring's Shadow of the Erdtree DLC, the expansion received a story trailer. Perhaps unsurprisingly, and in spite of the trailer's title, the Shadow of the Erdtree story trailer's details are incredibly cryptic. At face value, it essentially reinforces what was already known about the expansion, which will take players on a brand-new, apparently quite extensive, journey to a place called the Land of Shadow. Despite the trailer failing to be forthcoming, there are some interesting insights able to be gleaned.

Shadow of the Erdtree's release date is set for June 21, 2024, over two years after the base game arrived to much fanfare and critical acclaim, including later earning the top spot on Screen Rant's best games of all time list. Ever since it was first announced via a single piece of promotional art, Shadow of the Erdtree has been presumed to chiefly be about Miquella, an important but still mysterious figure in the base game. The Shadow of the Erdtree story trailer effectively confirms this presumption, but offers a glimpse into the broader themes and subjects that will be explored.

Related You Should Start Playing Elden Ring Again Now, Not When Shadow Of The Erdtree Releases With Shadow of the Erdtree set to arrive in June, players should be looking to start playing again now, instead of when the DLC releases.

Shadow Of The Erdtree May Shed Light On The Founding Of The Golden Order

How Marika The Eternal Came To Rule The Lands Between

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Marika is perhaps the single most important character in Elden Ring. It is by her guiding Grace that the Tarnished – the player character – returns to the Lands Between and seeks the throne of the Elden Lord. Despite her prominence, including her alter ego, Radagon's, appearance as the game's second-to-last boss, exactly how Marika came to power atop the Golden Order is largely a mystery. The Golden Order itself springs from an entity presumed to be an Outer God – the Greater Will, which imposed Order onto the Lands Between via a beast that would become the Elden Ring, an artifact which dictates the nature of the world itself.

Marika's destruction of the Elden Ring would later cascade into the Shattering, a war which left the Lands Between in the sorry state the Tarnished later comes to experience. How exactly Marika inherited the power of the Elden Ring remains unknown, but the Shadow of the Erdtree story trailer suggests an answer may be coming in the DLC.

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The first lines spoken by an unidentified narrator in the trailer say, "Miquella the Kind spoke of the beginning. The Seduction. And the betrayal." This is accompanied by imagery of a figure, presumably Marika, grabbing strands of golden light and bending them into a rune, most likely the Elden Ring itself. This is likely the beginning Miquella spoke of: Marika crafting the Elden Ring which would soon be implanted in the Erdtree, to grow and bathe the Lands Between in its golden light – the beginning of Queen Marika the Eternal's Golden Order.

The referenced seduction and betrayal remain a bit mysterious, though Marika does appear to pull the golden strands from a vaguely vaginal orifice. Seduction is likely how Marika came to be the Greater Will's chosen Empyrean, subsequently ascending to godhood. Seduction isn't necessarily an uncommon theme in Elden Ring, and doesn't always have sexual connotations. In fact, Marika and Radagon being one and the same asserts that their children, Malenia and Miquella, were simply willed into being.

Empyrean is a title that would later be bestowed upon a handful of other Elden Ring figures, including three of Marika's/Radagon's children. Empyreans are candidates for godhood, and one's ascension seems to correspond to the coming of a new age, like Ranni's Age of Stars.

Regardless, in some unspecified manner, Marika inherited or coerced power from the Greater Will, and Shadow of the Erdtree might delve into how. The following line – "An affair from which Gold arose." – reinforces as much, especially with the trailer's captions specifically capitalizing "Gold." Marika's origins have long been a likely subject of the expansion, with the Bandai Namco Entertainment website referencing, "the Land of Shadow, a place obscured by the Erdtree where the goddess Marika first set foot."

The Land Of Shadow Has Existed For As Long As The Lands Between

Messmer Fought In A War Like The Shattering

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Following the imagery of Marika spinning Golden Grace into a rune, the Elden Ring: Shadow of the Erdtree trailer shifts toward Messmer, following the lead of the DLC's first gameplay trailer. After "An affair from which Gold arose," the story trailer says, "And so too was Shadow born." This suggests the Land of Shadow and the Lands Between (or at least its iteration under Marika's Golden Order) are something of twins, not unlike Marika and Radagon – or Morgott and Mohg, and Miquella and Malenia, two sets of actual twins.

This could also be a hint to the referenced betrayal, the implication being Marika abandoned her homeland, casting it into Shadow, to step into the golden light of the Lands Between. As the apparently preeminent Empyrean in the Land of Shadow (or whatever it was called before Marika's betrayal), Marika would likely have possessed astounding influence. As two sides of the same coin, and as evidenced by the realm's sickly tree, it seems as though Marika's coronation into the Golden Order consequently coincided with the downfall of her homeland. The story trailer's next few lines reinforce this assumption, reading:

What followed was a war unseen. One that could never be put to song. A purge without Grace or honor. The tyranny of Messmer's flame.

Marika's departure would have left a power vacuum, one that's seemingly filled by Shadow of the Erdtree's Messmer the Impaler. The disparity between "war" and "purge" is quite telling, as the trailer doesn't necessarily show battles happening, only cities burning. The timeline paints a dire picture for the Land of Shadow as well: a devastating war long before the Shattering in the Lands Between, likely leaving the Land of Shadow to languish under "the tyranny of Messmer's flame" for eons before the Tarnished arrives.

"A purge without Grace or honor" isn't unlike the base game's Lord of Frenzied Flame ending, which sees the Tarnished abandon the Greater Will in favor of another Outer God, destroying the Lands Between to be shaped anew. Fire is something of a profane concept in the Lands Between – hence the Three Fingers, the Frenzied Flame's vassal, being sequestered in the depths of the Subterranean Shunning Grounds – another indication that the Land of Shadow was forsaken and fell into ruin upon Marika's departure.

Much like Elden Ring's initial trailers, which depicted the Elden Ring's destruction and key conflicts from the Shattering, the Shadow of the Erdtree story trailer appears primarily concerned with the Land of Shadow's history, at least in the sections pertaining to Marika and Messmer. The Land of Shadow's more intricate mysteries will undoubtedly have to be pieced together through the DLC's item descriptions, but the story trailer provides overtures to set the tone for the new areas that will be explored.

Shadow Of The Erdtree's Story Trailer Promises Miquella Answers

The Tarnished Follows Miquella Into The Land Of Shadow

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It is only the trailer's latter section that turns towards Miquella, and offers some insight into the Tarnished's role in Shadow of the Erdtree. Compare the trailer's first line, "Miquella the Kind spoke of the beginning," with the lead-in to this final set of scenes:

And so Kindly Miquella would abandon everything. His golden flesh, his blinding strength. Even his fate.

It would seem Miquella learned about his mother's origins, disseminated information on the Land of Shadow, and divested himself of the Golden lineage. Why he's gone to the Land of Shadow is likely the central mystery of Shadow of the Erdtree, but what's known about Miquella makes it unsurprising. Miquella's great work was the Haligtree, a rival to the Erdtree, grown after Miquella came to realize his fundamentalist worship of the Golden Order could not cure Malenia's Scarlet Rot, nor his own eternal youth.

Related Elden Ring Review: Hands Across America Elden Ring is a staggeringly large, nearly perfect culmination of everything FromSoftware has developed since the release of Demon's Souls.

The Haligtree became a haven for those persecuted in the Lands Between, persecuted by Marika's Golden Order. Miquella's disillusionment with the Golden Order (and the downfall of the Haligtree following Mohg's kidnapping of Miquella) could have led him to the Land of Shadow, another realm effectively persecuted by Marika embracing the Greater Will. Perhaps he views the Land of Shadow and its own tree as a new opportunity to defy the Erdtree. The final lines in the Shadow of the Erdtree story trailer hint at the role of the Tarnished:

But we are not deterred. We choose to follow. Will you walk with us?

Miquella is seen emerging from a pillar of golden light and falling through what appears to be a purple-hued liquid – presumably his arrival in the Land of Shadow. Later images show a group of travelers, revealing the narrator to be a devout follower of Miquella; they kneel at a golden rune resembling a crescent moon. With the Land of Shadow purged of Grace, these may be the DLC's substitute for Sites of Grace.

Regardless of their gameplay context, they're implied to be tied to Miquella, guideposts of sorts for those who "choose to follow." It's a direct correlation to Bandai Namco's website, which says, "In these strange new lands, players discover the dark secrets of the world as they meet others who follow in Miquella's footsteps with ulterior motives." Given the Tarnished is apparently among those following in Miquella's footsteps, it would seem these runes are likely to guide the player's journey in Shadow of the Erdtree, much like the Sites of Grace pointed the way in the base game.

With the trailer remaining cryptic, there are still a lot of overarching questions. Is Miquella the Kind looking to bring salvation to the Land of Shadow, and will this put him in opposition to Messmer? Or has Miquella formed an unexpected alliance with Messmer, making both enemies of the Tarnished? If Miquella is indeed hoping the Land of Shadow can rival the Golden Order, will he ascend to godhood and usher in a new age, and will the Elden Ring DLC consequently create a new ending for the game?

Shadow of the Erdtree's story trailer has a lot of pieces now falling into place, but it's still hinting at only the broadest of strokes. Unsurprisingly, aside from Marika, Miquella, and Messmer's involvement, virtually nothing is known about the Land of Shadow; it's FromSoftware's modus operandi. The story trailer does, however, paint a very intriguing picture, suggesting a parallel realm with many similarities to the Lands Between. With little to no doubt that Shadow of the Erdtree will iterate on Elden Ring's gameplay, these promising story hints suggest the DLC will be a compelling addendum to the game's sprawling and fascinating narrative.

Sources: Bandai Namco Europe/YouTube, Bandai Namco Entertainment