Elden Ring: Shadow Of The Erdtree Item Reveals More Lore On Powerful Beings

Summary The Shadow of the Erdtree DLC expands Elden Ring lore, satisfying player curiosity about the game's history and cosmology.

The DLC may have revealed the fallen giants' true name to be the Old Gods, hinting at their ancient origins and demise, and potentially linking them to Metyr and the Elden Beast.

While the DLC gives a name to the Old Gods, mysteries surrounding their origins, deaths, and connection to Elden Ring's story remain unanswered.

Elden Ring: Shadow of the Erdtree secretly answers one of the base game's most mysterious lingering questions. As a DLC, Shadow of the Erdtree's purpose isn't just to throw some tough bosses in front of the player, stick them in a new map, and call it a day. It takes things a step further by satisfying player curiosity about much of the lore. Many of Elden Ring's DLC reveals focus on Marika, Messmer , and Miquella, but even minor characters are mentioned and recontextualized in Shadow of the Erdtree.

But sometimes, Shadow of the Erdtree's lore drops aren't about particular characters at all. Sometimes, they fill in gaps in the player's knowledge of Elden Ring's history and cosmology. One such reveal, hidden in an obscure bit of item flavor text that many players will never even come across, seems to approach an answer about one of the base game's greatest mysteries - but still leaves many stones unturned.

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Shadow Of The Erdtree May Have Named Elden Ring's Fallen Giants

What Elden Ring's DLC Reveals About The Giants

As addressed in a Reddit comment by SundownKid, Shadow of the Erdtree may have finally given a name to Elden Ring's mysterious dead giants: the Old Gods. This is based on the commenter's interpretation of the Ancient Meteoric Ore Greatsword's flavor text, which describes the item as having been "fashioned from an excavated shard of an arrowhead that once was a part of the old gods' arsenal."

The Reddit comment focuses on the fact that the Ancient Meteoric Ore Greatsword , an enormous, two-handed weapon in its own right, is described as a mere shard of a much larger instrument. That alone implies a much larger being, probably akin to the living giants players face throughout Elden Ring. However, the Greatsword is specifically described as a piece of an arrowhead, which means the actual projectile it came from was probably large enough to dwarf even those behemoths.

The Ancient Meteoric Ore Greatsword is found at the altar of the Ruined Forge Starfall Past in Elden Ring's DLC.

The only creature, living or dead, large enough to fire a bow capable of nocking this arrow would be one of the now-dead "super-giants" that dot Elden Ring's map. That means these previously unnamed creatures must be the Old Gods mentioned in the Ancient Meteoric Ore Greatsword's flavor text.

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What Actually Happened To Elden Ring's Giants?

Theories About The Old Gods' Fate

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Even though they have a name in the DLC, there's really very little evidence to suggest what actually happened to Elden Ring's dead giants. Conventional wisdom in the base game suggests they were killed by Godfrey's 's army, perhaps with the help of Thorn Sorcerers, in the last mission Marika gave them before revoking their gift of Grace and sending them into exile. But could Godfrey really hold his own against beings of such size? With the new information revealed in Shadow of the Erdtree, some players have come to conclusions of their own.

In another comment, SundownKid goes on to speculate that these giants are much larger than their living companions because they were born when the Crucible was at its strongest. At that time, they ruled the Ruined Forges, the Mountaintops, Rauh, and many of the other oldest structures in The Lands Between and Land of Shadow.

This does align with their apparently ancient origins, as the Crucible's power is known to have diminished with time. As it did, giants were born smaller and smaller, perhaps even becoming human-sized by the time of the Shattering. They also suggest, however, that the Old Gods' undoing wasn't a war with Godfrey, but the arrival of Metyr, Mother of Fingers (or maybe the Elden Beast ) in the Lands Between.

Metyr and the Elden Beast have a lot in common. Both are ancient beings who wield great power in the Lands Between, and both are at least somewhat credited with predetermination of everything that happens there. Both are worshiped as deities. But most importantly, both are also giant creatures from outer space.

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When they landed, they must have made a large impact, both physically and metaphorically speaking. SundownKid speculates that this is the reason why the Old Gods are buried under a layer of rock: they were killed by that crash landing, then blanketed with ash. Over time, their bones were petrified, and they grew into the earth.

But while the Old Gods-giants connection seems pretty sound, the rest is just speculation. No one really knows for certain where they came from, how they died, or much of anything else about them. Shadow of the Erdtree may finally give them a name, but the truth behind Elden Ring's Old Gods will likely remain a mystery for a long time to come.

Sources: SundownKid/Reddit (1, 2)