Elden Ring's DLC Ending Explained - Shadow of the Erdtree Lore

shadow of the earth tree is expansive but it has a seemingly simple ending playing straight through the DLC it is easy to be left confused both by redon's sudden appearance in the final fight and by the abrupt finish which follows we get a short cut scene of a memory of micholas but it doesn't explain much and if you've been lore hunting along the way then you may know that the cut scene gives us almost no new information but despite all this mysterious tness I think there is a lot we can delve into in this ending especially regarding the final Arena's backdrop which we learn is the Divine Gateway from the story trailer so let's get into it the DLC has us the tarnished following in the footfalls of Mika as we Trace his path through the Land of Shadows or Shadow ra we find his crosses highlighting what he left behind at each step along the way to godhood Beyond just being a narrative tool to get us to explore the map these crosses also deliver some important context to the ending first and most obvious is the fissure cross where we read that mola abandoned his love there's also a spirit nearby that questions how Mika can hope to offer salvation to others when he could not save his other self continuing through the fissure we can find this other self at the dungeon's end waiting in a world of purple lies we find St Trina the other part of Mika who constitutes his love and his fate meeting St Trina gives us the chance for a lot of sleepy suicide by eming her nectar after that we can begin to hear her speaking to us within the Slumber of death she says that we must make mola stop and that godhood would be mola's prison she even directly tells us you must kill Mel Grant him forgiveness and these are the final words St Trina imparts to us if we keep drinking she just repeats the same words they give a deep characterization of the now Loveless demigod from these crosses we know that Mika is shedding the corporeal parts and characteristics of himself on his path to becoming a God for whatever reason he couldn't bring St Trina his other self along with him and at least one Spirit finds this to be a fault in mola that he couldn't save or bring her along maybe this is because as she says St Trina sees the godhood as a prison and disagreed with micha's plan to become a God or at least his method of doing so we did see that Amica ended up pretty imprisoned in her godhood so we may have some reason to believe St Trina is right though obviously I'm sure Micha thinks thinks he can avoid the fate of his mother he does try to divest himself of his lineage and Grace and that is obviously an attempt to separate himself from America and her process if we keep following the path of the crosses we can unlock some dialogue that further unveils micha's plan as we find each cross we can go back to sir ansbach and tell him about them telling him about the bellot tower cross prompts him to say the following as suspected kindly Mika has visited the lands which hold the tower and appears intent on wholly dispossessing himself of his flesh he must be seeking entrance to the Tower of Shadow from this we might be able to glean why Mika must remove his flesh this was a question I had while playing that I didn't find much answer to until doing this research we eventually follow mola to the Tower of Shadow but we can't get through it until we burn the ceiling tree but Mika was able to get past the seal without burning the tree he was already there by the time we arrived so maybe this is a slight assumption but I think one of the reasons Micha had to divest his flesh was to access the tower maybe he had to divest his other aspects because they were connected to his lineage and Amica and he's trying to go against that as I said but this at least may be an explanation about his body moving on Sir ansbach has another piece of revelatory dialogue if we tell him about more of the cross's prior to the shadow keep he puts all of his findings together and tells us his conclusion saying I have reasoned through my findings concerning kind micha's intentions why he is here the full picture is yet to coess but we do know that he is Bound for the Tower of Shadow and that is where he intends to rise to true godhood the Tower of Shadow houses a Divine Gateway a well-kept secret it was but the Gateway was once the birthplace of a god a God we know all too well so more clear evidence that Micha seeks godhood and more importantly we learn about the final fight Arena the grace in front of the arena is called the Divine gatefront staircase but ansbach calls the structure the Divine Gateway maybe the gatefront is just the front entrance we walk in and the Gateway is what Micha enters through in the back ansbach confirms that the great structure in the back the two wall mounds of corpses is a Divine Gateway he also tells us its secret a secret that used to be well kept but apparently isn't anymore this was the birthplace of a god a God he and we know all too well and if it's a God we from the lands between know it can only be Queen America we see this birthing of America's godhood in the opening of the story trailer where America steals something or takes something and walks through the same Gateway unfortunately we don't get much concrete information about the other side of this Gateway but it connects to the area that America starts in at the beginning of the cutscene what we do know is that it is where Merica became a God and where Mika enters the boss fight from so we see Micha trying to become a God in the same way as his mother or maybe not the exact same way if he wants to be different and enact a different order but it seems he is forced to use the same structures of the world to attain godhood maybe this is the only true way to become a God in this world if that's the case then what is Ronnie doing in her ending becoming a pseudo God unknown we get further details about this godhood process from Sir ansbach again as I write this script I'm really surprised by how much is coming from this one NPC though I guess this next bit is more of an it than just ansbach but I digress in the store room of the Shadow keep we can find a key item among the many Scrolls one unique parchment called the secret right scroll its description reads a scroll made of white tree bark few can decipher the scroll which describes the secret right of the Divine Gateway said to be found at the tower enshrouded by Shadow and then it seems the actual text of the scroll is a Lord will usher in a God's return and the lord soul will require a vessel if we hand this scroll to ansbach in a lower level of the storehouse he comes to the realization and tells us that Micha used Moog to access the shadowlands and now plans to use his corpse as the vessel for a new king consort we also get to speak to Freya here in the store room and if we give her a letter from ansbach she reveals that Micha plans to revive Ron's Soul if we pair these dialogues with the scroll text we get an explanation for what we see in the final fight Micha uses moog's soulless corpse as a medium through which to revive redon's Soul so that redon will be his King consort we can see evidence of the use of moog's body despite redon's appearance because in the fight redon has at least one blood flame attack that is just like Moes plus there are some Omen horns on redon's arms which is the mo substrate shining through so let's summarize to make use of the Divine Gateway there is a known secret right that involves a lord ushering in the return of a God and the necessity of a vessel for the Lord's Soul this sounds like a very specific set of circumstances that oddly fits micha's situation but it could be that he just knew he had to orchestrate this specific scenario to ascend to godhood in the Gateway so he went through with that maybe he knew how the right worked before coming to these lands and prepared for it ansbach did say it only used to be a well kept secret implying that now it is not so much so maybe Micha learned about what godhood required and prepared for it and even if he wants to make something different from her he did have a mother in The God Who last used the Gateway after all using the scroll now we can fully map on what happens in the final fight if Ron is to be Lord and King consort then his soul required a vessel which turned out to be moog's soulless body in the fight we open on a youngl looking Ron with Mika saying that the former soul will now return Ron's Soul must enter or have entered the Moog Ron body and he is standing at guard at the Gateway interestingly in the same pose he took against Melania in the cinematic trailer so we fight and then in the transition to phase 2 the beaten back Ron begins to glow red possibly with fire a comment I read either on Discord or Reddit but I can't find anymore reminded me that red 's great Rune is described as burning to keep away the Scarlet rot the burning we see here might symbolize Ron's Soul actually returning to this body maybe we were fighting somewhat of a Husk in Phase One and this idea might be supported by the rest of the cutscenes dialogue the fire turns golden as the Divine Gateway seems to activate Mika walks through saying Lord Brother at long last you are returned this reads to me like Don's soul is returned in that moment perhaps the Soul's return allows mola to finally enter from the Gateway just like how the scroll says a Lord will usher in a God's return the change from red fire to gold May mean that Micha is enchanting redon taking him to his side or it could simply be since redon is Mika's vowed consort and they are joining together to fight and mikla being a God is golden and holy damage and all that a semi- ethereal forearmed Micha adorns redon's neck and tells us tarnished an aspiring lord of the old order to yield the future to him and his promised consort Ron with this new look Micha is a bit evocative of Ronnie and this got further emphasized by 1,00% when you hear his grab dialogue in the fight radon will occasionally grab the player and allow Micha to whisper into their ear to charm them if they do this twice the player's heart is stolen and we lose the fight during the grab michola says I promise you a Thousand-Year Voyage Guided by compassion lord of the old order let us go together in case anyone forgot in Ronnie The Witch's age of stars ending she says a Thousand-Year Voyage under the wisdom of the Moon these are obviously closely linked even if we don't get a DLC specific ending and I normally don't super go into cut content in my lur videos because there are other channels which highlight the cut stuff better like Zuli secur doie and others and in general I like trying to piece together the lore with what's left in game for Better or For Worse however I have to mention one thing here in addition to this small bit of similar dialogue there is an entire cut ending speech from mola that starts with this Voyage bit and goes on to mirror Ronnie's ending dialogue but with micha's compassion themes replacing the star and moon ones I won't share the whole thing in this video but I'll drop the text in the description for anyone curious so there was the potential for a mlin ending but we don't get it with the DLC now that would have been Prime for lore discussion and breakdown but since we don't actually get it I'll stick to what we do get in game we still have micha's Proclamation that he wants to usher in a Thousand-Year Voyage Guided by compassion which is his ostensible character Motif trying to be compassionate and inclusive and taking in those downtrodden or curse he claims that he would become a God to deliver an age which unlike the current one is compassionate and full of love now this obviously sounds like an improvement to all the genociding and counter genociding the current age allows or even extols but Micha definitely remains suspicious even in this he has manipulated others and abandoned his own love to get here ansbach told us how terrifying Mika was with his bewitching powers it's hard for me to trust that micha's age would transparently be exactly as he is saying it would but in any case we the tarnished are goated and we prevent the possibility of this age at the least because Micha chose Ron as his consort and not us so we fight him and beat him it seems that the tarnished putting a stop to Mika is also in a way forgiving him when St Trina told us to kill Micha she also said to Grant him forgiveness I don't know what his particular sin is here if one is being specifically referred to by St Trina it could be the inherited sin or corrupted lineage from America it could be the sins he has committed on his path to become a God or it could be some mix of those and more perhaps killing him here grants him a peace in death free from his curse and the pain of his lineage he no longer has to Bear the weight of the sin he saw committed by his people and by himself in the same way Micha shove the hearts of others maybe here we stand in the role of granting him confession and a Final Absolution in death a reversal of what he had in mind so we defeat the duo and they just die I guess they leave behind a gesture a remembrance and a memory the memory is of a younger Mika near what may be his lotted throne in front of the earth tree he says Lord brother I'm going to be a God if we honor our part of The Vow promise me you'll be my consort I'll make the world a gentler place and then it's over after the cut scene we receive the circlet of Light which reads the circlet of Light which adorned micha's head as he returned in Divine aspect it has begun to fade into nothingness this circle was to be the very Foundation upon which micha's age of compassion would be built should it have ever come to pass so we learn that Mika was in fact Divine when he came back through the Gateway he seems to have succeeded in achieving godhood and he wanted to usher in an age of compassion which follows the naming schema for the other endings in the game so we are definitely missing out on the proper age of compassion ending maybe that ending would have had us go into or otherwise interact with the Divine Gateway but as it stands all we can do is walk up to and look at it from the end of the Arena we can't even get that close to touch it whatever Mika experienced in there whether it be similar or vastly different to what we saw with America in the story trailer we don't get any insight into and it pains me to have to turn away from one of the most pivotal and enigmatic structures in the whole game World probably one of the most powerful too but since we don't have any more direct information about it we must turn to something we do get more info about The Vow with IO much less interesting than the god Gateway in the memory Micha tells Ron that if we honor our part of The Vow promise me you'll be my consort the Wii here is likely mola and his sister melenia but it's hard to tell exactly what the vow is in the boss armor for young redon that is purchasable from enia after the fight we get a bit of exposition that could help us the armor gives description to the scene we saw in the first Elden ring cinematic trailer it reads when melenia blade Micha let the rot flower blossom in aonia Bradon heard a murmur in his ear Micha awaits the O promised consort we can see melenia speak to radon in this scene and now we know what she says she tells Ron that mikola is waiting for him and reminds him of his role relative to The Vow there is a lot of speculation that can be had here about the specifics of this vow so much so that it could be the subject subject of its own video I'll suffice it for now to bring up a choice piece of dialogue from Ron's red M Knight Freya back in the store room when Freya reveals that Micha intends to bring back Ron's Soul she says that she is fine with the plan I know it would pain old jiren but War has always suited General Redan best and certainly far more than any honorable death endless war to invigorate the soul as befits general redon the great lion to me this indicates that upon his Revival Ron will get some form of endless or Eternal War we could read The Vow as redon agreen to be micha's consort in return for the promise of endless battle we know Ron loved fighting and battle that's why jiren orchestrates the Festival of Ron to send him off plus Freya approves of the plan as one of Ron's most distinguished Knights who may have had some inside knowledge of him though it could be true that lingering enchantment by Micha clouds this judgment by Freya into a more favorable light for mola but if this was the vow redon and the twin struck then it would be hard to figure how endless war would fit into micha's plan of an age of compassion now there are a lot of alternatives to this conception of The Vow but in what I've considered heard and read so far I haven't found any to be stronger in basis of evidence not to say this one is particularly stronger than any of the rest the one I presented here but most ideas are currently largely dressed in speculation this one is short on details but I think it accounts for the facts as we know them I don't know how to reconcile an age of compassion with an endless war unless maybe the war is external such as against the outer Gods maybe this is plausible as Micha has been shown to hate and fight against the forces of the outer Gods but I don't think we've ever seen a clear way to battle them so I don't know how actionpack redon's endless war would be in the age of compassion any endless war against something other than the other gods would likely make micha's age pretty hypocritical or insincere it would look too much like his mother's age of Plenty founded on conquest and subjugation if Ron is going around Waring every outside people group again I think there's something with Freya saying that Ron would get an endless war that would give reason to believe Ron willingly entered into the vow as opposed to agreeing to it if Millenia could beat him in battle but it still could have been something completely different it's not a fully fleshed idea so if you've come across any better ideas that explain all of it feel free to mention them in the comments I don't think we get any more strongly thematic conclusion here beyond what we have seen unlike Dark Souls 3's DLC endings there isn't a kind of somber resolution and looking towards the future we essentially only get the Folly of mola and then are left to Simply return to the base game choose an ending and restart the journey once more one of the main themes of the DLC and possibly this ending could be found in the character of Micha and his faults of nav never finishing his projects like how he tried the H tree he tried to revive Godwin and just moved on from that and how he is okay with using basically evil means to achieve what he thinks is a Justified end I mean he definitely screwed over Mo now that all would be too much for this ending video but maybe it is only through a dedicated exploration of Mika that we might find some more of a conclusion in this ending cuz right now it seems pretty abrupt or Bleak and there is plenty more to learn and see along the way of the DLC but in terms of the expansion's actual ending I think we have to leave it here in the same abruptness as it delivered with its tur and kind of a let down memory if you want to learn more about the varied lore and stories of the Land of Shadows feel free to subscribe since I I plan to cover all of it thanks to my patrons for supporting the channel and thanks to you for watching peace

Channel: MadLuigi

Views: 78,462

Keywords: elden, ring, elden ring, elden beast, lore, elden ring lore, elden beast lore, final boss, greater will, outer god, lore explained, explained, elden ring explained, elden beast explained, ending, ending explained, marika, melina, radagon, fallingstar, naturalborn, naturalborn of the void, astel lore, nox, cemetery shade

Id: t7ftGct-gA8

Length: 22min 7sec (1327 seconds)

Published: Fri Jun 28 2024