Highlights

  • Elden Ring: Shadow of the Erdtree introduces a new map, challenges, and lore for fans to explore.
  • The Scadutree is the inverse shadow of the Erdtree, connected to Miquella's escape to the Shadow Realm and ascension to godhood.
  • Players must examine item descriptions and piece together clues to understand Scadutree's importance in the game's narrative.

Along with introducing a brand-new map and plenty of new challenges to tackle, Elden Ring: Shadow of the Erdtree delivers a whole new subset of lore for Elden Ring fans to dive into. FromSoftware has traditionally utilized less direct methods of storytelling and narrative development, relying more on environmental cues and item descriptions to give away important lore details rather than cutscenes and character exposition. While Shadow of the Erdtree continues this tradition, its main plot is slightly more present and upfront than previous FromSoftware titles, including how the game deals with the mystery of Miquella's escape to the Shadow Realm, his attempted ascension to godhood, and the connection between the Scadutree and the Erdtree.

As it's understood in the Elden Ring lore, the Erdtree is the crucible of all life in The Lands Between and a physical manifestation of the desires of The Greater Will. With the rune of death under Maliketh's safe-keeping and the blessing of immortality granted to all beings in The Lands Between, making a pilgrimage to the Erdtree is a requirement for death, gifting one's soul (and, ultimately, their life force) to The Greater Will in the process. The Scadutree acts as a perverse inversion of the Erdtree, with the lore surrounding its place and importance in the Shadow Realm presenting one of Shadow of the Erdtree's great mysteries.

Elden Ring Scadutree FromSoftware Next Game
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The Etymology of the Name 'Scadutree' Reveals its Connection to the Erdtree

Like all lore in the Elden Ring base game, any information players learn about the Shadow Realm and characters in Shadow of the Erdtree comes from carefully examining item descriptions and piecing them together to produce informed speculation.

Like most things in the Elden Ring universe, the naming of the Scadutree is by no means a coincidence, with its etymology revealing a good bit about its importance to the Shadow Realm and how that world fits within the context of everything known about The Lands Between. The word "scadu" is the Old English spelling of "shadow", making the Scadutree a "Shadow Tree", or the inverse shadow of the Erdtree. Further supporting this argument is the fact that "Erd" in Old English translates to mean "earth" or "life", with the understanding that all life comes from and then returns to the earth, similar to how all beings must return to the Erdtree and relinquish their souls to The Greater Will.

Players are granted even more insight into the Scadutree when they get the chance to travel through the Shadow Keep and make their way to its base, facing the challenging Scadutree Avatar boss fight and earning its Remembrance. According to the item description for the Shadow Sunflower (the Scadutree Avatar's Remembrance), "The Scadutree is the shadow of the Erdtree," an inverse shadow to the crucible of all life in The Lands Between.

How the Scadutree Fits Into Shadow of the Erdtree's Larger Narrative

The following contains spoilers for Elden Ring 's Shadow of the Erdtree DLC.

Operating under the understanding that the Scadutree is the inversion, or shadow, of the Erdtree, it's fitting that the DLC is titled Shadow of the Erdtree. However, that still doesn't answer the question of why Miquella abandoned The Lands Between to head for the Shadow Realm and the importance that the Scadutree holds in his ascension to godhood. For those answers, players will need to closely examine the item description for Miquella's Great Rune , which also happens to drop after defeating the Scadutree Avatar at the base of the Scadutree.

It reads "Miquella set off for the tower enshrouded by shadow, abandoning everything – his golden flesh, his blinding strength, even his fate. All in an effort to bury the original sin. To embrace the whole of it, and be reborn as a new god". Elden Ring's Miquella, to right the wrongs of The Greater Will and ascend to godhood as an Empyrean, must travel to the Shadow Realm and embrace death (embodied by the Scadutree as the inverse of the Erdtree, or the "life" tree) to be reborn.