Main Characters (The Tarnished | Marika) | Roundtable Hold | Secondary Characters (Renowned Ashes) | Outer Gods | Demigods (Godfrey | Morgott | Mohg | Radahn | Rykard | Ranni the Witch | Malenia) | Enemies and Bosses (Dragons | Liurnia of the Lakes | Recurring Enemies and Bosses | Tarnished Invaders and Targets)
This page details the dragons that are encountered throughout the game as well as enemies related to them. Dragon bosses are considered "Great Enemies" and "Legends" and are thus Bolded. Warning: Unmarked spoilers ahead.
Dragons are an ancient and powerful race that once warred against the Golden Order. While defeated, the survivors were spared and integrated into the Order after the Demigod Godwyn the Golden pleaded for their safety to Queen Marika. The dragons in the Lands Between are distinguished between two different types which will be detailed below in their respective folders. There are also beings linked to dragons in some shape or form, with those wishing to become one turning into Magma Wyrms and artificially created beasts known as Dragonkin Soldiers dwelling in the depths of Nokron.
open/close all folders
General
- Battle Theme Music: Lesser Dragons and Dragonkin Soldiers when they appear as boss battles are usually accompanied by this track
to emphasize their terrifying and awe-inspiring presence, their archaic background, and the grueling and stressful battles they can present to the Tarnished. - Bizarre Alien Biology: Adula and Theodorix's drops include 3 dragon hearts, making it seem like they have three hearts. This is unique to these two; all other dragons drop one heart.
- Breath Weapon: As one would expect, all the dragons have this. Though it's not always fire they're spewing; Smarag and Adula breathe blue glintstone flames, Ekzykes breathes out massive plumes of scarlet rot, and Borealis spews their namesake freezing fog.
- Contrasting Sequel Antagonist: While dragons are present both in the Dark Souls franchise and Elden Ring and warred against the gods that would eventually assert dominance in the world, the similarities between the two groups quickly taper off after this point. Souls dragons famously and consistently shared a vulnerability to lightning, while Elden Ring dragons don't just wield lightning sorceries but in many cases pioneered the craft. Souls dragons have also been on a steep decline to the point that by the start of the original Dark Souls, the amount of confirmed dragons left alive in the world can be counted on one hand, which doesn't hold true for the Elden Ring dragons, as detailed below. Another point of contrast is whereas the Dragons and the Gods are Arch-Enemies in the Dark Souls universe, in "Elden Ring", the dragons are shown to be aligned with the gods, having been integrated into Marika's empire as a result of Godwyn's intervention.
- Defeat Equals Friendship:
- Adula has a case of Defeat Equals Employment. Adula, once a rampant sorcerer-eater like Smarag, fell in combat against Ranni and then swore fealty to her as her loyal knight.
- During the War of the Ancient Dragons, Fortissax was eventually brought to his knees by Godwyn the Golden. Instead of finishing him off, however, Godwyn instead made friends with Fortissax, an act which lead to the ancient dragons becoming accepted as fellow citizens of Marika's Empire.
- Dying Race: Averted for once in a Fromsoft game. Dragons have several breeding grounds that have respawning dragons; with Dragonbarrow especially being one massive den home to many whelps and even the Glintstone breed has a roost upon the Moonlight Altar, so it seems they are in no danger of dying out.
- Dynamic Entry: Some dragons have a habit of showing up either in spectacular, or unexpected fashion from the skies to surprise players before being fought. Agheel and Lansseax especially come to mind, with the former plundering a settlement before the Tarnished could confront them and the latter doing this twice in her two battles. Adula also does this in her second fight by suddenly materializing right in front of the Tarnished as soon as they approach the Cathedral of Manus Celes.
- Gameplay and Story Segregation: The dragon species was apparently very advanced back in their heyday. They had their own society ruled over by a formal "Elden Lord", a somewhat organized army that they used to attack Leyndell, they possibly had technology of their own design if Gransax's spear was a physical weapon and not just solidified magic. They could also speak and negotiate with the demigods as evidenced with the truce reached by Fortissax and Godwyn the Golden. But in gameplay they all behave as normal fantasy dragons; screeching and attacking with brute force, not really showing off the high level of intelligence they're supposed to have.
- Our Dragons Are Different:
- Lesser dragons have two legs and wings with feathers and have a high-pitched raspy roar, but are still powerful and fiendishly intelligent beings. They come in many flavors, ranging from Flying Dragon Agheel, who spews fire and uses a lake as a hunting ground, to Borealis the Freezing Fog, who haunts the far north and uses cold wind as his Breath Weapon. These dragons lack stone scales, having cast them off long ago and split from their ancient counterparts. They are also not immortal and considered "lesser" beings; only containing "traces" of their ancestral power.
- Ancient dragons, in comparison to their smaller lesser kind, bear more resemblance to traditional dragons; developed forearms, hindlegs, and two pairs of wings. They also possess stony white skin with a golden underside and emit deep, guttural roars and growls. Befitting their primordial nature, they are immortal and can shapeshift into human guises, although this is never shown in-game and is only described in lore exposition. Ancient dragons have their breath weapon usually limited to just fire but have far more powerful and destructive elemental affinities to highlight their awesome might, usually in the form of red lightning.
- Recurring Element: Once again there is an extreme distinction between ancient, "true" dragons and their degenerated, weaker descendants commonly found in several Souls-likes made by FromSoftware.
Lesser Dragons
Flying Dragon Agheel
These dragons have strongly deviated from their older contemporaries and have assumed an appearance similar to those of wyverns. Considered as lesser beings in comparison to their ancient cousins, these dragons are weaker and lack immortality, but are still incredibly powerful and intelligent beasts who wander the Lands Between patrolling a personal territory where the Tarnished can stumble upon to confront these dragons in combat.There are seven named dragons dwelling in the Lands Between: Flying Dragons Agheel and Greyll in Limgrave and Dragonbarrow respectively, Glintstone Dragons Smarag and Adula in Liurnia, Decaying Ekzykes and Elder Dragon Greyoll in Caelid, and Borealis the Freezing Fog in the Mountaintops of the Giants.
- Advertised Extra: Agheel was featured rather heavily in the marketing of the trailers and early gameplay. Agheel is also the first dragon that can be felled and is statted such that a level 20 or so character with very mild weapon upgrades can defeat them.
- All Your Base Are Belong to Us: Agheel in particular claimed the ruins they destroyed as their own.
- Apocalypse Cult: Agheel has one made up of Wandering Nobles who want Agheel to end their curse of immortality.
- An Ice Person: Fittingly for the kind of environment that they dwell in, Borealis has the ability to breathe out clouds of freezing fog from their mouth. One of Borealis's scales was used to make the Icerind Hatchet, which causes Frostbite buildup with both its strikes and weapon skill.
- BFS: During their rematch with the Tarnished at the very end of Ranni's questline, Adula can conjure an absolutely tremendous greatsword of ice-cold moonlight, which they hold between their jaws before using it to sweep the ground in a massive 180° frontal arc. This attack is notable for being the very strongest in Adula's repertoire and can be a guaranteed One-Hit Kill if the Tarnished takes a clean hit.
- Cannibalism Superpower: Smarag and Adula gained the ability to spew out glintstone breath due to having feasted upon countless sorcerers.
- Cowardly Boss: Upon first fighting Adula in the Three Sisters, they will flee once they reach half health. It's not until much, much later in the game that they reappear — and this time, it's a fight to the death.
- Degraded Boss:
- Dozens of younger, smaller dragons can be found roaming Greyoll's Dragonbarrow in Caelid. Despite their inability to breathe fire, they can still put up a tough fight.
- Three Glintstone Dragons, similar to Smarag and Adula, can be found West of the Moonlight Altar. They're stronger than Smarag but don't get the usual boss health bar.
- Dracolich: Decaying Ekzykes, who's found in Caelid. While not dead, not even dragons are immune to the Scarlet Rot, with Ekzykes resembling a living dragon corpse.
- Kaiju: Greyoll is a gigantic dragon, with her head alone being as big as a standard lesser dragon and she's several meters larger than FromSoft's other two kaiju-sized dragons, namely the Dragon God and the Divine Dragon.
- Monster Knight: Adula is actually a knight in service to Ranni, and it is for this reason that they zealously defend her whereabouts from any and all intruders... even if said "intruder" is the Tarnished, who's either on good terms with Ranni or has become Adula's coworker by the time they encounter Adula.
- Our Wyverns Are Different: Lesser dragons bear resemblances to wyverns, mainly with their body structure being composed of legs and winged forearms. Their main distinguishing point from one another comes from what kind of Breath Weapon they possess.
- Poisonous Person: Like pretty much everything else in Caelid, Ekzykes is infected with scarlet rot, breathing out clouds of it instead of fire and even bearing the epithet "Decaying".
- The Power of Hate: As the description for Ekzykes's Decay notes, even after his mind was consumed by Scarlet Rot, Ekzykes never forgot the hatred that drove him as the Dragon Communion Revenger.
- Recurring Boss: The various Underground Monkey variations of the "wyvern-type" dragons constitute one of the most common boss types in the game, with ten fights (there are nine dragons - the six named ones plus the three unnamed Glintstone Dragons - and Adula is fought twice).
- Revenge: Ekzykes is called the "Dragon Communion Revenger" in the description for Ekzykes's Decay, implying that he made it his life's goal to hunt down and kill those who would slay dragons for their hearts in order to partake in Dragon Communion. He is found blocking the path leading up from Caelid's main road to the Cathedral of Dragon Communion, presumably camping the place in order to kill anybody who comes by with a fresh batch of Dragon Hearts to snack on.
- Smoke Out: Borealis has the ability to cover the entire arena that they are fought in with thick fog, obscuring them from sight.
- Spanner in the Works: Smarag's sorcerer-hunting is the reason you're able to get into Raya Lucaria Academy, as you get the Glintstone Key from a corpse near him- presumably a scholar who left the academy and who Smarag subsequently killed.
- That's No Moon: Sleeping dragons look quite similar to the large rocky crags that crop up across much of the Lands Between, and often sleep near such formations, creating an alarming surprise for unobservant players when they wake up.
- Underground Monkey: As they share their basic movements and attack patterns, the six dragons are essentially Palette Swaps of one another. The differences are mostly found in the type of Breath Weapon they possess and minute changes in their movesets. For this reason, the basic dragon-fighting tactics the player would likely have learned when fighting Agheel can be applicable for every single one of them. The only outlier is Elder Dragon Greyoll, a Puzzle Boss whose only move on her own is Greyoll's Roar.
- Worf Had the Flu: Greyoll is dying of the Scarlet Rot and immobile when you fight her... which is a good thing, because trying to make her actually attack tends to crash the game, and as this video shows, a Greyoll modded to have the standard dragon moveset is an absolute terror capable of defeating even Malenia and Maliketh.
- Zero-Effort Boss: Greyoll is completely incapable of fighting back and simply dies automatically when you kill her nearby minions.
Farum Azula Dragons
- Color Motifs: The Ancient Dragons all have golden flesh under their scales (most easily visible on their wings), perhaps to emphasize their ties to the Greater Will. Placidusax, uniquely, also mixes this with golden flames.
- Degraded Boss: There are five other Ancient Dragons like Lansseax who are encountered in Crumbling Farum Azula, and no, they aren't any easier.
- Family Theme Naming:
- All the Ancient Dragons have their names end in either the '-sax' or '-seax' suffix, which are each alternate spellings of the Old English word for "knife", which could also refer to a type of sword. Whether this is based on bloodline (inherited from a royal family) or meritocracy (simply being stronger than normal dragons) is unknown; ditto the speculative masculine/feminine forms between '-sax' and '-seax', respectively, because only four are named: Lansseax is confirmed female, while Placidusax, Fortissax, and Gransax are confirmed male.
- The Ancient Dragons' names are all Latin words (albeit sometimes spelled differently) with "-sax" at the end. Placidus means calm/peaceful, Lancea means lance, Gran(dis) means big, and Fortis means strong. So their names would basically be "Calm Knife", "Lance Knife", "Big Knife", and "Strong Knife."
- Gold and White Are Divine: Ancient dragons usually have a white outer skin that gives them a granite-esque appearance with their inner skin being gold to highlight their nature as, well, ancient beings with incredible power and presence.
- Roar Before Beating: Ancient Dragons summon red lighting into the surface by unleashing a skyward guttural roar.
- Shock and Awe: Ancient dragons possess the ability to call upon red lightning to smite their enemies. They can also fashion this lightning into a gigantic sword for massive offensive potential and great attacking range.
- Tragic Monster: The named Ancient Dragons that are encountered have tragic moments and circumstances behind their past stories, furthering the general species' nature as one of many who were persecuted by Marika's Golden Order. Namely, Lansseax's romantic fling with Vyke is doomed due to the latter succumbing to the Frenzied Flame, Fortissax has been twisted by Death in a valiant, yet futile attempt to defend Godwyn's corpse, and Placidusax has remained in stasis, awaiting the return of his master for thousands of years, in addition to never recovering the wounds he's sustained from his battle against Marika and Godfrey.
- White and Red and Eerie All Over: Downplayed as the dragons of Farum Azula aren't evil and many of them are very much leaning on being tragic figures. That said, with their ashen-white skin and the ability to conjure red lightning, they inspire a terrifying presence and are more than capable of giving the Tarnished a fight for their life.
- Worf Had the Flu: A heavily injured Farum Azula Dragon can be encountered near the Dragon Temple Roof, where it calls down red lightning on the Tarnished.
Specific Dragons
Lichdragon Fortissax
Lichdragon Fortissax
Given the character's role in the game's lore and story-related quests, Fortissax is a Walking Spoiler, so all spoilers are unmarked.
- Alas, Poor Villain: He's not really a villain, just the last obstacle between you and fulfilling Fia's request to grant death in the Lands Between. Fortissax is only really fighting you to defend Godwyn's soul and essence despite being twisted and corrupted by the influence of death, after which he's practically a mentally tortured being carrying out a noble, yet vain attempt to save his dear friend. In a lore perspectice, killing Fortissax seems less like a moment of triumph and more like the Tarnished having to Mercy Kill the dragon to put him out of his misery.
- All There in the Manual: Fortissax's identity, history, relation with Lansseax and entire reason for being fought in the Deeproot Dream is only explained in item descriptions. To elaborate, when the cursemark of Death was engraved upon Godwyn's soul and he became the Prince of Death, Fortissax selflessly ventured into his friend's dream in order to fight off the cursemark's influence.
- Battle Theme Music: Like his sister, Fortissax has his own battle track. His track features more bombastic vocals and is accompanied by an Ominous Pipe Organ and foreboding violin strings to paint Fortissax as a mighty, yet twisted and disturbing foe, even if he's not evil. The second part of the track gives way to more bombastic instrumentals that would suit someone fighting a challenging opponent. Overall, the track feels like a dirge; a lamentation of how Fortissax was once a proud and honorable dragon who was a victim of tragic and horrifying circumstances, yet would go out proving his loyalty.
- Bizarro Elements: Fortissax is capable of calling down what is named death lightning — what was once Godwyn's very own golden lightning, imbued with the power of Death due to the Cursemark's influence on his body. Unlike normal lightning, death lightning is made of a sickly, yellow and black miasma, and creates clouds that build up the Deathblight status upon striking the ground. The Tarnished is capable of obtaining this as an incantation by trading Fortissax's Remembrance.
- BFS: Is able to create a massive curved greatsword made of red lightning, much like his sister. However, instead of simply sweeping the area before him like Lansseax does, Fortissax will first fly high into the sky before swooping down and swinging his blade as he lands, using the momentum of his dive to perform a deadly Spin Attack. And naturally, much like Lansseax, this move will either be a One-Hit Kill or leave the Tarnished at critically low health if it hits.
- Breath Weapon: As if his two types of lightning weren't enough, Fortissax can also spew out massive gouts of flame.
- Climax Boss: Fortissax is the last unique enemy fought in Fia's questline and fittingly, he provides a very tense and climactic battle. After defeating the death-corrupted dragon, Fia dies giving birth to the Mending Rune of the Death-Prince, which can be claimed by the Tarnished to be used to usher the Age of Duskborn after they defeat the Elden Beast.
- Dark Is Not Evil: Having a jet-black skin tone in contrast to all the others of his kind, Fortissax seems to be the most horrifying-looking dragon in the game after Ekzykes. However, his current appearance stems from his body and mind being tainted by death, putting him in an agonized state of fruitlessly defending Godwyn's corpse despite being corrupted by it. It's also noted that Fortissax was once a noble being who valued friendship and loyalty and even accepting of a peaceful coexistence between dragons and Marika's empire.
- Dracolich: Technically speaking, he's not actually dead. However, since he's sullied by the power of Death by the time the Tarnished gets to him, he might as well be.
- Expy: To Darkeater Midir from Dark Souls III's DLC, due to both of them being giant, fire-breathing black dragons who fought tirelessly against a dark force only to slowly become consumed by its influence.
- Giant Space Flea from Nowhere: Suddenly appears with no buildup whatsoever upon traversing into the Deeproot Dream at the end of Fia's quest. What makes this especially unexpected is that there is no indication whatsoever that the Tarnished will be facing Fortissax in the quest dialogue, and no information prior to him even alludes of his existence. Downplayed in that, in the usual Souls fashion, his role and reason for being there is explained in item descriptions.
- Loyal Animal Companion: Downplayed in that he and all other ancient dragons are not 'animals', but rather, sentient beings capable of thinking. He does fit all the marks when considering his friendship with Godwyn.
- Meaningful Name: "Fortissax" is a conjoining of the Latin words for "strong" and "stone".
- Names to Run Away from Really Fast: Lichdragon. Fortissax. A strong contender for one of the most menacing-sounding boss names in the franchise.
- Old Soldier: Fortissax fought in the War of the Ancient Dragons and was renowned as the "mightiest boulderstone."
- Route Boss: Despite being an achievement boss, Fortissax is hidden away at the end of Fia's quest, which in and of itself is tied to another hidden quest. If the Tarnished did not follow Fia's questline to the very end, they will have no way of challenging him.
- Shock and Awe: Even more so than his sister, due to being able to not only manipulate red-hued draconic lightning but also Godwyn's death lightning as well.
- Spell Blade: Like Lansseax before him and Placidusax after him, he can augment his talons with three tremendous claws of red lightning to swipe at the Tarnished if they're too close.
- Spin Attack: His deadliest attack involves one of these. Exaggerated due to him being a giant dragon, his sword being even larger and performing three full rotations with his blade.
- Stealth Pun: Fortissax's Lightning Spear has a Faith requirement of Forty-six.
- Undying Loyalty: To Godwyn the Golden. His loyalty is so great that he selflessly went into Godwyn's dream in order to stave off the influence of the cursemark, and is still stalwartly fighting on even after he himself started becoming consumed by Death.
- Walking Spoiler: Well, flying spoiler, in this case. Fortissax can only be encountered at the end of Fia's quest line, one of the quests which unlocks an alternate ending for the game, and simply understanding the circumstances of his boss fight gives away some of the most shocking revelations involving Those Who Live in Death, Godwyn, and the Rune of Death.
- Yellow Lightning, Blue Lightning: Fortissax can call down a veritable light show of Shock and Awe between his arsenal of red lightning weaponry and his black and yellow bolts of death lightning. It makes for an incredible visual spectacle during his clash with the Tarnished.
Ancient Dragon Lansseax
- All Amazons Want Hercules: As an Ancient Dragon, she's among the most powerful beings in the Lands Between and can give the Tarnished one hell of a fight. She's also mentioned to have fallen incredibly hard for Vyke, who is mentioned as having been the closest out of all the Tarnished until the Player Character's arrival in the lands Between to become Elden Lord.
- Battle Theme Music: Lansseax has her own boss track when she's fought. In contrast to the dragon theme, hers has a more aggressive orchestral track and is more fast-paced to showcase how different it is to fight an Ancient Dragon.
- Collateral Damage: Lansseax is more than happy to level the Leyndell forest to defeat the player. Her body can topple trees by the dozen upon contact, and she can make entire clearings when she swings her lightning bolt in the middle of a dense forest.
- Human Disguise: It's not displayed in-game, the description of the Lansseax's Glaive incantation states that she used to take the form of a human priestess of the dragon cult to commune with the knights of Leyndell.
- Lost in Translation: The word used in the Japanese script specifies that she's Fortissax's older sister. Her "communing" with the Dragon Cult knights (mentioned in the description of her glaive) is also more clearly innuendo.
- Meaningful Name: In keeping with her the others Ancient Dragons' Latin theme, Lansseax's name is probably derived from the Latin word Lancea, which means lance (and which, more narrowly, refers to a specific type of light spear). Sax means rock or stone, so she's "Lance Stone."
- Recurring Boss: Lansseax herself is fought twice: she flees partway into the fight at the Abandoned Coffin and fights to the end if battled again at the Rampartside Path. There are four Farum Azula Dragons that also share her model and most of her move set, while being stronger. For that matter, Lansseax herself uses a truncated version of Fortissax's move set, just with the addition of Lansseax's Glaive.
- Samus Is a Girl: It's easy to assume Lansseax is male like how every other dragon in the Lands Between is described, only the descriptions of the Lansseax's Glave or Vyke's Dragonbolt Incantations reveal her gender.
- Screen Shake: Every step she takes.
- Shared Family Quirks: Both she and her brother grew close with a noble human hero, Fortissax developed Undying Loyalty to Godwyn out of gratitude for sparing him while Lansseax fell in love with Vyke for his ambition to save the Lands Between by becoming Elden Lord.
- Shock and Awe: Lansseax wields the red lightning synonymous with her kind in addition to breathing fire, sometimes conjuring a red lightning glaive in her claw to strike the Tarnished with.
Dragonlord Placidusax
Dragonlord Placidusax
- Ambiguously Related: Placidusax noticeably bends his necks around each other pointing skyward in a gesture that bears considerable resemblance to the Two Fingers' way of communing with the Greater Will, possibly implying the dragon is still trying to make contact with its god in a valiant, but futile gesture of loyalty.
- Battle in the Rain: The second phase of Placidusax's battle is indicated by the change of the weather, which shifts from dark-greyish skies with crackling thunders to light-greyish stratus clouds with light drizzle.
- Battle Theme Music: Per tradition with the other named Ancient Dragons. Placidusax's battle track has an air of regality and authority to emphasize that this dragon is like no other. Even in the second segment where the track becomes louder and more frantic, the regality remains consistent, and the vocal choruses play a role in emphasizing Placidusax as a grand force of nature just as much as it is a ruler of dragons.
- Blow You Away: In addition to his mastery of lightning, Placidusax displays a unique ability to manipulate wind and clouds displayed by none of the other Ancient Dragons in the game. His temple is located within the heart of a giant tornado, his teleportation ability makes it look like he fades into a stormcloud, and he seems to generate currents under his two remaining wings to help him fly.
- Body Horror: His body is ravaged with multiple scars and injuries including ripped skin, broken scales, a severed wing, and stumps that indicate that Placidusax has five heads and that three out of five of them are decapitated. The injuries and scars themselves do have some degree of recovery, but the fact that a good deal of it is left unhealed tells that they those wounds might be permanent, rendering Placidusax with a weathered, dilapidated look.
- Bolt of Divine Retribution: While Ancient Dragons have the ability to call forth lightning with their skyward roars, Placidusax summons them with much greater frequency and power and this is among the first attacks he unleashes towards the Tarnished, likely as a response to them interrupting with his meditation. It gives off the impression of an intruder disturbing a deity's recovery and privacy in an effort to slay them and said deity responding in kind.
- Breath Weapon: Like most dragons, his two heads can breathe out fire; his two heads ensure he can torch his immediate vicinity without much room for the player to close in when he is doing the attack. Unlike his fellow dragons however, his fire breath is noticeably tinted gold, which might be because of his connection to the Elden Ring and Greater Will, whose influence is synonymous with that color in the present.
- Damage-Sponge Boss: His whopping 26,650 health puts him behind only Malenia, the Fire Giant, and Rykard for total health, and unlike them, he has damage resistances to match, no self-inflicted health loss in the phase transition and has no gimmick that the player can use to easily melt his health bar. A battle against the Dragonlord is a true test of endurance.
- Expy: Seemingly the King Ghidorah to Darkeater Midir's Godzilla, being a multi-headed gold-colored dragon with a similar Frickin' Laser Beams Breath Weapon.
- Fantastic Nuke: His ultimate attack has him conjure up a massive electric glaive and plant it on the floor, which causes the music to stop and for the glaive to begin charging up with energy; after it's done charging, it will generate a gigantic, most likely fatal electric explosion. Considering the absolutely massive range of the attack, there's only one way to avoid it: run like hell.
- Faster Than They Look: Placidusax is not really much agile and his attacks are fairly telegraphed, even if they pack a massive punch and have large AoE. But by the second phase, he starts flying and all of a sudden, he will try to divebomb you with high speed with little in the way of notice. He'll also teleport in quick succession with an immediate lightning swipe. Simply put, Placidusax is deceptively fast once he decides to go all-out in his fight against the player.
- Fisher King: His mere presence warps natural forces. Farum Azula floats eternally in the heart of an endless storm, and while the Tarnished fights him, the player can see the entire sky until the horizon turns into a heavy thunderstorm; with natural lightning crackling in the far distance◊, while the crimson red lightning of dragons randomly strikes the arena◊. And after he dies, the storm dies down and a sunrise becomes visible from the temple.
- Frickin' Laser Beams: On top of his normal fire breath, once his health goes down to about half, he will start firing laser breaths from his two heads, identical in all except colour with Darkeater Midir's Abyss Breath (which is in turn inspired by Godzilla).
- Hero of Another Story: Being the Elden Lord from the time before the Erdtree likely warrants a couple of tales in its own right.
- I Will Wait for You: His Remembrance mentions that the god Placidusax used to serve has fled the Lands Between, but Placidusax still faithfully waits for their return.
- Marathon Boss: Placidusax has mountains of health, high defense, and a moveset that frequently has him flying and teleporting around his vast arena, necessitating you to chase him. It's not uncommon for fights against him to last close to 10 minutes.
- Meaningful Name: Placidus is Latin for "calm" or "peaceful", which survives as the modern English word "placid", and sax is rock or stone. So he's "Calm Stone." Despite his great power, Placidusax is completely passive unless confronted by the player character (literally sleeping outside of time), and won't even take any effort to stop a tresspasser who's tried to kill him before unless they directly confront him again.
- Mighty Glacier: Downplayed. Placidusax is not an agile combatant. He can certainly move with surprising speed via flight and teleportation, but is otherwise stationary and its fairly easy to land multiple hits against him. However, he has high defenses and an enormous pool of health, and his weak points (his heads) are held higher and harder to hit than the game's other dragons, making defeating him a matter of patience and whittling him down while avoiding his insanely powerful attacks.
- Multi-Gendered Split Personalities: While the item descriptions give him male pronouns, digging into the game files reveals that Placidusax's two remaining heads are tagged male and female. While Marika's similar situation with Radagon could imply it's a trait held by all true divinity, the gender of the heads he lost, if they even used gender at all, is unclear.
- Mythical Motifs: Placidusax has striking similarities with Ladon from Greek Myth, the latter being a divine gold-skinned multi-headed dragon coiled around the tree in the Garden of the Hesperides to guard the golden apples of immortality, defeated by Heracles on his Eleventh Labor to gather said apples (though certain tellings instead claim that Ladon was too fearsome for even Heracles) and subsequently placed among the stars by Zeus as the Draco constellation. Placidusax is "immortalized" by waiting outside of time for the return of it's god, indirectly guards the full potential of Miquella's needle (with Miquella himself having a major relation to a sacred tree), has many heads and has a prominent golden color motif, and was defeated, but not killed, seemingly by the Golden Order's forces in it's early conquests led by the game's Expy of Heracles.
- Non-Malicious Monster: He's not even remotely antagonistic, being perfectly content with meditating in the heart of Farum Azula while recovering from his wounds. His Boss Battle only starts when the Tarnished intrudes upon his temple and runs towards him while brandishing a weapon, unleashing his (completely understandable) wrath. Even then he's willing to just chill when you wander into his chamber, and only attacks you if you get too close.
- Optional Boss: Fighting Placidusax is a conscious challenge: to enter his temple and trigger his Boss Battle the player must go out of their way to make a trek in the Crumbling Farum Azula to the vicinity of an everlasting giant tornado. He is also significantly more difficult than most bosses in the game.
- Painting the Medium: Whenever Placidusax conjures his lightning glaive, the boss soundtrack will momentarily go dead silent to emphasis the spell’s ludicrous destructive power.
- Physical God: He's implied to have preceded Marika as vessel of the Elden Ring, and even severely crippled, he displays all of the incredible power one would expect of such a title. Even just a shard of his scales is said to bear the power to slay other deities. In particular, his ability to breathe golden flames is shared with only one other being in the game: the Elden Beast.
- Shock and Awe: Placidusax displays total mastery of his kind's iconic crimson lightning, far surpassing every other Ancient Dragon. While Fortissax and Lansseax summon lightning into massive glaives to strike you in melee after a noticeable windup, Placidusax casually attaches lightning to his claw swipes to strike without so much as a pause; And when he does create a lightning glaive, the resulting explosion is so massive it resembles a cluster of nuclear blasts .
- Signature Move: Placidusax's Ruin, the Frickin' Laser Beams attack he is guaranteed to use when reduced to about a third of his health. It's unquestionably his most dangerous attack (the fast-moving lasers are capable of one-shotting characters approaching the Vigor soft cap even if they have a health-boosting Great Rune), and the player can pick it up for themselves by using his Remembrance.
- Spell Blade: On top of the massive lightning glaives which ancient dragons usually use, Placidusax can wreathe his talons in crimson lightning, greatly increasing the reach of his slashes.
- Superboss: Finding Placidusax is a tricky endeavor; one must platform downwards near the location of an elevator and then rest upon an empty coffin, something that would barely be noticed by anyone in their first playthrough. And when the Dragonlord is found, the Tarnished is thrown into their toughest fight against a dragon. Placidusax is extremely powerful with a good number of AoE attacks, uses fire and lightning-based attacks quite liberally, and while not too reflective or agile, he makes up for it with a lot of durability and sudden bursts of speed. In his second phase, Placidusax proves to be faster than expected thanks to teleporting and flying at quick speeds in an attempt to catch players off-guard and he'll shoot out lasers that are guaranteed to either kill you in one shot or leave you with critically low health, all whilst pelting you with more lightning. Further complimenting his nature as an optional, yet very difficult challenge, defeating Placidusax nets you 280,000 runes, and his Remembrance yields a powerful thrusting weapon and a devastating Incantation.
- Teleport Spam: One of his attacks has him teleport in front of the Tarnished and attack them with his claws, then disappear, teleport again, attack, and repeat.
- Time Master: The Ancient Dragon Smithing Stones are said to lightly twist time, allowing them to be used to craft weapons necessary to slay a god... and they are all said to be HIS stone scales. The extent to which Placidusax could affect time, whether in his prime or in his current state, is unknown; while the crumbling ruins of his chamber and its surrounding tornado quite literally rewinds back to become an intact chamber where he rests dormant, it is impossible to say for certain if that was his power at work or the nature of the ruins he is in, as Farum Azula as a whole is also consistently described as “beyond time” just like he is.
- Turns Red: Initially, Placidusax fights the Tarnished with just his claws, fire breath, ramming them with his immense size, and occasionally a lightning glaive like the other Ancient Dragons. But once his health is reduced to half, he pulls out all the stops; he'll start teleporting, will fly in and out of the arena at incredible speeds using hit-and-run tactics, replaces his fire breath with a Godzilla-esque Frickin' Laser Beam, and start wreathing his claws in lightning on top of summoning it to strike the arena with far greater intensity.
- Undying Loyalty: Despite the god Placidusax served having fled the Lands Between for what could have been thousands to millions of years ago, Placidusax faithfully waits for them within Farum Azula to this very day.
- Wound That Will Not Heal: While Placidusax has two visible heads, a close inspection of his model reveals that he used to have five, with the data files designating three severed necks and leaving only the male and female heads. Among other things, his tail is severed, and one of his back wings is just gone.
- Worf Had the Flu: By the time the Tarnished finds him, Placidusax is still recovering from his wounds left from the dragons' war against the Golden Order, some of which are likely permanent. The fact that he remains one of the single most powerful beings the Tarnished can encounter speaks volumes about the power he wielded in his prime.
Ancient Dragon Gransax
Gransax
- Bolt of Divine Retribution: Gransax's signature weapon was the aptly-named Bolt of Gransax which possessed the ability to fashion red lightning into a spear for him to thrust onto his enemies, with said ability being known as "Ancient Lightning Spear". Given his size, it's not hard to imagine that Gransax would have used his spear up in the skies to smite his enemies from afar, considering said lightning spear can be fashioned by the Tarnished as a long-range throwing weapon.
- Dead Guy on Display: A victim example; his corpse is put on display in one of the main hubs of Leyndell as a symbol of power and pride for Leyndell to showcase themselves as the winner of their war against the dragons, which Gransax had instigated. Gransax's immeasurably gigantic size is enough to present him in an awe-inspiring and intimidating scope and to depict Leyndell as a threatening and powerful military state, even in a rather decrepit state.
- Giant Corpse World: Downplayed; Gransax's corpse doesn't take up much of Leyndell's space, but it is certainly the most notable "infrastructure" in the city, the Erdtree notwithstanding. The Tarnished can hop around on the giant dragon's legs, wings, and back to reach particular parts of the city.
- Gold and White Are Divine: While Ancient Dragons generally have this as a color scheme, Gransax takes it up a notch by possessing an unconventionally-designed golden spear as his primary weapon, with the said bolt being classified as a legendary armament in the game.
- Legendary Weapon: The Bolt of Gransax is one of the nine legendary armaments founds throughout the Lands Between, a spear with a lightning affinity that grants its wielders to conjure an electrical throwing spear which they could use to smite their enemies. Being a weapon much larger than a building, the Tarnished can chisel a part of the spear upon climbing it to use it and its divine power for themselves.
- Kaiju: Simply put, Gransax is the largest dragon in any of FromSoft's gaming catalog upon the game's release, with his size vastly dwarfing even those of the Dragon God, Divine Dragon, and even his fellow lesser dragon, Greyoll. He's so massive that the Tarnished can hop around his legs, wings, and torso for platforming onto other parts of Leyndell.
- Meaningful Name: His name seems to be derived from the Latin word "grandis", "big", plus sax, "stone."
- Permanently Missable Content: While Gransax's body remains intact after Leyndell is smothered into becoming the Ashen Capital, the Bolt of Gransax is partially buried and damaged, thus, if the player didn't get to break a small part of it for their use, the weapon becomes inaccessible for the Tarnished until the next playthrough.
- Posthumous Character: Gransax has been long dead even before Godwyn died. His history provides an impetus on how dragons are viewed by the residents of the Lands Between and his instigating a war is the main reason why anti-dragon weaponry and enemies like the Draconic Tree Sentinel exist to begin with.
- Rent-a-Zilla: Gransax is massive, even larger than Greyoll. The Tarnished is even required to climb on his remains a few times while traversing the city.
- Small Role, Big Impact: Gransax's role is entirely relegated to background lore, but the information provided by the Bolt of Gransax does lay important details about how dragons would come to be feared by most in the Lands Between as well as why many enemies, including the Draconic Tree Sentinel and the Beastmen of Farum Azula would come to possess draconic magic for themselves.
- The Unfought: Despite being part of a race that is fought in the latter parts of the game, Gransax has been dead even before the Tarnished began their journey to become Elden Lord. The only evidence that provides context about his strength is his unnaturally large size, infamy for collapsing Leyndell's walls and possessing a legendary armament, which would strongly imply that Gransax was one of the most powerful beings in the Lands Between.
- Weapon-Based Characterization: While not by personality, the Bolt of Gransax still remains faithful to how Ancient Dragons specialized in using spears and glaives as their primary weapons during combat. What makes this unique is that Gransax is the only known dragon to possess a physical weapon as opposed to the other Ancient Dragons who used their powers to conjure an elementally crafted glave or spear.
Related
Magma Wyrms (normal, Makar, Theodorix)
Once humans who underwent Dragon Communion, the curved greatsword-wielding Magma Wyrms dwell in tunnels and near magma flows in the Lands Between. One particularly advanced Magma Wyrm, Makar, guards the secret entrance to the Altus Plateau hidden in Liurnia, while the Great Wyrm Theodorix is found in an out-of-the-way corner of the Consecrated Snowfield.
- Acrofatic: Despite being normally slow and ponderous, one attack exclusive to their second phase involves them doing a full 180° spin on the back of their tails while sliding forwards to deliver a massive spinning slash.
- Attack of the 50-Foot Whatever: They are some of the largest enemies that can be fought in game. This is especially noticeable once they rear up on their hind legs in their second phase, as even slouched they easily match the size and stature of other tall humanoid enemies like Golems and Worm Faces. Theodorix in particular is massive compared to other Magma Wyrms, likely due to having been a Troll before his transformation.
- BFS: Uses a large curved greatsword for close-quarters combat.
- Breath Weapon: One of its most common attacks is to spew magma towards the Tarnished, either by spitting a giant blob of magma, or by crawling around the arena while constantly regurgitating magma. Turning Red, they breathe magma upon their swords in order to superheat it, causing it to deal additional Fire damage with each strike.
- Degraded Boss: The Magma Wyrm at Volcano Manor is fought as a miniboss instead of a regular boss.
- Easy Level Trick: Great Wyrm Theodorix is very tanky and does ridiculous amounts of damage, making him a difficult enemy to face head-on even with the advantages provided by summons or horseback. However, the cave he is fought in has no less than three adult Land Octopi that will start wailing on Theodorix once lured into his aggro range. Given that said Land Octopi also have bloated HP, attack and defense on top of having much more aggressive AI than normal, you can take him down much easier by having them aggro, in which they often kill him on their own.
- Karmic Death: All of them hunted dragons for their Dragon Hearts so they could partake in Dragon Communion. If you kill them, it's probably because you were hunting for dragon hearts to buy all those neat Dragon Communion spells.
- Mighty Glacier: Magma Wyrms are ponderously slow in everything they do; their movements, sword attacks and their magma breath all have extremely long and recognizable tells. This is offset by the fact that when these attacks do hit, they can easily shave whole chunks off of the player's health bar.
- Recurring Boss: Five Magma Wyrms are can be found and fought throughout the Lands Between.note
- Shout-Out: The lore mentioning that they Were Once Men is a reference to Fafnir of Norse myth, down to the details of them crawling on their bellies and spewing lava. The fact that Theodorix used to be a troll may also be a reference to the fact that in the myth Fafnir was originally a Dwarf before he became a wyrm.
- Turns Red: After reaching half health, they breathe magma onto their blades and begin to fight while standing on their two hind legs. This gives them an entirely new moveset which, while not at Lightning Bruiser levels, is faster, more mobile and more aggressive than their crawling first phase.
- Was Once a Man: Becoming a Magma Wyrm is what happens to those who pursue the path of Dragon Communion and lose themselves to the dragons' influence. Theodorix is especially notable, as the description of the Theodorix's Magma incantation says that he was once a Troll who fought in the War of the Ancient Giants. Thankfully for the Tarnished, Gameplay and Story Segregation is in full effect; no matter how many dragon hearts they consume, the risk of becoming a Magma Wyrm never looms over their heads.
Dragonkin Soldiers (normal, Nokstellan)
Dragonkin Soldier of Nokstella
Massive draconic humanoids who were once soldiers of the Eternal City. Long after the City's destruction, they still stand guard even in their decrepit state.
- An Ice Person: A combination of this and Shock and Awe. After its health reaches below a certain threshold, the Dragonkin Soldier of Nokstella will begin to use frozen lightning.
- Bandage Mummy: Covered from head to toe in decaying bandages.
- Bare-Fisted Monk: Despite being dragonkin, the Dragonkin Soldiers cannot breathe fire or conjure elements at all and relegate themselves to simple clawing and biting. Subverted for the Soldier of Nokstella who eventually regains the ability to use frozen lightning.
- Bizarro Elements: The Dragonkin Soldier of Nokstella has the ability to manipulate frozen lightning, which is blue lightning that can cause the frostbite status. Slaying the Soldier of Nokstella allows the Tarnished to obtain its incantation version, Frozen Lightning Spear. The other two drop weapons that can channel frozen lightning with their Ashes of War.
- Bling of War: Covered head to toe in brilliant golden armor that, unfortunately, does nothing to hide their withered, leprous skin.
- Body Horror: Likely due to whatever condition that had befallen them, the Dragonkin Soldiers' stomachs seem to have rotted away completely, leaving a hollow in their bellies from which the Tarnished can see that they have no organs in their torso at all. How they are still alive at that point is anyone's guess.
- Degraded Boss: Spirit Dragonkin Soldiers are encountered as respawning enemies in the Consecrated Snowfield.
- Expy: To Seath the Scaleless of Dark Souls, being imperfect dragons who lacked the immortality of their own kind and sought to obtain it. Unlike Seath, the Dragonkin Soldiers were never able to achieve immortality and their bodies began to rot away.
- Giant Flyer: Despite being the size of a house, the Soldier of Nokstella has no trouble lifting its tremendous body with its comparatively tiny wings, albeit for only a brief few seconds.
- Handicapped Badass: Their bandages, withered musculature as well as their heavily diseased and scarred skin all suggest that they have some form of leprosy, which has progressed to a state that has left them too weak to walk or fly. In no way does this stop them from squishing the Tarnished to bits. Eventually Subverted in the case of the Soldier of Nokstella, who in the midst of battle regains the strength needed to take flight, if only for a short while.
- Heroic Second Wind: Not for the Tarnished, but for the boss. Once the Dragonkin Soldier of Nokstella reaches below half of its health, it will gain a surge in strength and becomes able to use its withered wings to fly once more as well as manipulate its characteristic frozen lightning. The Soldiers found in Siofra River and the Lake of Rot are, fortunately, exempt from this.
- Immortality Seeker: They attempted to obtain immortality to be just like their skyward brethren. This attempt ultimately failed, leaving them in their current, decrepit state.
- Optional Boss: There are a total of three Dragonkin Soldiers found in the gamenote and all of them are only found in hidden areas of the already hidden underground sections. Defeating them is totally inconsequential to progressing further in any those areas, much less completing the game (although defeating the Soldier of Nokstella yields an achievement for one seeking 100% Completion).
- Overrated and Underleveled: There are three Dragonkin Soldier bosses, two generic ones and one with the "of Nokstella" title added. The latter is meant to be the most significant, as it has a whole second phase that the other two lack, and is also the only one of the three to grant an achievement upon defeat. Yet for some reason it's by far the weakest one: it has 4,300 HP compared to 5,700 for the one in the Siofra River and 7,700 for the one in the Lake of Rot. He has less HP than Godrick!
- Shock and Awe: Combined with An Ice Person, in the case of the Dragonkin Soldier of Nokstella.
- Super-Soldier: They started off as an attempt to claim the power of the Ancient Dragons by the Nox. After it became clear none of them could escape degeneration, they were repurposed as war machines.
- Yellow Lightning, Blue Lightning: The Soldier of Nokstella's frozen lightning is colored an icy blue.
