What Is the Erdtree?

The Erdtree is the enormous golden tree visible from almost anywhere in the Lands Between, and it's both a physical landmark and the center of the setting's dominant religion, the Golden Order. It's where "grace" - the golden light that guides the Tarnished and marks safe checkpoints (Sites of Grace) - originates.

Under the Golden Order, the Erdtree is also tied to death itself: souls of the fallen are drawn back to it rather than passing on completely, which is part of why runes (the game's currency/experience, explicitly framed as remnants of the fallen) can be collected from anything you defeat. This idea - that the Erdtree quietly rewrote the rule of death - turns out to be a major, and controversial, thread in the story once you learn who is buried beneath it and why.

Not the only tree

Part of what makes the Erdtree interesting on replay is realizing it isn't unique: other, similar trees exist elsewhere in the world (and its history), each tied to a different figure or ideology. Discovering how the "main" Erdtree came to be the dominant one - and what was displaced to make room for it - is one of the game's bigger lore threads, and one this guide will leave you to uncover for yourself.