Elden Ring, one of the most popular games of 2022, will soon receive what appears to be its first significant expansion: DLC called Shadow of the Erdtree. This morning, the DLC's creator, FromSoftware, tweeted that the project was now formally underway. Nevertheless, the firm did not specify a release date. Elden Ring's long-awaited story expansion now has a name thanks to creator FromSoftware and publisher Bandai Namco: Shadow of the Erdtree. Together with the announcement just on the official Elden Ring Twitter account, FromSoftware also shared a single piece of concept art showing a pale man with long blond hair riding a mount over a lone, ghostly landscape. In the distance, a dying-looking Erdtree is silhouetted against a dark sky.

The Erdtree isn't precisely what we believe it is, according to the game's mythology. Instead, it looks like the Crucible is what the Erdtree is feeding off of, like a parasite. This truth is somewhat concealed by the game, but there are indications in the item descriptions. Root resin reveals that this world formerly included a "Great Tree." However, it's possible that this isn't a reference to the Erdtree. After all, the Erdtree's "primordial" form is said to exist in the Crucible. The suggestion seems to be that there was something before the Erdtree that we see in-game took over everything, even if this notion is never explicitly stated.

Rise, Tarnished, and let us walk a new path together.
An upcoming expansion for #ELDENRING Shadow of the Erdtree, is currently in development.
We hope you look forward to new adventures in the Lands Between. pic.twitter.com/cjJYijM7Mw

— ELDEN RING (@ELDENRING) February 28, 2023

The statement in a spell's description that everything was initially opposed to the Erdtree makes sense in light of this. The Erdtree order in Elden Ring was only kept because of Marika and her husband's never-ending war. The Erdtree may serve as a temple for an external deity, which would explain why the Two Fingers always seem to be trying to communicate with something that is very far away.

That's all there is to the announcement; no release date or more information about the expansion is provided. The PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, and Windows PC via Steam, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X versions of the original game will all receive Shadows of the Erdtree, according to the game's official Japanese website. Only last week, Bandai Namco announced that the game has sold 20 million copies worldwide, making it a huge success by any metric. This was just in time for Elden Ring's first anniversary, which falls on February 25, 2022.