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Ending Explained
Dragons's Dogma 2's story has many twists, turns, revelations, and a few fake endings. This page serves to help explain the game's True Ending using key quotes from important NPCs such as The Pathfinder, The Dragon, and more.
Check out the full explanation below:
How to Reach the True Ending
To see the True Ending, you will need to reach the "world unchosen" (aka the Post Game) and interact with all the red beams marked on the world map. Once you complete all the red beams, a final red beam will appear at the Seafloor Shrine, allowing you to see the final cutscene and enter New Game Plus.
To learn more about the other endings, check out our Endings Guide page.
Ending Explained
The most straightforward explanation of Dragon’s Dogma 2’s ending comes, naturally, at the end. During the final cutscene after you escape the world unchosen a voice over from The Pathfinder explains:
“Time has seen worlds uncountable created, only to be snugged out like candles by the cold breath of oblivion.
Eventually, the great will tired of witnessing this. It sought to overturn oblivion by granting unto it a role. A duty. An identity.
I speak of The Dragon
By the great will does the dragon create a cycle, allowing it to forestall the end of this world time and time again.
Yes, Arisen. This world has been safeguarded by the dragon all along.
You yourself were chosen to form a part of this cycle. The Arisen is selected by the great will to play the role of the dragon’s counterpart.
That is how this world is built: the dragon serves to continue the cycle, and the Arisen exists to oppose it.
This is the true meaning of the Dragon’s Dogma.”
Put simply, there are infinite worlds that are constantly being eaten up by oblivion, the same oblivion we see consuming the world unchosen at the end of the game. Some powerful force or god known as the great will chose to save these worlds by creating The Dragon, a powerful creature that can stave off oblivion.
The great will then decided The Dragon’s power needed to be kept in check, and so it created the Arisen, a humanoid hero of sorts who will hunt and kill the dragon. After some time a new dragon will appear, then a new Arisen, so on and so forth forever. This cycle gives the world purpose, saving it from becoming "unchosen".
By stabbing yourself with the Empowered Godsbane Blade, you refused the cycle and allowed the world to slip into chaos. As the red fog eats up the world you have no choice but to summon the dragon and unwrite the world’s end, setting the story back on track.
Further Reading
Below are some other interesting lore bits that help expand our understanding of the world, the cycle, and the great will.
Breaking the Cycle
From The Dragon:
"Thou wishest to dismantle the world’s will - just as I do. Yet dost thou know what awaiteth the world, should it meet such a fate?
The world shall not change with my death. Nor shall it change with thine.
And yet, Arisen… Born of a hapless fate thought it may be… Perchance ‘tis thy will, and thine alone, that couldst contest the great will of this world."
This is a bit of recycled info, but I like to highlight this line not only because it serves as a hint for how to progress, but also because it shows that The Dragon wants us to defy the great will as well.
The Pawns
From The Pathfinder:
"The Pawns are no exception. Born of the nothingness of oblivion, they were granted the role of aiding in the perpetuation of the cycle.
Yet bereft of The Dragon that role has been unwritten. Only nothingness awaits them now."
The aptly named Pawns exist only to assist the Arisen but maybe more importantly keep the story on track at all times. Because without the cycle they will return to the oblivion from which they were born. “There is surely no fate more pitiful”, says The Pathfinder.
The Guardian Gigantus
From The Pathfinder:
“For a well-crafted tale has no excess; there must be a reason for each character’s inclusion. Yet this means that should even one of these characters stray from their assigned role, the tale entire will unravel… Such is the choice you have made Arisen.”
From Rivage Elder:
“The Gigantus is an earthen structure that harkens to the voice of the sea, for ‘tis a servant of the Brine! Just as the Arisen commands the Pawns, so too does the sea’s peril compel the Gigantus. Supposedly the Brine have their colossal servant monitor The Dragon, to ensure that it commits no acts of excess.
And should it be stirred to life by the voice of the sea, mayhap ‘twould do aught to puy that dragon in its place!”
This reveals to us two interesting details: The Brine and the great will may be the same thing (would explain why the red fog and the Brine attack us with the same red tentacles) and that the Gigantus was actually setting out to kill The Dragon. But what act of excess did The Dragon commit? Perhaps the great will could tell that The Dragon would urge the Arisen to break the cycle using the Godsbane Blade.
The Mad Sovran
From Rothais:
"I am he who brought The Dragon low, and o’er its bones raised the proud kingdom of Vermund. Despite the magnitude of my feat, I was dissatisfied, and sought e’er greater heights, till at last I ruled the world entire.
Thus did I come to know of the watching one. The being by whose many eyes and ears no one thing in this world goes unobserved.
As to the purpose with which they watch, I know not. Yet I did divine one thing: this world has lain ‘neath the watching one’s unwavering gaze ere the dawn of its history.
I despaired at this discovery, for if all is but a stage, did that not render my hard-won glories … mere spectacles for the all-seeing eye to watch? Aye, ‘twas all a farce and I the fool.
Do you understand, newest of the Arisen? This is why I sought to fell the watching one. Alas, though I cut down all who seemed false, be they man or woman, human or beastren, young or old… I did not succeed.
I was dubbed the Mad Sovran."
Seems we are not the first ones to try and break the cycle. Rothais tells us that not only is our world a big story constructed by the watching one / great will, but that it is all an illusion as well. He became the Mad Sovran after he started killing everyone in an attempt to get back at the watching one. Maybe he is truly mad for interpreting the great will in this way, but we, The Players, know that his entire world is a video game... maybe Rothais is not the Mad one.