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The Eldwurms (also known as the Pillars of Creation) of the animated series Dota: Dragon's Blood are the eight fundamental essences that support and sustain the existence of reality and its elements.

This article is about the Eldwurms as metaphysical entities, distinct from their eponymous dragon avatars. For the article about the common eldwurms as the oldest forms of a dragon, see Dragonss

What The Thunder Said
The Eldwurms were first revealed in this episode through hints and clues that built up their physical appearance later on in the episode, starting with two Eldwurms. The reveal of one of these Eldwurms was built up by its lesser avatars, the earth wyrmlings and hatchlings. As the younger versions of an eldwurm, they displayed the strength and the powers of an earth dragon, but their talents are just a shadow of what an eldwurm can really do. Later on in the episode, the presence of an unseen earth eldwurm is revealed by one of the massive tunnels that they dig in the earth, hinting at their size. This episode also tells us how feared the eldwurms are. According to Bram and Davion, only one living Dragon Knight has ever seen an eldwurm that was still alive. No amount of knights are enough to kill an eldwurm, and they can bring widespread death and destruction that spans for uncounted miles.

Fast forward through the episode, Captain Frühling was possessed by the demon Terrorblade and he went into the dragon warrens in the foothills surrounding his hometown Barrowhaven to kill the eldwurm that he kept whining about before. Alerted by his squire that Frühling was about to awaken the eldwurm, Davion pursued the captain to stop him and reached the warrens. He heard the roar of the eldwurm resonate throughout the burrows, which was loud enough to slightly shake the place. When Davion entered the eldwurm's final resting place, he found the possessed Frühling sitting atop the corpse of the eldwurm, whose name was revealed to be Uldorak.

Speaking through Frühling's body, Terrorblade revealed that Uldorak was old and sick, but despite the fact that eldwurms grow more powerful as they age, he was still able to murder him. Following the demon's attempts at possessing Davion, Terrorblade was interrupted when a second Eldwurm emerged from the melted earth to face this demon. This Eldwurm was revealed to be Slyrak, the Father of Fire, dispatched by The Thunder to deliver the demon's retribution for slaying Uldorak. Terrorblade intends to collect the spirit of Slyrak, just as he did with Uldorak. The Ember Eldwurm reveals that Uldorak was getting ready to die from senescence as he was starting to go mad. On the other hand, he shares no such weakness and proceeds to blast Terrorblade's vessel with his fire breath.

Slyrak spares Davion from being eaten and tells him to leave. Meanwhile, the disembodied Terrorblade mocks the dragons' simplicity and lack of cunning as he possesses the corpse of Uldorak to fight Slyrak with it. A brutal fight ensues as the former charges at his opponent while the latter takes flight and delivers two heavy claw swipes. The possessed Uldorak retaliates with a powerful headbutt and slaps him with his claws. Quickly recovering from the attack, Slyrak swings his tail across his face to stun him and takes flight again. Both dragons build up their powerful breath attack and release it towards each other, the fire and the corrupted energy threatening to consume each other. But Slyrak's breath overpowered the demon's and set Uldorak ablaze. Unfazed, the possessed Uldorak draws upon his element to create a row of earth chunks that stuns Slyrak, allowing him to close in and impale his chest on his horns.

Mortally wounded, Slyrak lay weakened as the possessed Uldorak prepares to claim him. But Slyrak was far from being slain and snaps his jaws on Uldorak's chest. Davion, who was merely spectating the fight, decides to rejoin the fray and assists Slyrak. Uldorak pries him off of his chest, tearing away his scales and revealing a glowing weak spot in the flesh underneath. The knight leaps off of Slyrak and plunges his sword into his chest, with the wounded Slyrak gaining a newfound respect for his bravery. He falls off of Uldorak's chest but lands on Slyrak's wings as Uldorak begins to brim with demonic energy until he dies.

With his physical vessel destroyed, Terrorblade returned to his home in Foulfell, taking Uldorak's soul with him. At the verge of death, Slyrak's life begins to wane as he falls to the ground. Although Davion only acted on his impulse after seeing how worse the demon was, Slyrak applauds Davion's bravery nevertheless. When Davion grants him a peaceful death, Slyrak refuses and asks him to be slain by his own sword. He agrees and they honor each other as Davion prepares to strike him down.

Just as he was about to land the final blow, a sudden gust of wind brushed him. It turns out that Slyrak had slashed his throat with his claw, killing Davion. He fell to the ground dead alongside Slyrak and lay on a pool of his own blood. Their blood intermingled with each other, uniting their essences together: body, soul, and mind. Just as he was about to pass on, Slyrak asked him for his forgiveness, because he was about to share the burdens of an Eldwurm's existence and his life will never be the same again. With the death of Slyrak and Davion, the Dragon Knight was born.

Princess of Nothing
With Uldorak slain, the presence of the Eldwurms in the plot has dwindled to Slyrak's. Following his fateful encounter, a disoriented Davion emerges from the dragon warrens and into the forest, walking towards civilization. On his way back, he is ambushed by a bunch of bandits who were poised to rob him. Davion was too tired to even notice the bandits talking to him, so he gets dragged back by their leader who demands that he pay the toll for passing through their road. One of the bandits wanted dibs on his sword, but his leader claims it for himself and knocks him out with a punch.

Although it wasn't shown in the final product, these bandits were killed by a lesser humanoid form of Slyrak. While consuming their remains, Slyrak swallowed the bandit leader's gold ring, which was spat out by Davion the next day in a bar in Hauptstadt. One of the bandit leader's comrades recognized the ring and was shocked to learn that Davion was a maneater and tried to kill him for that. He failed and left the bar beaten and humiliated but not deterred, swearing to take revenge alongside his crew.

Near the finale of the episode where Davion is beaten by said group of bandits, Slyrak begins to manifest himself as Davion's wounds begin to heal quickly before transforming his vessel's body into Slyvion, the intermediate form between Davion and Slyrak. Slyvion slaughters the bandits one by one until the bandit that attacked him in the bar was the last one left. Terrified, the bandit begged for mercy as Slyvion slowly approached him with murderous intent. Amidst the chaos of his panicked thoughts, he found Davion's arm blade on one of the bandit's bodies and flashed it against Slyvion who was inches away from killing him.

Suddenly, Slyvion halted his attack as Davion began to take over once again, displaying denial towards Slyrak's actions. The transformation was undone and Davion returned, albeit he was left horrified and traumatized by the event.

The Monster at the End of this Book
After Kaden introduced himself to our main squad of Heroes in Dragon Hold, he brought the crimson wyrmling that he killed to the skinning table. While Kaden was cutting the dead dragon, Davion found himself reluctant in reporting his findings to him in Barrowhaven. He felt a surge of inhumane thoughts coursing through his mind when he watched Kaden skin the dragon. Not wanting to watch any further, he snapped out of it and excused himself out of the room, rousing a feeling of suspicion from Kaden.

Davion revealed to Mirana that he intentionally lied to Kaden about the eldwurm sighting and even felt the urge to attack him for harvesting the fire wyrmling's corpse. This was actually Slyrak's rage projecting itself through Davion, probably because the Eldwurm felt disgusted at the sight of his kin being dismembered. Mirana calms him down for a while and they regroup with Kaden and Marci to have dinner. Unfortunately for Davion, today's special turned out to be dragon steak. Throughout the whole dinner, Davion never ate his food and gave incomplete information about what he saw in Barrowhaven, further confirming Kaden's suspicions.

That night, Davion was afflicted by a nightmare where he had flashbacks of his fateful encounter with Slyrak. Deep in his sleep, he spoke the word "Nothing" alongside the inner voice of Slyrak as he relived those moments. Begging for the nightmare to stop, he suddenly fell into a black void while saying "I am nothing." as he fell deeper into the abyss. Then, he saw a massive flaming dragon eye that resembled a ball of fire and his nightmare ended abruptly. Davion woke up in a cold sweat and was surprised to see Kaden standing over him, but the latter knocked him out with a charged backhand.

Davion was taken to the heart of Dragon Hold and chained between two large pillars for interrogation. As he woke up, Kaden stabbed him with the tooth of an ionic dragon, claiming that their power can force someone to tell the truth. Davion was utterly confused at his current situation, but Kaden tells him that he was trying to speak to Slyrak within his body. Still confused, Davion tells him that Slyrak is already dead, but Kaden disagrees and stabs another tooth into his body. After several minutes worth of futile questions, Slyrak finally reveals himself to Kaden in the form of Slyvion.

Kaden asks him why he was hiding inside Davion's body, but he corrects him saying that he was merely travelling. He asks about his destination, but Slyrak taunts him and gives him a cryptic answer instead. Kaden shares his intentions to kill Slyrak, but he warns him of the consequences of an Eldwurm's death. Should he satisfy his vengeance by destroying Slyrak's physical form, existence and the elements that compose it will dissipate with no restoration to follow, hinting at the Eldwurm's cosmic significance. After exchanging a few taunts and death threats with each other, Kaden frees Slyvion from his chains (in accordance to Dragon Knight customs) and prepares for his greatest fight yet.

Slyvion removes one of the teeth and pounces towards him, but Kaden casually dodges the attack as he phases out of existence before teleporting behind him. He slams the floor with the mass of his void dragon sword and knocks him away with a powerful shockwave that sends Slyvion crashing into a large, stone pillar. As he poised himself for another strike, Sagan lunges at him unsuccessfully as he dodges the attack with a teleport. He anticipated Marci's surprise attack and threw her away, but failed to notice Mirana stabbing him from behind with Davion's arm blade. Her blade hardly pierced through his armor as Kaden threw a backhand to knock her aside. The chaos dragon's powers in Kaden's armor disappeared shortly after that while Slyrak fully manifested his eldwurm form.

The real battle had just begun. Slyrak tries to crush Kaden underneath his hands, but he outmaneuvers the Eldwurm's attacks. He then unleashes his fiery breath, but Kaden hid himself while he was charging up his fire, forcing Slyrak to look for him amidst his own fire. Using his relatively subtle size and the stolen prowess of an air dragon, Kaden outflanks Slyrak and leaps up to the height of his head and brings his sword down on it, slamming him to the floor. He quickly recovers from the attack and whips Kaden with his tail. He blocks it with his sword, but he was caught slightly off guard and slammed into the staircase. Kaden escapes Slyrak's flames, talons, and jaws as he ascends the massive chamber and outflanks him again to find another angle to strike from. He zips towards Slyrak and slams him with his sword to send him crashing out of Dragon Hold's walls.

Kaden follows him to the skies as Slyrak charges up a powerful torrent of dragon's breath. Kaden blocks the inferno with a bubble shield and pushes through the flame to strike him down one last time. However, the clash of Slyrak's fire and Kaden's shield results in a powerful explosion that destroyed the top of Dragon Hold. Despite this level of destruction, both combatants survived the attack as Slyrak swoops down on Mirana, Marci, and Sagan to deliver them to the Broken Peaks.

Characteristics
Unlike the scholar Eldwurms in the main lore, the Eldwurms in the lore of Dragon's Blood are more cosmic than mundane, possessing a significant role in the existence of the boundless macrocosm. Embodying the most elemental forms of matter and the four fundamental forces, the souls of the Eldwurms sustain the balance and existence of every essential element of reality: time, space, the many planes of existence, the infinite multiverse, the pillars of chaos and order, the Manifold Forms, and even nothing itself. The renewal of the multiverse's destruction is assured thanks to their existence. Should an Eldwurm be released from their "corporal fetters" in the material plane, dissolution shall be brought to all of these aspects of creation with no renewal to follow. This is why they are called the Pillars of Creation.

Eldwurms are not mere old dragons but they are the embodiments of the four classical elements and the four fundamental forces. They all exist in an unknown plane of existence that seems to be higher than the material plane, and their souls descend from that very plane to embody the respective dragons that are their physical aspects, such as Slyrak descending into the body of a fire dragon. Upon death, their souls simply reincarnate in another dragon, usually the oldest one that they can find, in an endless cycle of life and death. The Eldwurms refer to their physical forms and avatars (the dragons and anyone they may possess) as "flesh illusions" further implying that their physical appearances are mere avatars.

Elemental Eldwurms
The Ember Eldwurm Slyrak, Father of Fire. This crimson scaled dragon embodies the scorching phenomenon of fire in the form of the fearsome fire dragon species.

The Air Eldwurm Aethrak, Father of Air. Lord of the skies and its ethereal forces of wind, the pale dragon embodies air and wind in the form of the raptor-like air dragon species.

The Water Eldwurm Lirrak, Mother of Oceans and Storms. Lirrak embodies water in all states of matter (even ice) in the form of the aquatic water dragon species.

The Earth Eldwurm Uldorak. Strong as the earth itself, Uldorak is the gritty physical matter of the terrene plane. The subterranean earth dragons are Uldorak incarnate.

Fundamental Eldwurms
The Chaos Eldwurm Vahdrak, Father of Chaos. An entity of unhinged violence, the evil and unstable powers of chaos and darkness are made flesh in the eldritch chaos dragons.

The Luminous Eldwurm Orrak. Orrak embodies the brilliant powers of light in the form of the luminous dragons.

The Ionic Eldwurm Indrak, Father of Lightning. A paragon of truth and objectivity, Indrak is the charge that binds existence together, incarnated by the wise ionic dragons.

The Void Eldwurm Byssrak. Brief with his speech, Byssrak embodies the mysterious force that bends the structure of spacetime in the form of the rare void dragons.

Enemies
Kaden Dragon Knights