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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 power 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 holes 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 found an eldwurm that was still alive. No amount of Dragon Knights are enough to kill an eldwurm, and a single eldwurm can bring widespread death and destruction that spans for uncounted miles.

Fast forward through the episode, a drunk 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 big 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 his soul. 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 spoilt 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 the 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.

The Fire Sermon
Among the 8 episodes in Book 1, the Eldwurms had a prominent presence in this episode than the rest. Here, we get to see the rest of the Eldwurms and some cool stuff about them.

Slyrak crashed upon a snowy mountain and released Mirana, Marci, and Sagan from his grip as he succumbed to tiredness. Although he did not bring them to their destination, he was at least successful in bringing them near it in the valley surrounding Invoker's tower.

Meanwhile in the world of a dragon's sleep, Davion woke up and found himself lost in a desolate landscape. As he travelled further, he found himself on top of a rocky peak alongside seven other peaks where there were six dragons roosting on them. These dragons were as follows: Byssrak, Lirrak, Vahdrak, Aethrak, Orrak, and Indrak, who was the first to awaken in response to Davion's presence. Alerted to his intrusion, Indrak and Byssrak called out their intruder who was merely lost and confused on where he was. Aethrak tells him where he is with a cryptic answer, saying that this place "dreams of Slyrak" and vice versa. Indrak adds to his response, telling Davion that he is standing on the peak where Slyrak is supposed to be. He also notices that Slyrak is trapped in the "flesh illusion" that is Davion, further confusing the poor man.

Indrak proceeds to speak of Slyrak's warning about a demon named Terrorblade who has been hunting them down. He reveals that Uldorak knew its name and cried it out, waking Slyrak from his sleep and prompting him to investigate. Following their encounter with the demon, both dragons went silent, with Uldorak slain and captured by the demon while Slyrak was reduced to Davion's body. He briefly explains their reincarnation process to Davion, and notes that it has been warped now that Slyrak is in Davion, who knows nothing about the Eldwurms' song. All of a sudden, Vahdrak cut in and threatened to kill Davion, believing the man to be a demon in disguise.

Back in the conscious world, Mirana tries to see if Davion is still in the sleeping dragon. She reaches out for the ionic dragon tooth embedded in Slyrak that Slyvion didn't remove earlier in Dragon Hold, causing it to activate and electrocute both Slyrak in the normal world and Davion in the dream world. The former awakens and attempts to eat Mirana, but she is saved by Sagan and Marci who carries her away. Mirana, Marci, and Sagan run away, with the Eldwurm in hot pursuit. They outmaneuver the Eldwurm across the mountain until they fall off a cliff and into a forest, hidden from the angry dragon's sight.

The still confused Davion denies the state of reality that he's in and tries to wake himself up to no avail. As the Eldwurms come up with their judgment, they ask for his identity and how he managed to arrive in their realm. Unable to answer the latter, the Eldwurms decide to extract the answer from him instead and taps into his memories. Meanwhile, the exiled trio of Nightsilver make a run for it as they escape Slyrak's jaws and flames. They finally escape him for a moment by running into a cave and causing it to collapse by using Davion's arm blade which shatters the ceiling and blocks Slyrak's flames with the fallen rocks.

Indrak gently puts the tip of his talon on Davion's forehead and begins accessing his memories alongside the Thunder. Davion and the Eldwurms recall the moment when the knight & the Eldwurm met in the cave and fought Terrorblade together, leading up to the moment when they both died and fused their essence into one. Having learned of this event, they also realize that the natural order of Slyrak's reincarnation was broken by Slyrak himself as he chose a human vessel rather than a dragon. Every member of the Thunder was confounded by this violation: Lirrak decides that they must investigate this strange drastic measure, Vahdrak suggests a more violent approach to this abomination (with his counterpart Orrak saying otherwise since Davion showed kindness and mercy), while Aethrak and Byssrak believe that Slyrak did this out of fear of being possessed and corrupted by Terrorblade.

Davion attempts to reach a compromise with the Eldwurms, not wanting to helplessly stay in Slyrak's place while he ravages the nearby villages and kills his friends who are still in the uplands. He tells them to send him back and retrieve Slyrak in his stead so that they may both help each other find Terrorblade and the missing Eldwurms. Indrak partially agrees, but only after his questions have been answered in the nick of time. Disagreeing with Indrak's "perhaps" decision, Davion demands him to wake him up so that he can finish Slyrak's mission. However, Indrak disagrees because he does not trust the dragon slayer and questions his occupation that revolves solely around the deaths of his kin. The wise Eldwurm finally struck a nerve when he questioned the heart of his occupation—among all the creatures in creation that can kill a human, why do humans choose to hunt dragons?

Silence falls upon the dream world. Byssrak demands him to answer. Finally, Davion says his piece. He tells all of the Eldwurms that he hates them with a passion. He took on the role of a Dragon Knight after his home village and his entire family was consumed by the flames of a crimson dragon. As a Dragon Knight, he devoted himself to killing as many dragons as he can find to satiate his insatiable hatred for them. Such is his hatred that if he were to die, the only regret that he would have is that he didn't kill more dragons in his life. Unfazed by his hate, Indrak questions his hate which contradicts with the mercy that he showed to Slyrak. He admits to doing that, because the threat posed by the demon was worse enough to make him reconsider his hate for dragons. With that being said, Davion demands them to return back to the conscious world again.

Meanwhile, Mirana parts ways with an injured Marci who makes a break for it with Sagan. Slyrak spots the latter and swoops in for the kill, but he is promptly blown off course by an explosive shot to his wound from one of Mirana's fire dragon scale tipped arrows. Using her borrowed arm blade as a beacon, Mirana distracts the Eldwurm away from her companions. The dragon switches targets and chases after her instead. She fires three arrows at once, but all of them fail to hit his wound and they bounce off of his tough scales. The two play a deadly game of cat and mouse around the valley, eventually exhausting the exiled princess.

The Thunder concludes their judgment and decides on repairing Slyrak's cycle so that he may return normally and tell them about his plan for the demon. As for Davion, their course of action required his death since it will beget Slyrak's rebirth. After all, the cycle dictates that death comes so that birth may follow. With all members of the Thunder unanimous in their decision, they prepare to destroy Davion's physical form to release Slyrak's soul.

In the meantime, the tired but determined princess tried to find a way to get close enough to Slyrak to strike his exposed wound. Catching Slyrak off guard, she leaped off of a cliff and successfully landed on his back, using her arm blade to hang onto the dragon's scales. She attempted to climb further but almost fell off were it not for her grabbing onto the ionic dragon's tooth, activating it again and electrocuting Slyrak (and Davion) which causes them both to fall into the ground. The shock wasn't enough to incapacitate Slyrak as he quickly recovered from the crash and prepared to eat Mirana. She attempts to make a last stand as she tries to call out to Davion within the dragon, who suddenly stops and recognizes Mirana for some reason. She reminds him that he is a monster slayer and not a killer of men, which resonates with a shocked Davion in the dream world.

Byssrak prepares to deliver the Thunder's judgment as his maw closes in on Davion. Facing certain death, Davion is reprieved as Slyrak suddenly awakens and halts his execution. He begins to transform once again as Davion and Slyrak switch places in existence, returning the former to the conscious world and the latter back with the Thunder. What Slyrak did afterwards with the Thunder remains unknown for now.

The Knight, Death and the Devil
The Eldwurms, not even Slyrak, make no physical appearance in this episode. Instead, the Invoker merely mentions them when he explains the true nature of the dragons to Davion. He reveals to him that all of creation, from the mortal plane to the infinite multiverse, is supported by the souls of eight powerful Eldwurms, each of them embodying the four elements and the four fundamental forces that compose reality. With reality's composition at the hands of these Eldwurms, Terrorblade seeks to claim these souls to remake the world to whatever he desires.

Having heard this revelation, Davion questions him on Slyrak choosing the knight as his vessel. Invoker claims to know nothing about the Eldwurm's inscrutable decisions. He also notes that Slyrak remains undetectable to the demon as long as he remains within him. However, he states that this will not last and imbues Davion's dragon tooth necklace with a binding spell that prevents his transformation in the meantime, so long as he wears it. Despite the spell, he adds that Slyrak's manifestation is inevitable and the dragon will eventually be consumed by the madness, releasing an angry and insane Eldwurm into the world. Lastly, he states that Davion will also be killed eventually by this process, which shocks him.

Speak the Words
The Invoker arrives at the domain of Lirrak, a Water Eldwurm who slumbers beneath what appears to be a caldera lake. Channeling his magic, he casts his Wex orb to part the waters and reveal Lirrak beneath her watery domain. Trapping the Eldwurm within his orb, he begins to draw her out as Lirrak struggles to break free. Invoker begins to struggle as well while Lirrak unleashes her frozen breath, breaking the restraining orb and creating a massive path of ice spikes directed towards the sorcerer. He promptly dodges the attack and releases his Exort orb to trap her again.

Lirrak proved to be more of a match for the sorcerer as he puts in even more effort in capturing her. The power exuded by the Eldwurm's struggle against his own magic was enough to push him back, but he still prevailed. Recalling several of his memories, the Invoker gives it his all and successfully captures the Eldwurm at the cost of most of his own life force. He sat alone amongst the flowers and the grass of the caldera lake, contemplating if he should still continue this endeavor.

Later on in this episode, we learn about the relationship between lesser dragons and the Eldwurms. When Davion confronted the air wyrmlings in their cave after rescuing Fymryn, the wyrmlings suddenly halted their aggression against him. They were able to sense that the Eldwurm Slyrak was within the knight's body and quickly fled from their own nest, likely out of fear and respect for the Ember Eldwurm inside him.

A Game of Chess
Among the Eldwurms, only Slyrak makes an appearance in this episode. Seeing his friends Mirana and Marci in danger, Davion tries to rescue them and removes the necklace that the Invoker cast a binding spell on to release Slyrak, allowing him to manifest as Slyvion who has now evolved and grown a pair of wings. He attacks the Coriel'tauvi elves to make his way to his friends, but he is caught with hooked tethers by a band of Dragon Knights led by Kaden who has been hunting him down ever since he escaped from Dragon Hold. While restrained, Slyvion finds Kaden once again, only this time the latter is not here to take revenge. He sedates the dragon with a special smoke that quickly puts him to sleep, restoring Davion's form and putting him to sleep as well. They then take him back to Dragon Hold to cure the draconic impurity within him.

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 regeneration of the boundless multiverse's destruction is assured thanks to their existence. Should an Eldwurm be released from their own "corporal fetters" in the terrene 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.

Cycle of Life
The Eldwurms undergo an endless cycle of birth and death, akin to the great wheel. The path of life starts when an Eldwurm incarnates themselves by inhabiting the soulless body of a dragon of their type in the mortal plane. They can only inhabit one body at a time. Naturally, they prefer to incarnate in an eldwurm's body, the oldest and strongest form of a dragon, but it is possible for an Eldwurm to disrupt the natural order and break the cycle by choosing a body that is not a dragon. Case in point, Slyrak's soul inhabiting the body of the human Davion. After incarnating, their soul never leaves the body unless they sleep or die, the former being a temporary departure of the soul and the latter being permanent.

When an Eldwurm's form dies, their soul simply finds the next oldest dragon of their type and imbues that chosen dragon with the Eldwurm's spirit. Because of this cycle, the Eldwurms are immortal in a sense that their deaths are not permanent and they will always reincarnate as long as this cycle is not interrupted by an external force. It can only be broken when an Eldwurm is prevented from incarnating, which Terrorblade managed to achieve by claiming Uldorak's soul before he could reincarnate in a new body.

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