The Dragonforged

"And now again, the choice is yours, Arisen." This article provides information and/or facts that contain spoilers. Please read with caution or refrain from proceeding further.

The Dragonforged
NPC Info
Gender	Male
Age	over 1000 years
Location	Hillfigure Knoll
Likes	Harspud Sauce Harspud Juice

The Dragonforged is an NPC in Dragon's Dogma.

Overview

The Dragonforged is found in a cave under a set of standing stones at Hillfigure Knoll, in the Northface Forest. He is accompanied at all times, and only by his faithful pawn The Fool, who has come to closely resemble him. Supposedly a man who faced a dragon long ago, he is the only man who knows how to read Dragonspeak.

The Dragonforged is an Arisen from long ago - he created the warrior drawing on Hillfigure Knoll to draw Arisen to him, and seeks to guide any Arisen who come to him. A headless spear and shield can be seen in his cave, and on the knoll itself can be found the Signs of Valor, former spearheads used as daggers - it seems that all these were once the Dragonforged's weapons, and the drawing on the hill likely depicts himself.

As an Arisen, he suffers the same fate as all Arisen when The Dragon is defeated.

There are very few who know of the existence of this man and none knows the truth of his identity. There is only one thing that they know for sure about this puzzling individual: he knows more than anyone else living about dragons.

His name and his ties are unknown. Equally mysterious is how he came to possess his considerable familiarity with dragons. However he came about it, the breadth of his knowledge is undeniable. He knows things that no person on the earth should know.

No one else can say if the things which he says are true. Some consider him to be nothing but a fabricator of myths and lies. Still he does seem to know something about dragons and so—since his connection with the terrible beasts was the only fact that anyone alive knew about him—he came to be known only as the Dragonforged.

The Dragonforged's Tale.

Quests

• The Cypher
• The Dragon's Tongue
• The Final Battle (optional visit)
• The Heart's Compass (escort quest)

Quotes

• "All I know is yours to hear, should you desire it."

• "... The Arisen needs know little, and needs do still less. There is but one mantra you need hear, in truth: Follow your instinct."
• "I considered any bond with another being as a seed of doom for the Arisen. I feared them for a weakness, and feared weakness above all... And so I cast all ties aside and rose against the dragon in solitude... To this end. Even now, I know not what I ought have done different. How I ought have faced my weakness... perhaps that doubt above all, explains why I fell short."
• "Edmun? Did you speak the name Edmun? Tis the name of the Arisen who came before you. I know not how he turned away the Dragon...I bade him follow his instinct, same as I have bidden you. That is all our kind can do, Arisen of the present day. Continue forth from that first step and never look back. Tis our duty, and our fate. Though my own path stopped short, leaving me to linger on, an unsightly revenant..."
• "The hour is come, Arisen.  The door lies open.  Seek the temple atop the Tainted Mountain, beyond the Greatwall... At its pinnacle, in the shadow of the wyrm, keeper of the endless ring, you will make your choice. What you there become, only you can decide."

On the Dragon

• "The beast is called death incarnate, the greatest of evils... You will learn, when you come to face it, that the truth is not so simple. It possesses deep insight to match its cold and steady drive to destruction. And an air of resignation, perhaps, lies beneath its imposing rage."

On the Arisen

• "The arisen is a child of man. No more, no less. 'Tis said the Arisen is born whene'er man takes his first true step toward a goal. When the spirit gives rise to action, a man becomes Arisen. Those, like us, whose paths lead to the dragon are known unto the beast as a matter of instinct. Just as it is our own instinct that guides us on."

On himself

• "I am he(him) who was forged in the dragon's fire. I stand astride the bounds of life and death, remaining here that I may pass my knowledge on to the Arisen of each coming age. My battle as the Arisen has spanned a thousand years and yet it knows no end. Nor shall it, until the Arisen to follow me strikes the dragon dead."

On the Arisens' hearts

• "Aye, ours are bodies marked by the wyrm, yours and mine. A scar across the chest, to stand as proof of the dragon's claim over our hearts. I carved a scarred man into the face of this hill, that it might serve as a beacon to those who bear our mark. It beats yet, as does mine, there within the beast. A thousand years since it was stolen, and yet it beats... As long as the dragon lives, the hearts in its safekeeping know no death. Our kind may die in battle, aye, but neither age nor illness will ever claim us. We have stepped free of this mortal coil, Arisen."

Notes

• After Deny Salvation, if the pawns are spoken to, they will imply that the Dragonforged faced the Dragon long ago.
• Grants a Dragonleather Vest and a Draconian Strategy Vol. 1 upon speaking to him during The Final Battle.
• He will then also talk about "the choice" the Arisen will have to make atop The Tainted Mountain: "At its pinnacle, in the shadow of the wyrm, 'keeper of the endless ring', you will make your choice."
• His pawn The Fool seems to have been much affected by the process known as the Bestowal of Spirit.
• In the Japanese localisation he is called 竜識者 [Ryuu Shikisha] - which translates as 'Dragon Scholar'.

Speculation

See also: Dragon's Dogma World and Lore

The Dragonforged's history, age, and the exact nature of his interaction with The Dragon are uncertain. There are numerous possibilities :

1. One likely theory, is that the Dragonforged faced the Dragon in battle, but was forced to fight with his hands due to his weapon (a spear) breaking
   • ✓ The tip of a broken spear (Signs of Valor) found at the Hillfigure Knoll. There are cryptic references to these on inscriptions inside the Dragonforged cave. His moniker "Dragonforged" could be a reference to having fought a Dragon barehanded, as Dragonforging is usually applied only to weapons used in the defeat of a dragon.
   • ✓✗ The Dragonforged arms appear burned, as if he fought the Dragon without a weapon. However the Dragon's Dogma Official Design Works (p.74) states that although he was initially conceived as one who continued to be burned by the Dragon's fire after the battle he later was envisioned as having become blackened with age.
   • ✓✗ The Fool tells the Arisen that "The Dragonforged suffered mortal injury in combat with the wyrm..." - on the surface this suggests he fought the Dragon the Fool could be referring to the loss of his heart that all Arisen experience.
2. The Dragonforged may not have had a beloved to sacrifice
   • ✓ As he notes in his conversations with the Arisen that he did not trust in other people- perhaps was not close enough to anyone to have a beloved to sacrifice like the Duke and the present day Arisen, and so was unable to form a pact.
3. The Dragonforged is or was Godking Leonart

   

   Distant relatives ?

   • ✗ The plot of the novel Dragon's Dogma : The Beginning reveals Leonart as having taken the Dragon's bargain before Savan, and so should have died of old age sometime after Savan defeated the Dragon. (Leonart's fate is unknown)
4. The Dragonforged's was ruler of the city and fortress beyond The Tainted Mountain Temple
   • ✗ According to the novel Dragon's Dogma : The Beginning the fortress at the Tainted Mountain was established 100 years before the time of Savan by a king of that region - if the Dragonforged was this king his Dragon would have been defeated by Savan many years ago, and so he should have died of old age long ago.
   • ✓ Confusingly, and possibly an irrelevant coincidence, is The Dragon's description of the destruction of the Tainted Mountain city as "[a] fool's decision of a man too weak", words that recall the Dragonforged and the Fool's own descriptions of themselves.
5. The Dragonforged took the Dragon's bargain

   

   The Duke's hair tie and the Dragonforged's bangle

   • ✓ Both Edmun Dragonsbane and The Dragonforged wear unique ornaments of a design an elongated twisting Dragon. Perhaps this is a 'gift' from The Dragon to those that take its bargain.
6. The Dragonforged is undead
   • ✓✗ Much of what he and the Fool say hints to this : being a 'revenant', 'existing between life and death', and 'suffering a mortal wound from the Dragon'. However these are all things that can be said to be literally true of any Arisen after they lose their heart to the Dragon.

Much hinges of the plot of the novella Dragon's Dogma : The Beginning being canon. It is not known if this is the case.