'A record of crafting techniques taught by the capital's ancient dragon cult. Details techniques that harness lightning, the weapon of the ancient dragons. Acquire the knowledge to craft the following: -Drawstring Lightning Grease, -Dragonwound Grease, -Lightningproof Dried Liver.' The Ancient Dragon Cult is one of the canon's smallest and most paradoxical orders : a faith dedicated to the lightning-magic of the Ancient Dragons, kept alive INSIDE the royal capital of Leyndell, the Erdtree's most central seat, as a tolerated heresy. The cult's apostles practice incantations that require dragon-bones and dragonbolt-craft to invoke ; their stone-tablet liturgies hold the only surviving instructions for harnessing lightning the way Placidusax once did.

'A record of crafting techniques taught by the capital's ancient dragon cult.' Why the Erdtree tolerates the cult is the canon's quiet political realism. Godfrey routed the Ancient Dragons in the Order's first war, but the cult that worshipped them did not die, it was useful. Lightning is, as the Tarnished discovers, the most effective weapon against any large beast or dragon, and the Erdtree's wars against giants, against Caelid's wyrms, against the Ancient Dragons themselves, all required Leyndell to keep some cohort of clergymen who could call thunder. The cult survived by being indispensable. Its incantations, Lightning Spear, Ancient Dragon's Lightning Strike, Dragonbolt Blessing, are taught to any Erdtree-faithful Tarnished who can ascend the Capital Tower in pre-Shattering equilibrium.