Elden Ring: Who Is Marika?

Arguably the most important character in Elden Ring, Queen Marika the Eternal is at the center of all the plotlines of the game, and the final character you “interact” with when it comes time to choose an ending. If you rush to the end, however, you might miss a few key details that explain her role and importance in the game’s world.

Shadow of the Erdtree added even more information about Marika, telling us plenty about her past and rise to power. Yet all of this is told to us through item descriptions and context clues, making most players not realize how important Marika really is.

Not only did Shadow of the Erdtree add a lot of information about Marika, but the base game was hiding plenty of other details as well. We’ve updated this article to include everything known thus far about the life of Marika.

Spoilers For Elden Ring And Shadow Of The Erdtree!

Marika The Shaman

Shadow of the Erdtree reveals a lot of Marika’s early life, or at least her life before ascending to godhood. She lived in the Shaman Village, leading a simple life while being under the oppressive rule of the Hornsent, who experimented on the Shamans to try and achieve divinity.

Note:

The Hornsent had multiple horns on their heads in random patterns, and they viewed said horns as a sign of divinity. The Shamans did not have this horn feature, hence why they were seen as inferior by the Hornsent.

The Hornsent believed that mixing different aspects of living beings could lead to the creation of a single perfect one, a divine creature fit to become a god. To this end, they developed incantations that summoned animalistic aspects, like bird wings or long sweeping tails.

They also experimented on the Shamans, throwing them into large pots and mixing them with different parts of other creatures (likely more Shamans), almost like making a Frankenstein’s monster soup. This treatment would normally kill anyone subjected to it, but the Shamans seemed to react differently to the process, creating a blend of living creatures.

It seems that Marika was also the subject of such experiments, and was the only successful product, emerging as a perfect blend that embodied what the Hornsent considered divine. This made Marika a religious figure of the Hornsent, but she would soon turn against their cruel creators.

Marika And The Hornsent

The DLC tells us very little about Marika and her time on good terms with the Hornsent, since all we learn is that Marika somehow betrayed them. Yet for there to be betrayal, there needs to have been a level of trust to begin with.

We know that Marika’s ascension to godhood involved the Divine Gateway, and that once she used it, she created the Realm of Shadow, banishing the Hornsent from the rest of the Lands Between. This might mean that Marika was a sort of religious leader before ascending, and might have been biding her time until she could use the Gateway for her own means.

Marika And The Two Fingers

The Greater Will ends up being the main religion in the Lands Between, with Marika at the helm of the organization. Yet the Hornsent don’t seem to be tied to it, so Marika must have met the Fingers in her own time, betraying the Hornsent to become the goddess of the Greater Will instead of a representative of the Primordial Crucible.

The relationship between the Fingers and the Greater Will was a weak one, however, since their main point of contact (Metyr, Mother of Fingers) had lost communication with the Will long ago. We don’t know if this was something Marika knew, or if she even cared.

Through this alliance is also how Marika met Maliketh, a wolf-man that is described in the game as her “half-brother.” Maliketh is an agent of the Greater Will, a shadow that aids Marika in her goals as long as they don’t go against the plans of the Two Fingers.

Marika And Radagon

Marika is known to have another half named Radagon, and they are one and the same. The way this seems to work is that, when one half becomes dominant, the body transforms into that person; Radagon, however, is not considered to be divine or godlike.

We don’t know if Radagon has been with Marika since birth, if he was mixed together with her by the Hornsent, or if he came to be after Marika used the Divine Gateway. There aren’t any explicit references to him in the DLC, so he might have come into prominence only after Marika’s betrayal.

Conquering The Lands Between

After banishing the Hornsent to the Realm of Shadow, Marika and the Two Fingers wanted to conquer all the Lands Between, and for this, Marika needed a Lord Consort that was up to the task. The fiercest warrior around was Hoarah Loux, but he was a little too fierce, so when he joined the Greater Will’s forces he did so under the name Godfrey, tempering his bloodlust with the aid of a lion spirit known as Serosh.

They had three children: Godwyn, Morgott, and Mohg. While Godwyn was well regarded among the community, the twins Morgott and Mohg were born with horns strangely similar to those of the Hornsent, so Marika treated them as unworthy demigods, banishing them underground.

The Gloam-Eyed Queen

A key yet mysterious character in Marika’s path of conquest was the Gloam-Eyed Queen, a powerful Empyrean that held the Rune of Destined Death. All we know for sure about this Queen is that Maliketh killed her, becoming the protector of the Rune of Destined Death.

This not only made Maliketh incredibly powerful (Destined Death kills you in both body and soul), but it also removed “death” from the Lands Between. Living creatures still died, but they went through the roots of the Erdtree and were reborn once more.

Note:

The Erdtree existed long before the Greater Will or the Hornsent, and both used it as a symbol of divinity.

It is likely that the defeat of the Gloam-Eyed Queen happened after the Realm of Shadow was created, since only then can Maliketh be an agent at the behest of Marika. The real identity of the Queen is unknown, but it is believed she was Melina, one of Marika’s first daughters.

The Giants

Godfrey ledmany bloody campaigns in the name of Marika, slaying anyone who stood in his path. The influence of other Outer Gods was hidden or banished, like we see happening with the Formless Mother or the Flame of Frenzy.

The Flame of Ruin, on the other hand, had the fiercest followers: giants taller than the mightiest castles. Yet Godfrey was able to slay them all, leaving only one alive to guard the remnants of the Flame of Ruin, should a need for it ever arise.

The Carian Royals

Radagon, Marika’s other half, was in charge of conquering the lands of Liurnia. The military confrontation was going nowhere, so Radagon used diplomacy instead, marrying the leader of the Carians, Rennala, and uniting their lands in peace.

Radagon and Rennala had three children: Rykard, Radahn, and Ranni, all of whom inherited Radagon’s flaming hair. They would later be considered demigods through political association with Marika, but since Radagon and Marika are one and the same, they might have been demigods already.

The Realm Of Shadow

While the Realm of Shadow wasn’t easily accessible from the Lands Between, Marika still wanted someone to ensure the Hornsent would never rise. Marika sent Messmer, one of her children, to lead a flaming crusade against the Hornsent, being forever trapped in the Realm of Shadow with them.

We don’t know who Messmer’s father is, but considering his red hair and cursed nature, it was likely Radagon. We also know that he was in good standing with the Carian Royals, since he was joined in the Realm of Shadow by Gaius (friend of Radahn) and Rellana (sister of Rennala), hence why we are putting this event at this point in the timeline.

Radagon, Elden Lord

Once all the lands were conquered, Marika stripped the Grace from Godfrey and his forces, making them the first ever Tarnished and banishing them from the Lands Between. She would name Radagon as her new Elden Lord, something possible since the fact that they were the same person was not publicly known.

Together, they had the two final demigods, Miquella and Malenia. As expected, these two were cursed: Miquella with eternal youth (according to some interpretations, this means that all his plans are destined to fail), while Malenia became the Avatar of the Outer God of Rot.

The Shattering

As the centuries went by, Marika felt more and more imprisoned by her duty as a goddess. We don’t know exactly what it entailed, but it seems that she was inside the Erdtree most of the time, being in charge/giving power to the Elden Ring, the center of power for the Greater Will.

Marika wanted to be free from her duty, so she tried to shatter the Elden Ring to pieces, either being stopped by Radagon, Maliketh, or some other force loyal to the Two Fingers. The demigods scattered to try and claim pieces of the Elden Ring, while Radagon stayed inside the Erdtree trying to fix the mess from inside.

The Tarnished

Marika might have been planning this Shattering from long ago, since, when she banished Godfrey and his men, she said that they would be summoned back to the Lands Between after their deaths. This summoning of the Tarnished is when the game starts, sending both Godfrey and all the Tarnished (the player included) towards the Elden Ring.

It is hard to know what Marika wanted the Tarnished to do, since most endings have the player “fix” Marika and keep the Elden Ring in place; that is hardly a better deal than what she already had. The Flame of Frenzy ending does “liberate” Marika, but nothing really points towards that being her intention either.

Ranni And Destined Death

An event that occurred before the Shattering might shed some light on Marika’s plan. Ranni, wanting to be free of the meddling of the Two Fingers (she was considered an Empyrean after all), hatches a plan to kill her demigod body while keeping her soul alive.

She stole the Rune of Destined Death from Maliketh, carving part of the rune into her body and the other part into Godwyn. This was known as the Night of the Black Knives, and it ended with the death of Godwyn’s soul and Ranni’s body.

Since Maliketh mentioned being betrayed by Marika when he is defeated in the game, she might have had something to do with the Night of the Black Knives. After all, Ranni’s ending sees not only her liberated from her duties, but has a world where no gods or greater will rule over the Lands Between.

Source: The Gamer

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