Queen Marika the Eternal

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Let a new epoch begin. An epoch glistening with life. Brandish the Elden Ring, for the Age of the Erdtree!

- Queen Marika the Eternal — as quoted by Melina


Queen Marika the Eternal is the current goddess and vessel of the Elden Ring in the Lands Between.

Overview

Early Life

Marika was a Numen[2] from the Shaman Village.[3]

Her people, the Shamans, were used by The Hornsent for the sake of Living Jars: a process in which a Greatjar is put on top of a Shaman.[4] Those condemned by the Hornsent would also be cut down and their flesh thrown into the jars[5], so that they would meld with the shamans[6] who prayed inside so that the contents could become "righteous people" on their next life.[4] This created the tortuous existence of Jar Dwellers.

Marika, guided by the Two Fingers, managed to get to the Gate of Divinity, becoming Goddess and Vessel of the Elden Ring.[7][8] This affair led to the birth of the Erdtree and Scadutree,[9][10] and was considered a betrayal by the Hornsent. She then declared a holy war against them, with her son Messmer the Impaler leading the "cleansing" Crusade where the Hornsent would be burnt in body and Soul.

Eventually, Marika returned to the abandoned Shaman Village for the last time. After cutting off a braid of her hair and leaving it as an offering to the Grandmother, she bathed her home in the healing light of gold, knowing full well that there was no one to heal, and would never return.[3][11]

Birth of the Golden Order

At some point, Marika came into conflict with another Empyrean known as the Gloam-Eyed Queen, who perished at the hand of Maliketh. After emerging victorious, and desiring a world free of Destined Death, Marika removed the Rune of Death from the Elden Ring,[12] using Maliketh as a vessel to lock it away,[13] thus establishing the Golden Order.[14][15]

Age of the Erdtree

Godfrey was a ferocious warrior who vowed to become a lord. He took the Beast Regent Serosh upon on his back to suppress the ceaseless lust for battle that raged within and became King Consort of Marika and first Elden Lord.[16][17][18]

In the early days, everything was in opposition to the Erdtree.[19] With Godfrey’s aid,[20] Marika waged a War Against the Giants atop the frigid northern mountains, whose Flame of Ruin was capable of burning the Erdtree.[21] Ultimately victorious, Marika was believed to have slain the Fell God of the Fire Giants.[22] Upon learning that the Flame of Ruin would never die, however, she cursed the last of the giants to tend to it for eternity.[23] Marika declared the path to the mountains as Forbidden Lands and excised details of the war from history.[24]

Marika and Godfrey would rule together and have at least three children: Godwyn the Golden and the twins Morgott and Mohg. The twins were both born as accursed Omen and were hidden in the depths below the capital. Even so, Godfrey and his Golden Lineage would be counted as the first of the demigods.[25]

With her rule secure, Marika announced her intention to search the depths of the Golden Order, declaring the early days of blind belief a thing long past.[26] When Godfrey's last foe fell it was said the hue of his eyes had faded.[27] Marika banished him and his kinfolk from the Lands Between, robbing them of their grace,[28] thus creating the first Tarnished, all in the hope that they would grow stronger by waging war in lands outside her rule, dying, and then eventually being revived with their guidance of grace returned.[29]

Marika sent her son Messmer away on a crusade into the lands of the Hornsent. Despite her precautions, her fear of the Abyssal Serpent sealed within him led her to trap him within the Realm of Shadow, where he would wage war to exterminate the Hornsent and devastate their lands. No matter how many of her enemies burned in his flame, however, Messmer received no sign from Marika to end his crusade. To hide away these actions and the true nature of her godhood, Marika hid the Realm of Shadow behind a magical veil to obscure it from public knowledge.

After Godfrey's banishment from the Lands Between, Marika took Radagon as second husband and King Consort, elevating him to become the second Elden Lord.[30] Radagon already had three children with Queen Rennala of the Carian Royal Family, and after his union with Marika, she would raise her new step-children, Radahn, Rykard and Ranni, to demigod status.[31]

Marika and Radagon would go on to have two more children of their own, the twins Malenia and Miquella,[32] who like Marika herself and Radagon's daughter Ranni, were Empyreans,[33] and were thus potential successors to Marika. However, Radagon and Marika were in truth the same. Radagon was described as Marika's male "other self".[34] Thus the twins were the children of a single god, and they were both born afflicted: Malenia with rotting sickness and Miquella with eternal childhood.[35]

Night of Black Knives

On the Night of Black Knives, a fragment of the Rune of Death was stolen from Maliketh.[36] For a long time it was not known who was behind the plot,[37] but it is finally revealed it was in fact Ranni who stole the fragment of the rune to forge god-slaying black knives through a fearsome rite.[38]

The Black Knife Assassins, Numen women purported to have close ties to Marika herself,[39] used these knives to slay Godwyn the Golden, the first recorded death of a demigod in all history.[40] Queen Marika is said to have been driven to the brink by this event,[41] and some time later she shattered the Elden Ring using her hammer.[42] She had already instructed her demigod children to fight for the positions of Elden Lord and that of godhood.[43]

The Shattering

Marika shattered the Elden Ring

Fragments of the ring splintered into Great Runes and spread across the Lands Between, starting a conflict between her demigod children. War after war was fought, but there was no victor.[44] For her part, Marika would be imprisoned inside the Erdtree,[45] possibly by the Elden Beast or the Greater Will itself.[46]

True to her promise to Godfrey and his warriors, grace was restored to the banished Tarnished.[47] They would rise from their graves, and journey to the Lands Between to once again brandish the Elden Ring. The Tarnished formed the Roundtable Hold, where they worked to realize the goal given to them by Marika. They would be served by a Misbegotten blacksmith named Hewg, whom Marika herself had charged with smithing a "god-slaying weapon" before his imprisonment in the Hold.[48]

Endings

Marika shattered and imprisoned inside the Erdtree

Eventually, a Tarnished champion manages to fight their way into the Erdtree, where the shattered Marika lay imprisoned. Marika is suddenly released from her bonds, with Radagon asserting control of their shared body and confronting the Tarnished. After defeating Radagon and the Elden Beast itself, the Tarnished may choose what to do with the fractured body of Marika. Marika's head is restored to her frame if the Elden Ring is mended, either by itself or with a Mending Rune. If Ranni is summoned, she picks up Marika's head gently, peacefully dissipating along with the rest of her body. If the Tarnished is the Lord of Frenzied Flame, Marika's head breaks apart and crumbles into ash.

By choosing to go down the Elden Lord path, whether the regular one or using any of the three Mending Runes to fix the Elden Ring within Marika, the Tarnished champion ushers in a new age. They become the third Elden Lord and effectively Marika's new consort in every one of them,[49] except in the Age of the Stars (where they become consort to Ranni) and in the Lord of Frenzied Flame ending (where they make the whole world burn). However, Queen Marika remains shattered and unresponsive, with only the Elden Ring itself shining brightly within her body.

Echoes of Marika

At certain Sites of Grace, the very words of Queen Marika yet linger.[50] Melina offers to share them with the Tarnished if she is traveling with them. The seven Echoes of Marika are as follows:

English Dialogue  
First Church of Marika
Hark, brave warriors. Hark, my lord Godfrey. We commend your deeds.
Guidance hath delivered ye through each ordeal, to the place ye stand.
Put the Giants to the sword, and confine the flame atop the mount.
Let a new epoch begin. An epoch glistening with life.
Brandish the Elden Ring, for the Age of the Erdtree!
Grand Lift of Dectus
The Erdtree governs all. The choice is thine.
Become one with the Order. Or divest thyself of it.
To wallow at the fringes; a powerless upstart.
Minor Erdtree Church
I declare mine intent, to search the depths of the Golden Order.
Through understanding of the proper way, our faith, our grace, is increased.
Those blissful early days of blind belief are long past.
My comrades; why must ye falter?
Third Church of Marika
My Lord, and thy warriors. I divest each of thee of thy grace.
With thine eyes dimmed, ye will be driven from the Lands Between.
Ye will wage war in a land afar, where ye will live, and die.
Outer Wall Battleground
Hear me, Demigods. My children beloved.
Make of thyselves that which ye desire. Be it a Lord.
Be it a God.
But should ye fail to become aught at all, ye will be forsaken.
Amounting only to sacrifices...
Church of Pilgrimage
Then, after thy death, I will give back what I once claimed.
Return to the Lands Between, wage war, and brandish the Elden Ring.
Grow strong in the face of death. Warriors of my lord.
Lord Godfrey.
Queen's Bedchamber
O Radagon, leal hound of the Golden Order.
Thou'rt yet to become me. Thou'rt yet to become a god.
Let us be shattered, both. Mine other self.

Japanese Dialogue  
First Church of Marika
戦士たちよ。我が王、ゴッドフレイよ
導きに従い、よくここまで戦ってくれた
あの頂に、巨人たちを打ち滅ぼし、火を封じよう
そして、はじめようじゃないか。輝ける生命の時代を
エルデンリングを掲げ、我ら黄金樹の時代を！
Grand Lift of Dectus
黄金樹は、すべてを律する。選ぶがよい
我らの律の一部となるか？それとも律の外にあり…
何の力も持たぬ、辺境の傍流となるか
Note: She is asking them to choose to exist within the Order or outside of it. There is no implication of them already having Grace, as there is in English.
Minor Erdtree Church
黄金律の探究を、ここに宣言する
あるべき正しさを知ることが、我らの信仰を、祝福を強くする
幸せな幼き日々、盲信の時代は終わる
同志よ、何の躊躇が必要だろうか！
Third Church of Marika
我が王よ、王の戦士たちよ。お前たちから、祝福を奪う
そして、その瞳が色褪せたとき、狭間の地を追放する
外に戦を求め、生き、そして死ぬがよい
Outer Wall Battleground
デミゴッド、我が愛し子たちよ
お前たちはもう、何者にもなれる。王であれ、神であれ
そして、何者にもなれぬ時、お前たちは見棄てられる
…そして贄となるのだ
Church of Pilgrimage
そして、お前たちが死した後、いつか奪ったものを返そう
狭間の地に戻り、戦い、赴くままにエルデンリングを掲げるがよい
死を恐れず、強くなれ。王の戦士たちよ
我が王ゴッドフレイよ
Queen's Bedchamber
おお、ラダゴン、黄金律の犬よ
お前はまだ、私ではない。まだ、神ではない
さあ、共に砕けようぞ！我が半身よ！
Note: 我が半身よ means "My half-body."


Notes

  • Most information about Queen Marika is provided by Finger Reader Enia or gleaned from dialogue where Melina echoes Marika's words at specific sites of grace.
  • Marika's Rune resembles the crowning Rune Arc of the Elden Ring and mirrors her crucified pose within the Erdtree.
  • It is strongly implied that the Elden Beast crucified Marika upon the Rune Arc and imprisoned her within the Erdtree. When the Beast successfully grabs the player, it mirrors this by crucifying them on an identical arc before piercing them with barrage of golden spears.
  • When Marika's body changes into Radagon, her dress becomes his skirt.
  • Melina the Kindling Maiden is a secret child of Marika as she states her mother is inside the Erdtree.[51] She is bound by Grace,[52] quotes ancient words of Marika,[50] and later gains freedom of movement upon reaching the base of the Erdtree.[53] Melina is associated with a Smoldering Butterfly, fated to fulfill a purpose,[54][55][56] and implied to be the younger sister of Messmer the Impaler.[57][58] Furthermore, Melina is internally referenced as "MaricaOfDaughter" or "DaughterMarika".
  • After enduring an eternity of forlorness, Messmer disowns Marika and curses her with his dying breath.[59]

Trivia

  • Marika and Radagon mirror the alchemical White Queen and Red King—a being divide into male and female halves, later reunited as a hermaphroditic Rebis. This reunion symbolizes transcendent power, embodied by a dragon (Elden Beast). This concept represents the culmination of the alchemist's quest to achieve balance and perfection.[60]

Gallery

References

  1. ↑ Stranded Soul: "The mausoleum prowls. Cradling the soulless demigod. O Marika, Queen Eternal. He is your unwanted child."
  2. ↑ Numen's Rune: [...]The Numen are said to have come from outside the Lands Between, and are in fact of the same stock as Queen Marika herself.
  3. ↑ 3.0 3.1 Golden Braid A braid of golden hair, cut loose. Queen Marika's offering to the Grandmother. Boosts holy damage negation by the utmost. What was her prayer? Her wish, her confession? There is no one left to answer, and Marika never returned home again.
  4. ↑ 4.0 4.1 Greatjar
  5. ↑ This is what becomes of the condemned, who get sliced up and stuffed into jars to become saints instead. (Innard Meat)
  6. ↑ Tooth Whip
  7. ↑ Enia: "Queen Marika is the vessel of the Elden Ring, carrier of its vision. A god, in truth."
  8. ↑ Sir Ansbach: "The tower of shadow houses a divine gateway. A well-kept secret, it was, but... The gateway was once the birthplace of a god. A god we know all too well."
  9. ↑ Crimson Seed Talisman +1
  10. ↑ Leda: "Miquella the kind spoke of the beginning. The seduction, and the betrayal. An affair from which gold arose. And so too, was shadow born." (Story Trailer)
  11. ↑ Minor Erdtree (spell)
  12. ↑ Mending Rune of the Death-Prince
  13. ↑ Remembrance of the Black Blade
  14. ↑ Enia: "The Rune of Death goes by two names; the other is Destined Death. The forbidden shadow, plucked from the Golden Order upon its creation..."
  15. ↑ Mending Rune of the Death-Prince
  16. ↑ Godrick's Great Rune
  17. ↑ Talisman of Lord's Bestowal
  18. ↑ Godfrey Icon
  19. ↑ Protection of the Erdtree
  20. ↑ Queen Marika: "Hark, brave warriors. Hark, my lord Godfrey. We commend your deeds. Guidance has delivered ye through ordeal to the place ye stand. Put the giants to the sword and confine the flame atop the mount. Let a new epoch begin. An epoch glistening with life. Brandish the Elden Ring, for the Age of the Erdtree!"
  21. ↑ Surge, O Flame!
  22. ↑ One-Eyed Shield
  23. ↑ Remembrance of the Fire Giant
  24. ↑ Vulgar Militia Armor
  25. ↑ Godrick's Great Rune
  26. ↑ Queen Marika: "I declare mine intent, to search the depths of the Golden Order. Through understanding of the proper way, our faith, our grace, is increased. Those blissful early days of blind belief are long past. My comrades; why must ye falter?"
  27. ↑ Elden Lord Crown
  28. ↑ Queen Marika: "My Lord, and thy warriors. I divest each of thee of thy grace. With thine eyes dimmed, ye will be driven from the Lands Between. Ye will wage war in a land afar, where ye will live, and die."
  29. ↑ Queen Marika: "Then, after thy death, I will give back what I once claimed. Return to the Lands Between, wage war, and brandish the Elden Ring. Grow strong in the face of death. Warriors of my lord. Lord Godfrey."
  30. ↑ Miriel: "However, when Godfrey, first Elden Lord, was hounded from the Lands Between, Radagon left Rennala to return to the Erdtree Capital, becoming Queen Marika's second husband and King Consort, taking the title...of second Elden Lord."
  31. ↑ Radahn's Great Rune
  32. ↑ Sage Gowry: "Queen Marika and her King Consort Radagon were blessed with twin demigods, and Malenia was one of them."
  33. ↑ Ranni: "I was once an Empyrean. Of the demigods, only I, Miquella, and Malenia could claim that title."
  34. ↑ Queen Marika: "O Radagon, leal hound of the Golden Order. Thou'rt yet to become me. Thou'rt yet to become a god. Let us be shattered, both. Mine other self."
  35. ↑ Remembrance of the Rot Goddess
  36. ↑ Rogier: "Someone stole a fragment of the Rune of Death from Maliketh, the Black Blade."
  37. ↑ Rogier: "Now, I have a fairly good idea who performed the rite upon the blade. The person who orchestrated the Night of the Black Knives. Lunar Princess Ranni."
  38. ↑ Ranni: "I stole a fragment of the Rune of Death, and used it to forge the godslaying black knives through fearsome rite. I did it all."
  39. ↑ Black Knife Armor
  40. ↑ Rogier: "And on a bitter night, murdered Godwyn the Golden. That was the first recorded Death of a demigod in all history."
  41. ↑ ELDEN RING - Story Trailer
  42. ↑ Marika’s Hammer
  43. ↑ Queen Marika: "Hear me, Demigods. My children beloved. Make of thyselves that which ye desire. Be it a Lord. Be it a God. But should ye fail to become aught at all, ye will be forsaken. Amounting only to sacrifices..."
  44. ↑ Enia: “Tainted by the strength of their runes, her children warred, but none could become Elden Lord.“
  45. ↑ Enia: "But after the Elden Ring's shattering, she was imprisoned in the Erdtree. A grim punishment for shattering the Order, despite her godhood."
  46. ↑ Enia: "The Fingers speak... 'Marika's trespass demanded a heavy sentence. But even in shackles, she remains a god, and the vision's vessel.'"
  47. ↑ Enia: “And so grace was extended, to your kind, the Tarnished.”
  48. ↑ Hewg: “Use my masterpiece to slay a god. That is all that I have lived for. And my promise to Q-queen Marika."
  49. ↑ Enia: The Fingers speak... "Confer Great Runes to become Elden Lord, and join Queen Marika as her consort. The Fingers have willed it so"
  50. ↑ 50.0 50.1 Melina: "Spoken echoes linger here. Words of Queen Marika, who vanished long ago. If you wish, I will share them with you."
  51. ↑ Melina: "I'm searching. For my purpose, given to me by my mother inside the Erdtree, long ago. For the reason that I yet live, burned and bodiless."
  52. ↑ Melina: "Summon me by grace if you should reconsider."
  53. ↑ Melina: "My utmost thanks. For bringing me to the base of the Erdtree. Here, I can govern my own movement."
  54. ↑ Melina: "My purpose was given to me by my mother. But now, I act of my own volition. I have set my heart upon the world that I would have. Regardless of my mother's designs."
  55. ↑ Melina: "The one who walks alongside flame, Shall one day meet the road of Destined Death."
  56. ↑ Messmer: "Yet...my purpose standeth unchanged. Those stripped of the Grace of Gold shall all meet death. In the embrace of Messmer's flame."
  57. ↑ Messmer's Kindling
  58. ↑ Enia: "But special kindling is required to reignite the flame. For the flame to burn the Erdtree, a sacrifice is needed. Of one who envisions the flame. And can lead you to the Rune of Death."
  59. ↑ Base Serpent Messmer: "Mother... Marika... A curse...upon thee..."
  60. ↑ Radagon Icon
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