Marika’s Statue might Solve the Timeline | Elden Ring Shadow of the Erdtree DLC Lore

Marika, the Jar Saint, the Seduction and the Betrayal, what Radagon is; we look at it all!! #eldenring #lore #fromsoftware

Chapters:
Intro 00:00
The Three Statues: 00:19
Baby Messmer and the Braid 01:58
The Divine Spiral 04:13
The Jar Saint 05:48
Empyrean Hornsent Grandam 08:15
The Empyrean Eye 10:38
The Snake in Bonny Village 12:48
Birth of Messmer 13:30
The Discovery in the Storehouse 15:32
The Sepiroth Connection 16:59
The revelation of the Shaman fate 19:15
The Gloam-Eyed Queen seduction 21:51
The Radagon statue 22:47
The seduction of Godfrey 27:57
The Scadutree sap and the Age of Plenty 34:38
Closing 35:25

The artist in Kate's banner I showed is ariamis_arts!!

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[kitetales]

*MELINA NOT MALENIA! I knew I’d fall prey eventually to the name mixups, sorry ladies!!

Adobe didn't upload the full video the first time this uploaded and I'm so sad I lost SO many of your amazing comments before I even had a chance to read-- I'd love to read them though if you remember please share!! 💙

[CJusticeHappen]

If the Fingers can see the world through Empyrean Eyes, then that would explain why Ranni and Melina have eyes that are permanently closed. They've killed the surveillance feed.

[Actiondanny]

Being disgusting by a late revelation about the circumstances of her birth almost makes it sound like Marika's story could parallel, of all people's, Rya's.

[Tenuto]

I think the reason why the Hornsent were obsessed with the "jar mixing" is probably to recreate the power of the Crucible. In the Crucible, all things were together and life spawned from it. So, the jars are like the Crucible in their way.

[livingjarcletus]

Casually dropping one of the greatest elden ring lore videos ive ever seen. Marika's children were aspects of herself she picked up in the jarring process...what a wonderful theory. Well done.

[Ironsides]

If Queen Marika is a Jar Saint that was created by mixing different forms of life together that may explain why her children were so influenced by the outer gods. If the ingredients used to make her a jar saint were creatures of the outer gods, then that could explain why her children, especially when she had children of Radigon, were so chimeric.

[brianp]

When you talk about marika being made out of emulsified flesh blended together in a jar, it made me think of the importance of butterflies in the story.

That's essentially what Marika would be, metaphorically speaking, with the flesh being the caterpillar and the jar her cocoon. Even the mask that the people wear during this horrible ritual is called the "caterpillar mask"

Then, of course, you have many different butterflies in the game that each represent a unique child of Marika's. Perhaps to say that she is the "mother" of these butterflies as well.

Its an interesting motif that I'll definitely be thinking about on a future playthrough. Thanks for a thought provoking video!

[shubniggurath]

Good theory. We know that Millicent and her sisters are aspects of Malenia that were thrown off after her battle. We know that Miquella divested himself of St Trina. Therefore it seems the Empyreans have an ability to excise parts of their selves as independent entities. Would show how Marika was able to create Messmer.

[flextheoyster]

Turns out adobe was the real dark souls the whole time.

[DarlingDreadful]

The gloam-eyed queen having serpentine aspects makes so much sense. The godskin she cradles them in could literally be her own skin that she sheds like a snake. Hell, she may even be able to take the form of a serpent the same way Lansseax was able to take the form of a human. Serpents are always descendants of dragons in FromSoft games.

[gloriousroyalty]

Do NOT let the hornsent learn about the slap chop....

[longlivejah]

"baby messmer" is my favourite thing in the world rn

[JimbletonJames]

You raised some unreal points here. I believe alot of Marikas origin story is hit right on the nail in this vid. Although im not too sure she is purposely putting her curses into her children, instead randomly showing up in each child as a consistent reminder of the hornsent and where she comes from.

This would help explain why she loved Godwyn the golden best, he was the uncursed, untainted child. The shining example of Marikas ideal world. and because of his death, thanks to Ranni (and quite possible Miquella to get him as a consort) she finally breaks mentally.


She tries so hard to save her loved ones from death, such as removing the rune of death from her reign as a way to recompense the massacre of her people from the shaman village. Despite this Godwyns death comes anyways just like how she lost her village and this is where she realizes that all shes done, that even becoming a GOD couldnt stop the ones she loved most from death, and due to this she shatters the Elden ring.

All along all she wanted to do was save the people she loved from death but inevitably fails at every turn.

Such a tragic and nuanced character Marika is, im really happy SOTE helped explain Marikas origins and why she did what she did in the main game.

Also, since your analysing the statues so much I wanted to bring up something interesting. Did you notice that the earlier statues of Marika seems to be more structured. She starts her reign with hee hands at her waist and as time progresses you can see her slowly and slowly lowering down into his classic crucafixtion pose?

I urge you to look into it as I could also help explain the timeline of events.

[RoninWaffle]

Yeah, this is the one. This is the first video on the DLC where I went "Oh shit, this is it, someone's cracked the final piece of the code." So many acute insights packed in here. I vary just slightly on a small point though. Marika "putting" the aspects she doesn't want inside her inside her children sounds off to me, as a reaction. I think they were in her, and because they were in her, they got passed on to her kids. Birth defects, essentially.

[IchbinX]

Its funny how you mention their eyes, because Malenia, Miquella, Mesmer, and Marika herself all have their eyes closed. Malenia has her eyes missing, while Mesmer had a fake glass eye.

[abyssalmoonlight]

Sis just cooked whole 5 star gourmet buffet for the lore community. Thank you very much!

[moshimoshi]

"really helped tie everything together" I see what you did there girlie haha

[maximilianoaraujodealmeida]

"What is it? The braids?" - Marika to the Hornsent, probably.

[UncreativePontiff]

This is honestly the most well thought out theory i've seen about Marika's history in the land of shadow, the idea that Marika was essentially "raised" by the hornsent is something i hadnt heard being talked about before but it helps piece out a lot of the environmental storytelling.

[IngeniousNinja]

I think the overtures of what you present here are pretty spot on, but a few points of contention:

The storehouse is explicitly the result of Messmer's Fire Knights' requesting to protect and archive some of the Hornsent culture during the purge.

The Black Keep in general has much more contemporary architecture compared to Hornsent architecture - its akin to Stormveil or the (real) Roundtable Hold.

All this means is that the details of what you posit change, but the general gist is... yeah, she had Messmer, bided her time, and continually "divested herself" of Crucible adjacent aspects. The Scadutree is a giant symbol of that, even, borne of things that bear no semblance of order. The literal shadow of the great golden Erdtree.