Elden Ring Lore ▶ Melina: An Identity Crisis

Who is Melina? That's it. That's the question we try to answer in this video.

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[maureenbouterse]

Of all the mysteries remaining in Elden Ring, for me Melina is the greatest of them, because as you said, she's tied to so many different concepts in the Lands Between, and you didn't even mention her connections to Ranni. It's honestly insane, right up there with the mysteries of Miquella, although his are more ties to a lot of cut content.


Even I can't say which theory I fall on the side of. Is she a piece of Marika? Well, that would certainly explain why she's the one relating Marika's own words to us. And why she asks the odd question of what it means to be born of a mother.

Is the the Gloam-Eyed Queen? Would explain all those times she mentions Destined Death, and how the Lands Between is in need of death indiscriminate. Also her 'gloam eye', the crow's foot/beast claw, and why it only becomes unsealed after we release Destined Death from Maliketh.

Is she one of Marika's children? The butterfly theory seems to support it, what with the other two butterflies being tied to the 'M' siblings. This would fit with Marika's offspring coming in trios, see the 'G' and 'R' siblings, and would fit neatly with Melina being 'cursed' in some way, same as Miquella and Malenia.

Honestly, if there is one character I would love to see return in some way, it is Melina.

[kateyderr]

I've heard the theory her 3 toed mark could mean a punishment. When you read the story on the four toed fowl foot, it mentions 3 to signify a bad omen.
"Foot of a four-toed fowl.
Material used for crafting items.
In the Lands Between, having three digits is seen as a bad omen.
As such, the rarer four-toed fowl's is a gift of great luck indeed"

[Krelen]

See I think she killed the maiden at the beginning of the game that we loot. I think the maiden was supposed to be ours originally, but she needed us, or someone did. How else would she find us vulnerable and ready to make an accord?

[klixxalot]

I had a crazy theory about Melina but I discarded it because Marika is listed as Melinas mother in the game file variable names.

Melina has gold hair with a red tinge when she becomes our defacto maiden, she is burned and has one eye sealed. That would lend us to believe that her father and mother have red and golden hair. Her mother would have full access to the Erdtree, meaning she was someone of royal family and empyrean status.

When I first put these together I assumed that her mother was Ranni, and her father was Godwyn. Ranni’s dead body having patches of red hair and godwyn of course having golden hair. We can assume that the greater will or Marika would have wanted Godwyn to be Rannis consort. It is very G.R.R. Martin Esq to have a forced relationship within his stories.

I believed at the time that Melina was separated from Ranni by Marika, raised with the other Numen woman close to Marika. That is why she knew their fighting style and golden order incantations. Being with her all the time would explain why she knew all of her words at her churches.

During the ritual Ranni performed, she also sacrificed Melina. Burning herself and Melina with the Fel gods flame, which Adan(found in the evergail to the south of the lakes), had stolen from the mountain top of the Giants. Melina’s body being a non Empyrean burned completely away while Rannis body remained. Rannis body appears to be positioned in such a way that she is spooning someone. The ritual Imparted Melina with both the knowledge to become the Kindling Maiden and also imparting her with the fragment of Destine Death Ranni stole, sealed within her eye. When Marikith is killed, (either by us or burned with the frenzied flame) Destined Death wishes to become whole again and joins with the fragment sealed in Melina's eye.

This theory also helps to explain why Ranni would kill Godwyn, if she was in a forced relationship/raped by him. She would be enacting both revenge and furthering her goals. After all she could have sacrificed anyone to kill her body but not her soul.

It was a fun theory.

[VioletMaeve]

My only theory is she's a mix of these types of theories, she isn't our maiden since we are still "maidenless" throughout the game's story technically (We ultimately can't choose our maiden, but the game offers a few possibilities if we choose to do so if there was such like a dating system). Melina is in my opinion the means to an end. Someone who wasn't betrayed, but ultimately created and related to the Black Knives to end the cycle persay since she honestly votes to burn the Erdtree almost instantly once it was impassable for us, then tosses you to Faruum Azula to bring back Destined Death so Radagon/Elden Beast can fully die and for us to officially take our throne. She has to be related to the Black Knife Sisters.

[ajanininja]

Hey so in a vid from ziostorm they discussed how queen marika is pieced though her womb,

which was no doubt cause by the elden beast, and the question they had was why,

maybe Melina is the reason of marika pierced womb, queen marika was going to use her to set the tree ablaze and the elden beast figure this out so it try to kill her as a infant womb,

but she still survived due to their not being death in the lands between but her body/would be body was burned to nothing,

this could also explain why she has a purple eye for the elden beast had used a shard of Destin death to kill her,

but due to it failing it cause her to be altered by it, which we know it can do, evidence by the black knives blades,

And maliketh when it altered his mind causing him to go partially insane.

[TriptuneRadio]

I have a theory on consorts and emperyans. My theory is that radagon being marika is normal. Thats what it means to be a consort. You become one with your emperyan. My evidence for this is when you enter mohgs arena, he leaves miquella to fight you. 2 cases where the emperyan and consort share a body. Lastly, when ranni offers you her hands in the age of stars ending, it is reminiscent of the pose miquella makes when Mohg leaves his hand. You become part of ranni or more likely since ranni is a doll she becomes part of you

[andyest]

Thank you for this video good sir just like you i love talking about Melina i love the mystery that shrouds her but here is my points i want to say about. First is that Melina's first tarnished could not be bernahl or maybe could be but the thing im sure about is that Vagram the raging wolf is the first one before us also one thing to note is that if we face vagram and the errant sorcerer (iirc) we could summon Bernahl and Vagram is wielding the godslayer's greatsword. His armor states that he aspires to become a wolf a.k.a shadow . If we look at blaiid's sword his adorns the look of the carian lineage and has the power of cold just as his empyrean which is Ranni. So if Melina is the gloam eyed queen it would make sense why Vagram wields the sword for MAYBE he is her shadow, her wolf. Also if we agree to the fact that Melina was a daughter of Marika maybe she was made to become the vessel of destined death to end the immortality of Ancient Dragons?(a very wild speculation indeed). That would then explain the crucible knights fighting up there and why there are 2 godskin duo and the point that the keeper of death which is Maliketh is in there. Until maybe one day Marika thought that Melina could be a possible threat as we know that the gloam eyed queen is also an empyrean choosen by her fingers. She then bind the power of destined death to Maliketh instead. And another big MAYBE is that her true form was binded to the spectral calling steed ring which as we know calls upon torrent. How? Godfrey, Godfrey has serrosh who controls his very ache for blood his lust for war. What if similar to serrosh and Godfrey the moment the ring was burnt we can say Torrent is dead and that moment is when Melina's real form was awakened. Also i do not know what Marika is really but she herself is acquainted with killing of the gods with what master hewg said MAYBE Marika is the gloam eyed queen? This game made me fell in love with the characters not just because of how they look but because of their mysteriousness and the perfect example is Melina. Oh and one more thing this is not a theory but rather more of a question we can't proceed to age of stars ending without giving the dark moon ring to Ranni right? If yes, MAYBE the dark moon ring is used to summon the dark moon in someway? Anyways that's all to all who read it to the end thank you and in the end all is but a theory.

[darlingxluxii]

Melina is definitely the Gloam eyed queen, recreated by Marika as young kindling maiden. Melina calls her mother because she is created by her and the Gloam queen was Marika’s enemy I believe to me. Slaughtered by Maliketh under Marika’s order.

[bruxio]

This is my theory: considering melina as the daughter of marika and knowing that radagon and marika are one and the same we could say that ranni and melina are the same person but born from different mothers: Rennala and Marika. This would mean that ranni and melina are connected and melina looses her body when ranni use the rune of death to kill her own body. According to this the burn marks melina has are connected to the black flame of death that ranni used. Sorry for my bad english, what do you guys think of this?

[point]

i think when the gloam eyed queen was defeated by maliketh she was turned into a puppet created by marika and the end product is melina. Then burning the erd tree releases her mind control or seal

[PeachHeadzAddiction]

Identity crisis 😂 Melina's a mood now

[mspionage]

I agree that she is Marika. Well, a representation of a younger Marika, likely created to assure various things come to pass.

[epiccthulu]

If she is the gloam eyed queen, then it explains who Placidusax was waiting for. The lightning of ancient dragons has to be red due to Destined Death

[Ethereal-]

in the game files she is listed as 'Marika's daughter'

[wallyslow]

My question about Melina if she (also) has or had four arms? Maybe her spirit form has 2 and her other form had 4?

[SlipperyPeteClassic]

So basically, Melina is a teenager that dabbles in every single subculture while she tries to "find herself".

[Splatter_gutz]

Unrelated.. I just came across an NPC summon in the swamp.. Polyanna, Adopted Daughter... When did she get added? Or did I just miss her my past two playthroughs?

[Aedoucan]

what if gloam eyed queen and melena is like marika/radagon 2 entities in 1 body? where in The queen got Sealed with that tatto on the eye and then marika created the persona of Melena.

[Jotaku]

Personally the one i think should be compared to Melina the most is Ranni and not Melenia and Miquela. i think Ranni and Melina are each born of one god, Ranni-Radagon Melina-Marika, when the two gods become one being then Melenia and Miquela are born.

I also think that Melina is the Gloam eyed queen who was killed by Maliketh but. by some way possibly brought back by Ranni since she did steal a part of destined death and has ties to the rune of the unborn so i dont think its too big a stretch to think that the gloam eyed queen could be reborn in a severely weakened state.

Melina gives you Torrent and Ranni gives you the spirit summoning bell and says that she got it from Torrents previous master.
This one is a little iffy but i do remember reading that Rannis spirit face and Melinas face are the same if so perhaps she was reborn in a body meant for Ranni. Melinas hair is also kinda red which we know people with red hair have relation to Radagon but i cant find any real ties between Melina and Radagon only Marika. so maybe its Rannis body.

Last thing is kinda dumb but i'll say it anyways. all the children of Radagon keep the theme of starting with R unless with Marika, Marikas all start with M with the exception of Godwynn whom she seemingly has killed as part of her plot. Marika seems to really hate breaking naming conventions.