Marika's Full Backstory Explained (Elden Ring DLC Lore)

Queen Marika has been the face of Elden Ring since the base game - and little has changed with the DLC's release, Shadow of the Erdtree. In fact, we found so much more backstory for Marika that I just had to do an entire video on it. Enjoy.

P.S. I'm very grateful for you. Thank you for watching, and I'll see you next time.

#eldenring #darksouls #gaming

00:00 - Intro!
02:08 - Chapter 1
06:05 - Chapter 2
14:39 - Chapter 3
21:17 - Chapter 4

[BanditGames]

Fun fact: in old English, "sc" was pronounced like "sh", so the "Scadutree" is pronounced like "Shadutree".
IfI'mwrongplzbenicetome

[mtr-music]

I just realized that the omen are being treated the way they are due to Marikas history with the horsent. This whole chapter 4 part is stunning. Using her tormentors own power to achieve godhood, bathing her new world in light while condemning the hornsents world in shadow and then stealing the rune of death to make them suffer eternally by her own sons hand, thus creating the curse of the omen.
Although I still don’t get how she achieved godhood to begin with. Why weren’t the hornsents able to do that themselves but a random shaman was? Did it have to do something with the two fingers helping her?

[arkcantoscreampsnpc]

I’ve always felt a lot of marika’s actions in the base game felt weird for a god like being, but finding out she basically entered a slave contract with the greater will in exchange for the safety of her loved ones (getting rid of death) after her people were slaughtered changes a lot.

It makes her going 0-100 immediately on her sons death make a lot more sense. She basically viewed the greater will as having lied to her and betrayed her by letting him die

[ct]

Just noticed Marika named all her cursed kids after herself with an M, while the healthy kids are named after the healthy spouse, either Godfrey or Rennala.

[aranthur]

I think it's possible the hornsent would have raised one of their own to godhood, if not for Marika's intervention. The old woman in Belurat is referred to in one item description as the "Empyrean grandam, " which at the very least means the towerfolk knew about Empyreans and this lady was in charge of finding and/or training them

So I have a theory that in that moment with Marika in the trailer the hornsent were one step away from successfully creating a god of the Crucible. They'd constructed the Divine Gate, they had the primordial gold that would become the Elden Ring, and they had an Empyrean... And then Marika, who had been pretending to be their ally up until this point, killed that person, stole the Elden Ring, and ascended to godhood herself

"The seduction and the betrayal"

[Fragmentsinfractals]

I feel that Radagon and Marika are like St. Trina and Miquella. Like St. Trina is Miquella's "Love". So, Radragon is an aspect of Marika broken off so she could become a God. But everything eventually will move to recombined back together. So, when Radragon merges back, He will become the God Marika became by losing him.

[VictorIV]

On a related note, The design of the furnace golems seems to be a sort of twisted karmic retribution towards the Hornsent approved by Messmer and Marika. The shamans were mutilated, then stuffed into jars to become saints by the Hornsent so in response, Marika orders her son Messmer to wage a brutal, genocidal war against the Land of Shadow with his most prominent war machine being the massive furnace golems where the Hornsent themselves are rounded up in droves, dead or alive (but most likely still alive for extra cruelty), to be stuffed in the golems and lit aflame to bring it to life.

Imagine the screams and howls of terror and agony and the smell of burning flesh as the golem surges to life; An instrument of death’s first gasps of “life” brought forth by the deaths of so many within its frame to serve as fuel for the golem as it marches over the land as an instrument of terror, destruction and mockery as it wears the horned mask of the fell god of fire the Hornsent so feared.

[eddyh]

To me, the dlc explains to us that Radagon is Marika's divested self through the journey of Miquella.

[aranthur]

My Crucible theory:

The tower folk alternately describe it as a spiral, a pair of twin trees, and also as a current that reaches up toward the heavens... But that last one at least is not a new concept to us. We've seen plenty of currents shooting up toward the heavens both in the DLC and in the base game. The spirit springs

I think that in the place where the Erdtree is now, there used to be a massive spirit spring that rose up in two streams spiraling around each other, most likely taking with them a great fountain of water since the Erdtree's roots are right above the source of the two underground rivers. Perhaps these waters even at one point had healing abilities similar to the sap of the Erdtree, before Marika transformed this fountain of life into a tree of life

Her biggest mistake was separating the two trees, because she wanted a world of order and light, without chaos and shadow. The Erdtree and Scadutree SHOULD have been together, twined around each other like a spiral and in balance with one another

But that aside, if the Crucible is a miraculous spirit stream where all life is blended together, where does its power come from? From spirits of course. We learn from the Suppressing Pillar that when the Lands Between and the Land of Shadow were one, it was a place where all forms of death "washed ashore." It was a place where all the world's dead were inexorably drawn, where their spirits would gather and blend in a single great melting pot, a crucible you might say, and then eventually burst up from the ground and bring new life to the world

Death was the source of the Crucible's life, and this might explain why the sap of the Erdtree dried up so quickly after Marika sealed the Rune of Death

[plebmcpleb]

The shape of the Divine Gate is very reminiscent of a crucible. If you look at the negative space, it looks like light being poured out of a bowl of some kind... Or metal being poured out of a crucible.

[VictorIV]

I wonder if that specific Hornsent who said these cruel words to the shamans in Bonny Village lived long enough to be subject to similar cruelties by Messmer’s crusaders when they invaded.

I don’t know how long Hornsent lived but assuming he lived to see the crusade take place, I can only imagine it shifting from him whipping shamans with tooth whips and shoving them in jars like it's an ordinary day to him being captured by the crusaders before enduring days of being beaten and branded by serpent flails while being yelled at with slurs and obscenities by them such as being “Graceless scum” who’s only purpose is to be hunted, dehorned, impaled and burned before being forced to march alongside fellow Hornsent who’ve been rounded up, beaten, branded and dehorned to a furnace golem that has yet to come to life.

As the Hornsent are being pushed and crammed inside the golem to the point where’s it’s getting hard to breathe, they are given a speech by a Black Knight captain who says that though they are graceless vermin with no place in the order, their lives will at least serve one purpose: as kindling for their holy crusade.

The Hornsent suddenly reminisces on those shamans back in Bonny Village and realizes that he has become a victim to the same cruelties he inflicted on them.

However, he has no time to think of his current predicament as the crusaders set the golem aflame and the screams of countless Hornsent and the stench of their burning flesh fill the air as the golem comes to life.

So ends the life of one Hornsent among thousands, now used to fuel a lifeless machine of death and murder as it marches onto the battlefield. And so, the crusade continues.

[SuperLOLABC]

Since we know the Jars can create a meshed personality of sorts, I think it is possible that "Marika" is a successful saint of the shaman jars. That is the reason she became an Empyrean and was able to rise to godhood. Radagon can be a second "personality" created by the Jars who embodies order and honour.

Also there are mentions of Marika betraying the Hornsent. Maybe the Saint Marika was prayed to by the hornsent and she used her status as a saint to raise an army somehow and then turned on the Hornsent for revenge. Later she went on to become a God after being contacted by the Greater Will/Two Fingers.

Also its pretty much confirmed that Messmer is son of Radagon and MArika due to the red hair

[alliesangalli]

I don't think the Hornsent created the Gate of Divinity. In the story trailer, the bodies of the Gate are still fresh as Marika walks through them. It makes more sense to me that this was Marika's "original sin", as they call it. She used the sacrifice of countless Hornsent to rise to godhood.

[thatguyturningwrenches]

Just a theory, but considering that Melina is messmers little sister. Notice how his right eye has the seal, Melina has a birds foot (death bird) tattoo over her left eye. Maybe confirming that her curse was to be inhabited by a death bird queen. The gloam eyed queen.

[jungtothehuimang]

Knowing that she was a Shaman and that Shaman's bodies meld together with the bodies of others, it makes sense that Radagon was his own person but became part of her, whether by choice or not

[radicalautism]

I think Marikas seduction and betrayal is related to whoever the father of Melina and Messmer was.

[falgalhutkinsmarzcal]

I was of a mind that Radagon was a mimic tear, but now I think he is Marika's discarded Faith in the GW, much like how St Trina is Miquella's discarded Love. This might be why she calls him "leal hound of the GO" and why she gives a speech speaking of no longer relying on "blind faith" in their future.

[matthewmyers]

I love when there are spoiler warnings in Fromsoft game videos as if anyone thinks they’d be able to figure the lore out by themselves in game 😂

[rumorcontrol]

I don't think that Marika wed herself to Godfry until well after she had become a God and it was this mysterious Serpent entity who keeps popping up that was her original Lord Consort as she became a god

[GTD_Galatea]

There's a theory which states that the Land of Shadow and the Lands-Between were once part of the same landmass, but became separated due to Marika sealing the Land of Shadow after ascending to godhood. This theory also states that Leyndell was once connected to the ancient ruins of Rauth by a massive bridge which started at the divine bridge in the southwestern part of the city.