The Lies of Miquella's Eternal Youth - Elden Ring Base Game Theory

S3E2

EDIT: Miquella's age is firmly established in the DLC and is during Radagon's Reign, but I still think House Marias is his doing.

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[JackisaMimic]

Post-DLC: The theories on Miquella’s Age, and Malenia’s Blooms, are wrong. HOWEVER, Miquella’s eternal youth is still misleading but in a new and more interesting way. Stay tuned for a future video on the topic

[ZeroNneZero]

"These statues are everywhere, from Nokstella to your mom's house"💀☠🤣🤣🤣

[lordptk]

I don't know. The way Gowry says "Queen Marika and King Consort Radagon were blessed with Twin Demigods and Malenia was one of them" sounds to me like their birth was a public affair of the Golden Order. Which means it dates within Radagons official reign as King Consort. But we can pretty safely date that after Godfreys reign, which makes Miquella and Malenia younger that the offsprings of the Golden Lineage. Also the statue of Godwyn and the twins in Lorettas bossroom very much suggests older brother-vibes to me.
And especially after the trailer today, Miquella seems to me to be this young prodigy that is being groomed to be the successor to Marika, but bit by bit finds out about the horrible acts on which the Golden Order is built and abandons that path.

[iamthereddemon]

It would be slightly amusing to find out his "eternal youth" is just an injoke in the family

[matiasluukkanen]

I doubt Malenia and Miquella are older than other demigods.

Demigods warred because there was no clear successor after Marika/Radagon's disappearence.

Morgott and Mohg are oldest children by Godfrey/Marika, but as shameful Omens cannot enforce their claim to the throne. Morgott notably only takes over as monarch in Leyndell when otherwise capital would have been left leaderless.

Godwyn was second oldest by the First Elden Lord, loved by all and massively popular due to his feats and looks. But after his "death" there is a power vacuum as he was supposed to be "go-to-successor" . It was no coincidence that Ranni merked Godwyn in particular. It was to trigger maximum amount of chaos.

Golden Lineage (Godefroy and Godrick) base their claim to Godwyn's status as 'firstborn'.

Radahn, Rykard and Ranni are the next oldest, but as they are not born of Marika, but are mere steep-children in eyes of many, they have tenuous claim in the eyes of the masses.

Malenia and Miquella are youngest, but what they lack in seniority is backed by their claim as Marika's only surviving non-omen biological children. Plus Miquella apparently was insanely well liked and known.

If Malenia and Miquella were the oldest demigods around, their claim to the throne would supersede all others easily. And there would be no argument against their rule.

[prafulltiwari]

2:28 yeah, but It still says "demigod felled" after she dies. That means she was not a true goddess. The flower that blooms after she dies will transform her into true godhood.

[falgalhutkinsmarzcal]

This may be true, and truer symbollically as well. I have long thought of Miquella as a changeling, as an old fairy pretending to be an infant in a cradle. His alter ego is dubbed the Cradlesong, and she operates in dreams, not unlike fairies in old folktales. Siofra means "changeling". Often, a changeling, when dead, becomes a lump of wood, not unlike how Miquella's Haligtree resembles him in Malenia's boss room. I always wondered if the statues of an old man with trees growing out of him (Elden John) was Miquella's true form, or the true form of the changeling that supplanted him. After all, there are Will o' the Wisps (fairy lights) along the Siofra River, and Miquella has fairy wings, indicating a fairy. Ainsel River is a reference to an old Irish story about a fairy that burns himself and, when asked who burned him, he says "Myself" or AINSEL. I always thought the Blue Dancer/Fairy was a reference to Miquella who visited his sister in a dream near the rivers, showing her how she might "flow" to cleanse herself of her Scarlet Rot (flushing her own rot with the blood of others, such as her brother and her foes, her healing mechanic). Needles are also associated with fairies, from cobbler elves to Leprechauns to Peter Pan and his use of a needle to stitch his SHADOW to himself. What is Peter Pan known for? Not growing up and using fairy dust to fly. Tinkerbell's name means a tinkerer who makes bells. What else does Miquella use? Bells. The new story trailer today uses bells in its music when all of Miquella's followers are gathering together.

[cammyshill]

It seems unlikely that Malenia and Miquella are that old. The easiest place in the timeline to place their birth is after Radagon became Elden Lord and before the Shattering when Marika and Radagon got stuck inside the Erdtree, they're officially husband and wife so it'd be easiest moment for them to have children.

Let's say we wanted to argue that Malenia and Miquella were born during the time of the Ancient Dynasty. First of all this forces us to establish that both Marika and Radagon were present at this time, a time that predates the Nox themselves who built their underground cities on top of the Dynastic ruins, much before Godfrey and the age of Marika's rise to power. While Marika, and with her Radagon as well, could be older than we assume, we still don't really have any evidence of the Malenia and Miquella's existence this early in the timeline. Their earliest records that we can place chronologically are related to Godwyn's death (who I, by the way, believe because if we start assuming that descriptions are lying we basically give up on any kind of serious lore discussion that isn't just a bunch of personal speculation mixed with fanfiction), Miquella's joining of Golden Order Fundamentalism in an attempt at healing her sister from Rot (Fundamentalism being a creation of Radagon during his reign as Elden Lord, likely inspired by his time spent in Raya Lucaria), and Malenia and Miquella's presence as major actors in the very early days of the Shattering when they were part of the Sovereign Alliance as the "twin prodigies". This only further supports their birth after Radagon became Elden Lord but still long before the Shattering, because no record of them exist before these dates and it makes more sense that Miquella joins Fundamentalism to try to heal her sister when he's still young, only to later abandon it as it fails to heal his sister. If Miquella was really that much older it'd be strange for him to wait that long to join such a later development of the Golden Order that still can't achieve anything, but it's from that failure that he got inspired to create the Haligtree.

There are a few other things, like the Marais connections. The last in line of House Marais is described by the ghost in the manor as being uniquely obsessed by Malenia, an obsession the ghost decries as he blames it on the fall of house Marais that was left unattended by the current house leader and allowed the Bell Hunter to kick them out of their manor. Also, the clothing of Marais is indeed just a generic uniform of a high official, I think Kenneth Haight has a similar one as well, and while his mask might resemble Miquella somewhat it's not something that's particularly hinted at by the description, so it's heavily speculative. With this the connection to Arganthy seems pretty weak, and I think he's legitimately just the leader of the Fire Monks who's guarding ancient and forbidden Fire Monk lore.

[avgfunkygamer]

So Miquella is kinda like Bran Stark / 3-eyed raven, we never see him but he has a huge influence on the lands. I could see that.

[jremigio]

I just love how the game came out two years ago and lore is still being discovered !!!! Cannot wait for the dlc.

[piterr]

If she were on her final form we would have had a "God Salyed" message. First bloom was Aeonia, second our fight since we factual know that Finlay carried her in coma and was asleep until we arrive.

[abhishekchaudhary]

Well it was all speculation to be honest, still not convinced that Malenia and Miquella are older than Mohg, Margit, Morgot, Godrick, Rykard, and whoever left.

[scott_chocolate]

I'm really enjoying your videos dude. You've rekindled for me another obsessive lore dive that I've been really enjoying!
Quelaag was the first to blow my mind with real world philosophy and historical inspirations that I had never head about. Then Tarnished Archeologist blew my mind with archeological and historical real world inspirations. And you've been my third Elden Ring mind blower. Your insights on the authors' previous works has been really enlightening and you were the first who revealed the sun to me.

Really cool stuff man. I've been discovering and lore hunting stuff that never occurred to me before and it's been a blast. One of my favorites has been your take on the cause of Rennala's heartbreak. Such a better and compelling explanation than "she's sad that Radagon dumped her".

Ah, I don't have time to ramble now. Just wanted to write some encouragement and appreciation for the entertainment. Good shit man, good shit.

[Solibrae]

I'm not convinced by your theories about Miquella and Malenia being as old as you think, especially in regards in Malenia being partly responsible for the Lake of Rot, but there's no doubt that Miquella has a lot of potential hidden influence over the Lands Between and seems to have had his hand in many pots.

I recently noticed how there seems to be many Miquella's Lilies and St. Trina's Lilies located all over the lands, perhaps that parallels their connections to all these places? Along with the Aeonian and Nascent Butterflies, it also gives a feeling that these twins have been around for so long that they have become a part of the very nature of the world.

[dubssalamander]

I always assumed that “the age of the Elden ring” was before the shattering happened

[oldmanwinter]

Where most castles have a church with pews and/or a throne room, shaded castle has only a dining hall. I always found this very telling about their culture.

[Flashstrike]

Haven’t we already seen all three scarlet flowers the first being in Caelid, the second in the pathway to Melania’s boss arena and the third after we defeat her?

It’s an interesting theory il give you that, and you really had me scratching my head when you proposed that the twins are in fact the oldest of Marila’s children

[eldenringpvpenthusiast]

My hypothesis actually comes from trying to figure out the stone tablets in ancestral woods, and where those blue zappy electric spirits come from. I ended up feeling like the big stone trees are like the pillars on the bottom picture, with the spirits coming from the trees that have been destroyed. But it made me realize that if a spirit can come from a tree that never finished growing, that Miquella who had an unfinished tree, could also have a spirit form while he sleep. If Miquella dreamed of helping his sister, he may have done so, in his sleep, as the blue fairy. I think the rot goddess got sealed in Melania, by having her hone her swordsmanship and never stagnate.
Interestingly, I feel like you can use what Melania goes through, to see a bit of what Marika might have went through. If melania was cursed with rot and her virtue was flowing swordsmanship like a constant flowing river cleaning itself. Marika has undead graves all around her in contrast to being a goddess of life. The pests at the church of the plague seem to have no problem with the image of Marika, they actually look like they want Milicent to be like Marika. Milicent at the end does not want to blossom into something other then herself. But Marika can turn into Radagon. Marika who became a god, left her old life behind and became something else. I sometimes wonder if Marika is the rot goddess that refuses to die, rot itself trying to bloom through a new vessel.
The briar set has a demon lady on the boots, unfold her head into medusa, which turns into almost serosh's head, into a manticore with a scorpion tail and insect looking wings. To be stricken down by a winged being with a sword and a knight and horse with wings, pinning it down with a spear and the horse is even stepping on its head. But it looks like it is reforming out of snakes, with the lady with wings, sheathing her sword around the reforming monster. I think this is the sealing of rot, within Melania, during a dream of Miquella, because Mohg took him from his tree while in an infant form. His dream version may have had full grown wings and been a literal blue fairy that showed Melania how to handle the rot within her. The being known as St.Trina just shows up and vanishes. The blue fairy could have been St. Trina, with people who got to witness her becoming bewitched and spreading the faith through sleep arrows and such

[charmelo]

Everyone is putting out the same stuff, but not Jack, Jack is cooking up original theory’s and backing them up I think he’s right about all this, I haven’t seen anyone else say House Marias is Miquella’s

[CenteredTarnished]

Your videos continue to impress, my friend! Great work as always