Elden Ring Lore | Maliketh and the Shadowbound Beasts

Blaidd and Maliketh are two of the most powerful and compelling characters in the game and yet their nature alludes the normal bounds of life. Join me as we Examine the Shadowbound Beasts of the Empyrean.

Intro: 0:00
Shadow Born - 1:18
Nature of the Beast - 6:22
Maliketh - 16:07
Miquella and Malenia? - 31:46
Bloodhound Knights - 33:09
Vargram - 37:32

This is an extremely expansive video that not only looks at Maliketh but also examines the following subjects: Blaidd, Gurranq, Deathroot, Ranni, Empyrean, Bloodhound Knights, Vargram The Raging Wolf and more.

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Soundtrack is Demon's Souls, Dark Souls, Sekiro and Elden Ring

I do not own the rights to Elden Ring, all rights to Fromsoftware

#eldenring #maliketh #blaidd

[SmoughTown]

Let me know your thoughts in the comments below!

Shout out to Shimhaq who kindly gave me permission to use his Malekith Illustration for the Thumbnail, check out more of their work: linktr.ee/Shimhaq

[joshk]

What strikes me regarding Blaidd's loyalty is that we can release him from the evergaol very early, right after beating Radahn and before getting the fingerslayer blade. Ranni is still in her tower, sleeping. Yet no matter how long we take he doesn't touch her. He holds on to his free will until she is long gone, when there is no one left to lash out against except a few black knives, and us. This is the main reason why I think Iji knows he was wrong about Blaidd. He had the opportunity to betray her, in spite of Iji's efforts, but through sheer force of will and his pure love for Ranni he resisted.

[forktrus]

There's something about the thought of a little girl, a 7ft tall wolfman and a giant troll playing hide and seek -- with the giant troll completely visible trying to hide behind a tree -- and the other 2 pretending to not see him while they look under a tiny rock -- that's so sweet it's giving me cavities.

[retrospect]

Another Smough classic.
Malekith is my favorite character so far, great to learn some more info about him

[WaterFlame]

Maliketh's story is quite tragic. He used to be one of the mightiest warriors serving under Marika, and he served her with undying loyalty. He saw the stealing of the Rune Of Death as his failure and nobody else's and he decides to make up for his mistake. Then Marika goes and spits on it all by shattering the Elden Ring, making it a moot point. Where Maliketh gave unyielding loyalty and unrivaled might to Marika, all Marika returns is a life of penance, guilt, and eternal hunger.

[dumbsterdives]

Blaidd's line about not being able to kill a shadow isnt even a suggestion, if you go back to either the Mistwood Ruins or Radahn's arena depending on where you killed him, he will be alive and hostile and chide you for thinking you could kill a Shadow

[darthacez]

What is so interesting is that Raging Wolf armor set seemed to be canonical armor for the Tarnished and used heavily in promos.

[iedawahato]

Lore explicitly ties Black Knife assassins to Marika, even suggesting they are Numen, so it's more likely very much like Baleful Shadows they were sent to assassinate them by the Two Fingers in retaliation.

"The assassins that carried out the deeds of the Night of the Black Knives were all women, and rumored to be Numen who had close ties with Marika herself."

Iji's mirrorhelm is also found away from his body and its item description reveals that it had the power to ward off the Greater Will and Two Fingers' influences; I'd argue it prevented him from being detected:

"Helm fashioned from a crystal looking-glass, said to have never left War Counselor Iji's head.
Easily broken and weak against striking attacks. Worn by those committed to high treason, it wards off the intervention of the Greater Will and its vassal Fingers.
Iji was afraid. Terrified of his own treachery"

In this case, it's more than clear Iji likely removed his helm in shame at Blaidd's death - especially hinted by his final words, which sound suicidal - and the Two Fingers were able to finally act against him with their assassins. He otherwise remains alive upon completing Ranni's questline, which imo makes her being involved in his death highly unlikely as it would follow - much like with other characters i.e. Pidia and Seluvis - he would've died regardless if she was. (Edit: added descriptions)

[_ariosto]

Loooking forward to this one. Maliketh’s armor is my favorite one. His lines when he is defeated are bad ass too: “…to kill whom?”

[_cripticon]

Shout out to Gurranqs voice actor, when he screams marika, you really feel his conflicting emotions and regret

[StylesX]

Can't wait for this! I went into Elden Ring blind, without watching any trailers. I was so shocked when I found out who Maliketh really was. He is such a fun boss fight, his moveset has amazing animations and flow.

[youtubeuser]

Poor Maliketh. I feel so bad for him. Subjected to being alone with an uncontrollable hunger/addiction because of something he didn’t even do

[CC-xrmo]

I’m not convinced that Ranni sent the Black Knives to kill Blaidd and Igi.

Either of them were loyal enough to simply kill themselves if they thought it would help Ranni, yet both Blaidd and Igi seemed to resist the assassins judging by the corpses strewn around the area. One might say that Blaidd resisted because of his madness, but that doesn’t explain why Igi did.

Furthermore, Igi’s reaction to Blaidd’s death only makes sense if Blaidd were fighting off assassins intent on harming Ranni, thereby proving his loyalty even in madness.

Neither do I buy that Blaidd had to die to separate Ranni from the Two Fingers. Thought it could potentially explain why Ranni would kill Blaidd, it doesn’t explain why she would kill Igi since he's bound to her by oath and not shadow. If being oathbound was enough to warrant death, the tarnished would have to die too.

It makes much more sense to assume the Black Knife assassins are available for hire, as most assassins are. They were hired in the past by Ranni when she used them to kill her body and hired by a third party in the present to kill Ranni.

[brado.y.]

I'm curious if the relationship between the shadows of the empyreans and the empyreans is similar to the 40k demon of the hound of Khorne.

Khorne, the blood and war god, will grant a hound to promising humans who serve him well. These hounds are absurdly strong, and are literal aspects of the blood god that inhabit the corporeal plane. The hounds have three purposes:
1. to show others outwardly that the owner is blessed by Khorne
2. To give the blessed of Khorne a powerful ally/weapon
3. To keep an eye on the blessed of Khorne and drive them on the eightfold path of bloodshed. If they stray from it at all (lose in battle, flee, have mercy on enemies) the hound devours the 'owner'.

The hounds, and it appears the shadows, are both carrot and stick for the new owners.

[PriMaiden]

Maybe Malenia and Miquella didn't received a shadowbound because of their curses. But Malenia took that role for his brother and thus became his armed "vassal", his blade, like a shadowbound would normally be for an Empyrean choosen by the Two fingers.

[Dbonesburneraccount]

I think Blaidd and Iji always knew they’d die for ranni to start her new age. When you tell Iji about blaidd he makes it sound like he knew it would end in death for him and blaidd but made a mistake by imprisoning him.

[thestralner]

another thing about the baleful shadow: as you said, it has the same appearance and moveset as blaidd, but it specifically lacks the big frost leap blaidd does. and as per the royal greatsword description, the frost enchantment is the one thing we know for sure was bestowed to blaidd, after his creation. so i absolutely agree with what you said about their birth, seems like a fairly purposeful choice.

[mrrd]

I always had this thought that Malenia choosing to be Miquella's blade is her choosing to be his shadow (the way Maliketh is the blade of Marika), and the reason they didn't get their own can either be attributed to their curses, OR the fact that they're twins and already inexorably linked as Empyrian and Shadow would be.

[TheProphet]

Why are the assassins that kill Ijji and attempt to kill Blaidd assumed to be under the control of Ranni? These assassins clearly abandoned her after the knight of black knives, when they killed her body and Godwyn's soul. They never showed up to kill her two fingers for her (or even attempt it from what we can see) and the leader of the black knife assassins is still in the Evergaol on the plateau with Ranni's two fingers. If the black knife assassins ever truly followed her (instead of working with her at the behest of another) and then continued to serve her in the current time by eliminating Iji and trying to kill Blaidd, would she not just free this leader of the black knife assassins?

I don't see any evidence to point to Ranni being the one to send assassins after her own vassals, at least not as was portrayed here.

[akaErma]

Poor Blaidd. His story was so heartbreaking, because it was so inevitable. It was the fate of Blaidd that truly cemented the maliciousness of the Two Fingers meddling in my mind. Obviously they are not benign, but they wrought the conflict in Blaidd. And it's no wonder Ranni's ambition is to release those of the Lands Between from Fate, affording them their own will finally.